Company asks DeForest to potentially annex land for data center

DANE COUNTY, Wis. (WMDX) – A company trying to put a data center in a rural part of Dane County has now asked one municipality if they’d be interested in annexing land from another. 

Data centers have been a controversial topic in Wisconsin. They’ve been proposed in at least half a dozen villages, towns and cities. 

Proposed data center in Dane County

QTS Data Centers had planned on putting one in the town of Vienna, near County Highway V, just west of the Interstate. Their proposal would cost $3 billion, and take up more than 600 acres of land. 

Residents have pushed back, saying they’re concerned about energy consumption, their electricity bills rising, and losing farmland. 

Vienna’s town board was supposed to have a public hearing about the project Friday, but they canceled it. That’s according to reporting from the State Journal. 

Now, it seems the company is trying to get the land for the data center annexed by the village of DeForest. 

Company explores annexation by village of DeForest

DeForest village administrator Bill Chang said QTS Data Centers reached out to the village to explore annexing the land. That would mean the data center is in the same spot, but the land is technically part of the village of DeForest instead of the town of Vienna. 

If DeForest annexed the land, approval or denial of the project would be up to DeForest administrators. On top of that, the village would benefit from the increased tax revenue and the addition of hundreds of jobs. 

“If an annexation petition is filed with the village, it will be reviewed in accordance with state statutes and with consideration of the project’s impact on the village,” Chang said. “It will also be reviewed by the Wisconsin Department of Administration to determine whether the proposed annexation is in the public interest.”

Chang clarified that no one had filed official paperwork requesting annexation. 

As the number of data center proposals grows, so do the protests

This is the latest development in Dane County, but there are data center proposals all over the state. Most are met with opposition from residents. 

Microsoft was planning a data center for Caledonia, in Racine County. Residents rallied against it, and a few weeks ago, the company pulled their plans. Microsoft officials said they may still build a data center somewhere in Racine County, just not in the original spot. 

In Janesville, city officials are considering data center proposals for the old GM plant. The lot has sat empty since 2018. Earlier this week, residents there protested the idea of a data center in their community, reported the Gazette-Xtra. 

Plans for data centers in Beaver Dam and Port Washington are moving forward.