ASHWAUBENON (NBC 26) — The Village of Ashwaubenon is proactively updating its zoning codes to establish rules for the potential development of artificial intelligence data centers.
Although the landlocked village is not an ideal site for an A.I. data center and no developers have approached the municipality yet, officials are taking precautions to protect residents.
At the request of Plan Commissioner Corrie Campbell, the village is including language in its laws to define data centers and establish rules for their development in the community.
Brown County does not have uniform zoning for all its municipalities, meaning other local plan commissions will also need to plan for the future.
"We thought this was going to be a Brown County issue," Campbell said. She furthered that she was "shocked" to learn that wasn't the case.
"Each of our plan commissions will have to address this," noted Campbell of other municipalities in the county.
Ashwaubenon Village President Mary Kardoskee said taking these measures now is important to ensure the community is aware of any potential conversations regarding data centers.
"If it would affect them, I want them to know," Kardoskee explained.
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Ashwaubenon resident Viggo Sorbo appreciates the proactive step.
"Definitely having that in place so that if someone wants to come by and say 'can we put this here?' they already have that we don't have resources, we don't want that. We want to focus on the needs of the residents," Sorbo said.
Officials say they are committed to keeping neighbors informed and ensuring the public is not left out of future conversations around data centers.
