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An attorney read from a laptop propped atop a snowplow.

To his left was a Caterpillar street grader, and to his right, a dusty workbench. A disheveled American flag hung next to a red toolbox in the center of the impromptu stage.

Dozens of southwest Wisconsin residents recently forsook part of the local high school’s track-and-field meet so they could cast their votes inside the town of Cassville’s garage. The attorney had been retained by the town’s elected leaders to read the soon-to-be-newest regulation.

The unanimous outcome — 44 ballots in favor of banning data centers, none against — reflected a hostile backlash to unwelcome big tech incursions into rural spaces.

Residents instructed their town board to put a stop to the billion-dollar proposal by an anonymous developer after learning their community was on the short list.

Even promises of 50 jobs and more than $5.5 million in annual property tax revenue weren’t enough to make up for the loss of about 500 acres of Wisconsin’s Driftless area.

The pastoral landscape — known for rolling bluffs that straddle the locks and dams of the nation’s upper Mississippi River — possesses a bountiful aquifer, a temperate climate and few land regulations.

The latest move against data centers

Cassville’s ordinance is the latest move by a Midwestern community seeking to protect the qualities that make life so appealing to people — and data centers. 

Pushback over the power-hungry facilities that make the cloud run are occurring across the country, as companies expand in states like Mississippi and Tennessee.

Residents in Port Washington, Wisconsin, were the first in the nation to pass a referendum that would prevent their city from offering generous tax incentives without first obtaining voter approval.

Wisconsin lawmakers — some of whom previously supported a state sales tax exemption for new data centers — sponsored bills that would prevent developers from using confidential nondisclosure agreements when prospecting for new sites.

And in Clayton County, Iowa, directly across the river from Cassville, officials are considering zoning, setback and size restrictions.

Cassville residents fear data centers will devalue their properties, contaminate their wells and increase their electric bills.

“This is the Driftless area for Christ’s sakes,” said John Hawn, who retired to the area several years ago. “I suppose they didn’t expect any problems coming into a small town.”

‘There’s no information’

The Cassville project has been shrouded in secrecy. That includes the proposed location and what company will use it, leaving residents to fill in the vacuum with a frenzy of social media engagement.

“I don’t know really what to think about it because there’s no information,” town Supervisor Scott Riedl said. 

Ron Brisbois, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Corp., has met with a developer but to date declined to identify the company that is scouting for locations so as not to jeopardize the project.

In an interview after Cassville’s vote, he said the town’s appeal is its proximity to electricity, specifically the high-voltage Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line that entered service in September 2024.

Brisbois estimated the data center would require 400 to 500 megawatts of power — a lot, even by the new transmission line’s standards.

But the town’s attorney, Eric Hagen, said if Cassville can make it inconvenient, the data center developer may look elsewhere. The company also is considering sites in Indiana and North Dakota.

“My read of the situation right now: They’re looking for the lowest-hanging fruit with the least amount of regulations,” Hagen said.

Cassville’s new ordinance prohibits data centers in the town for up to two years and prevents land use changes, such as constructing a residence on a farm field, without the town board’s approval. And the county cannot preempt local zoning authority in the town’s case, Hagen said.

“We can beat them to the punch.”

Data centers raise ire

Days after the town’s vote, Brisbois fielded questions from a concerned public at J&J’s Sandbar, a Cassville restaurant, over chicken and ham, mashed potatoes with gravy and macaroni salad.

He wonders whether the objections reflect data centers’ tarnished image more than concerns over actual water and power use. If a battery or farm equipment manufacturer were to move in and consume more of each, would residents even notice?

Brisbois said the developer has remained quiet for the past month, which he attributes to the lack of local tax incentives for the project rather than community unease.

“I’m looking forward to a bit quieter days,” he said, “where all I have to worry about with townships is housing and maybe an ag or a farm expansion.”

In rural Wisconsin, a town rejects a plan to build a massive data center is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A possible billion-dollar data center in southwest Wisconsin’s Driftless Area would be built without any tax incentives and would produce more than $5 million annually in property tax revenue, according to a local economic development official involved in the discussions.

Ron Brisbois, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Corp., also told Wisconsin Watch he expects to learn this month whether a developer chooses Grant County over sites in Indiana and North Dakota.

Asked if progress has been made, Brisbois said: “I’ll use the word ‘promising’ because I’m about fostering economic development, and I see this project for being a quality project. So, yes, I think it looks promising, from my perspective.”

When the proposal first gained attention in February, Brisbois said little more than the data center is expected to be worth $1 billion. He is now offering more details:

Scope: The facility would cost $1 billion to $2 billion, span about 500 acres and employ about 50 people.

Tax breaks: Local governments would not have to provide any tax incentives, such as a tax incremental district — a common development tool that delays when municipalities and school districts receive additional property tax revenue from a project.

Tax revenue: Brisbois said his “conservative estimate” is that the data center would pay $5.6 million annually in property tax revenue to local governments and school districts.

Brisbois has refused to identify the company that is scouting sites, but said the data center would be run by one of the major tech companies. “People will recognize the name,” he said.

Brisbois would not identify the part of Grant County being considered, other than to say it’s near power transmission lines.

But talks have taken place with officials in the town of Cassville, population 400, where opposition has emerged.

Cassville town residents voted 54-3 last month to authorize “village powers.” The move is aimed at giving the township more control over matters such as zoning. It was sought by residents who want more control over any data center proposal.

The “No Data Centers in the Driftless” Facebook page has 2,700 members.

One of the Facebook group’s leaders, Grant County resident Pete Moris, said he was pleased that more information is being released but wants more.

“The more transparency we can have on this project, the better,” he said.

“If we’re going to embark on the largest project ever developed in Grant County, it would sure be nice for citizens to know who we’re inviting into our county.”

The use of a tax incremental district for a $15 billion data center under construction in Port Washington, north of Milwaukee, spurred backlash. 

Data center opponents pushed a referendum that will be on ballots next Tuesday. If approved, the city would have to get referendum approval to create any tax incremental district worth over $10 million. The city created a $175 million TIF district for the data center.

Hyperscale data centers are also under construction in Mount Pleasant, south of Milwaukee, and in Beaver Dam.

New details emerge on possible data center in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.