A moratorium regarding data centers in Sheboygan has been passed.
At this week’s Common Council meeting, an ordinance establishing a temporary moratorium on the issuance of zoning and building permit approvals for data centers with greater than 10,000 square feet of floor area was passed unanimously.
Before the vote, Sheboygan Alders engaged in a lengthy discussion on the matter, showing approval for the idea but with significant questions regarding specific details and language.
This included District 10 Alder Joe Heidemann, who said, “My impression with this whole situation was that I thought we were going to be presented more information on data centers and everything else before we got to this point. I was just a little uncomfortable that this came ahead (of that).”
Meanwhile, District 1 Alder Ryan Menzer questioned the “teeth” of the moratorium and what it may lead to with its current language.
“This resolution is somewhat weak,” Menzer said bluntly. “There isn’t much bite to it. And I fear that if we pass this resolution, as is the only thing that we’ve done, I fear, is to incentivize a company to get creative in subverting the ordinance and to do in secret what we all want them to do in public.”
The idea behind this ordinance is to give the City time to update its zoning code with data centers in mind as, currently, there are no rules or regulations pertaining to them on the books in Sheboygan.
It is also intended to give state legislatures time to develop statewide rules regarding the construction of data centers as well.
Despite those questions and concerns, the Council showed its support on the ordinance as is, and approved the matter in a 9-0 vote.
