Greenville. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREENVILLE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Greenville may institute a one-year moratorium on data centers.
The village’s Planning Commission approved the proposal Monday. It still needs to receive final authorization from the Village Board before data centers are officially banned for one year.
“This prevents us from having anybody come in and surprise [us],” said Village President Jack Anderson. “Not only our staff, but all of us in the room that live here or work here, or are just here because we love this community.”
The Planning Commission originally debated whether to approve certain regulations, but decided the proposal needed stricter rules and officials should have more time to draft the mandates.
The original regulations included data centers being set back a minimum of 200 feet from residential property, a landscape buffer and noise restrictions. The proposal also required Greenville to hold a public hearing, plus receive approval from the village’s Planning Commission and Village Board, regarding any new data center.
“If we were to table this, sometimes this gets pushed out more than a month,” said Anderson. “And I would hate for something to come in.”
Anderson said the restrictions he would like to see are similar to what Kaukauna approved in January.
Greenville’s small board room was packed with over 50 people in attendance at Monday’s meeting. About 10 addressed the commission and multiple Planning Commission members spoke. Not a single one was in favor of bringing data centers to the village.
“If a data center comes calling and they’re looking at Greenville, the answer is no,” said Mike Kozak of Greenville.
Added fellow Greenville resident Melanie Tetzloff, “Let me be clear: We do not want a data center.”
Greenville said it has no current applications for data centers, but the goal is to have a moratorium in place, in case a company approaches the village with a data center proposal before the village could draft regulations. The Village Board will likely vote June 8.
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