WRIGHTSTOWN (NBC 26) — On Tuesday, the Village of Wrightstown held its third out of four public listening sessions on a possible AI data center development coming to the area. Residents had the opportunity to speak directly to AI data center developers.
- The Village of Wrightstown has been in contact with Cloverleaf, an AI data center developer, since January.
- Residents questioned Cloverleaf executives on the health, economic and environmental impacts of an AI data center.
- The Village will vote on whether or not to place a data center referendum question on the Aug. 11 ballot.
Tuesday evening at the Wrightstown Village Hall there was a back-and-forth discussion between residents and Cloverleaf executives.
Many residents expressed concerns over a lack of transparency and honesty over the impacts of AI data center development.
"I'm feeling like a lot of the things you're saying are just very disingenuous," Nadine Mathu, a local resident, said at the meeting. "It's incredibly misleading to comment on what would happen on a lot of possible scenarios that you folks will no longer be around for. I mean this is a hand-of situation that concerns me."
Cloverleaf said AI data center development is improving and many negative stories come from past projects.
"The data center industry has really learned from some of the past challenges, and even some of the recent things - Port Washington and Beaver Dam - are great examples where even some of those lessons learned are getting translated into what could be current proposals for data centers," Aaron Bilyeu, Cloverleaf's chief development officer, said.
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Residents, however, were concerned with Bilyeu's statements.
"These are super recent, and you're kind of acknowledging that there was stuff that maybe could have gone different, which I understand, but we're the next stop on the train, how are all of these people in this community supposed to believe that this is just going to be the magical unicorn where everything just works out perfect?" Nick Sagal, a local resident, said.
Cloverleaf led a presentation on what an AI data center entails, and they answered questions and concerns from the residents.
Bilyeu would not disclose where specifically in Wrightstown Cloverleaf is looking to develop. He also would not disclose other locations in Northeast Wisconsin that the company is looking at.
"Communities that have significantly increased property values," Bilyeu said. "The reason that happens is you end up with better roads, you end up with better traffic systems, you end up with better water and wastewater systems. You end up with better electrical grid stability, and you end up with better schools, and if done properly, you end up with better property taxes."
Prescott Balch, a former technology professional who has traveled the state speaking against AI data centers, spoke at the meeting and challenged the economic benefits of data centers. He said it could take years for property taxes to decrease, the amount of job creation is overstated and the projects can "create big problems."
"I'm here to say that maybe the money isn't so easy after all," he said.
Paula Pintar, a nurse practitioner, also spoke at the meeting. She raised concerns over air and water quality, noise and sound pollution and loss of agricultural land.
"We're losing our farmland to data centers, so are we going to flip from being the dairy state to being the data center state?" she said.
Bilyeu said Cloverleaf has been focused on Northeast Wisconsin for development because of the 345 kV network, which is a type of interstate highway that runs through Wrightstown. He also said the area has a history of industrial development.
"When you combine those two things together, you get a very attractive environment for data centers," he said.
The Village Board will vote on whether or not they should place a referendum question on the Aug. 11 ballot to gauge public opinion on data center development. The proposed question reads:
"Should the Village of Wrightstown authorize, support, participate in, or facilitate municipal utility infrastructure, public utility service commitments, public facilities, the operations of a facility for the providing of video service, telecommunications service, or internet access service, directly or indirectly to the public or related municipal infrastructure improvements associated with a large-scale data center development within or affecting the Village?"
Travis Coenen said the Village was advised by their attorney that a moratorium on data centers, as seen passed in Manitowoc County, would not hold up under state law.
There is another listening session on Sunday, May 31 at 2 p.m.
