About 100 Sheboygan County residents filled nearly every seat inside the gym at Uptown Social in Sheboygan for the second educational speaker series on data centers.
While Sheboygan city officials have emphasized that there are currently no data center projects underway within city limits, residents have been sharing concerns about the potential of data centers in their community. To address those concerns, the city has been hosting educational speaker series sessions.
The first session last week featured Becky Valcq, president of Alliant Energy's Wisconsin Energy Company, who discussed the role energy companies play in communities including those with and without data centers.
Dozens of people attended, many submitting questions in advance about the potential impact of data center developments.
Sheboygan Common Council Member Alanza Grawien said the goal of the series is to help residents better understand both the potential benefits and costs of these projects.
"We should be involved. All of us should be involved. All of us should be learning as much as we can. And working on all of this together, " said Grawien.
Today's second session featured University of Michigan Professor Ben Green, co-author of "What Happens When Data Centers Come to Town?" Green focused on potential negative community impacts of data centers, saying some communities have seen utility bills rise after data centers were built, while many of the jobs created are temporary.
Green said community benefit agreements must be negotiated from a position of real power.
"The community benefit agreement really would need to be done under circumstances where the community is able to walk away and say no."
Attendee Mark Goswitz said Green's research made the second session more informative than the first.
"This week was actually research, and people, and Dr. Green telling us data from around the country, and examples, So I think it helps a lot."
Attendee Jocelyn Ertel said the session gave city officials an opportunity to hear directly from citizens.
"Tonight, our city council members got an earful about why we don't need a data center here."
Sheboygan Common Council passed a one-year moratorium on data centers in July. Council President Susie Boorse said zoning changes could be the next step, noting there is no mechanism to permanently ban a lawful industry.
"Unfortunately, there's no mechanism to permanently ban a lawful industry. I think passing the needed zoning changes, while that might not seem like a bold act, I think that, that's the biggest step in the right direction that we could possibly make at this point in time."
Boorse also spoke about the importance of restricting municipal staff from signing nondisclosure agreements in connection with data center projects.
"In this incident, I do think that it can be highly problematic, and certainly exploring something like the bans that we've seen in other communities could be appropriate for ours as well."
Boorse encouraged residents to attend the next two speaker sessions, scheduled for the following two Wednesdays in September.
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