Data centers hit the ballot this year
J.Castro via Getty Images
By
Chris Teale
Residents in a Wisconsin city already passed a measure to restrict their development, while others may follow, including a statewide effort in Ohio.
A first-of-its-kind ballot measure to restrict data center development passed in a Wisconsin city earlier this month, and similar efforts are underway across the country.
Voters in Port Washington near Milwaukee voted 66% in favor of a ballot initiative asking if voters should have to approve tax increment financing districts over $10 million, which are also used for data centers, according to results released by Ozaukee County after the April 7 election.
A grassroots group known as Great Lakes Neighbors United had the ordinance put on the spring ballot after collecting 1,000 signatures and then bringing the petition before the Port Washington Common Council. The effort doesn’t affect the joint data center development by OpenAI, Oracle and Vantage, a $15 billion project that includes a $458 million TIF district, but organizers said it bodes well for addressing future developments.
“We are not against development,” Carri Prom, one of the group’s organizers, said in a statement after the vote. “We are for development that the community understands, supports and has chosen together. Tonight proves that when citizens organize and engage, their voices can be heard.”
The vote does not necessarily mean residents will be successful, however. Multiple business groups sued the city after it placed the referendum on the ballot, reportedly warning that it could set a “dangerous precedent.” In response, city officials said they “largely agree” with those sentiments but had no choice but to add the measure to the ballot. A judge did not prevent the referendum from going forward, but warned that the results could be invalidated if it passed.
Data centers are crucial infrastructure underpinning artificial intelligence and its supporting technology, but they have come under severe criticism from communities and residents who worry about the centers’ impacts on water supply, the power grid and their neighborhoods.
More communities are considering similar ballot initiatives on data centers, while one state looks poised to do the same this November.
Monterey Park, California will vote in June on an amendment that looks to ban data center development indefinitely within the city limits, while voters in Augusta Township, Michigan will vote in August on whether to override a decision to rezone an area of property for a proposed data center. Another Wisconsin city will vote in November, this time Janesville, where voters will decide whether to redevelop a former General Motors plant earmarked as a potential data center site if project costs exceed $450 million.
Meanwhile, Boulder City, Nevada will vote in November on whether to support allowing data centers to be built in the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area, a region that has been designated for public recreation, solar energy and other infrastructure, as well as a desert tortoise preserve.
But the ballot initiative likely to gain the most attention nationwide is in Ohio, where voters could get to decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to ban the construction of new large data centers. Organizers received approval early this month to start gathering signatures to add the question of whether to ban building new data centers that have a peak load of more than 25 megawatts per month to the November ballot.
Organizers must obtain more than 413,000 signatures from at least 44 of the state’s 88 counties by July 1, with those signatures then requiring verification by Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The petition for the ballot initiative was accepted by the Ohio Ballot Board last month.
The Port Washington effort has also sparked more interest throughout Wisconsin, including a petition calling for residents to have more say on data center development.
“Decisions that shape everyday life are being discussed in ways that are out of reach, hard to follow, influenced by the very companies taking advantage of the communities, and/or already in motion before the public catches up,” organizers said. “And when residents push for answers about their water, their land, their future and their community, it takes time, money, and persistence just to get a partial picture. That is not how this is supposed to work. That is not how democracy works.”