I support a pause in the establishment and development of data centers. Long-term studies on how data centers would impact our environment, well-being, economy, and resources must first be completed and prove that there will be no negative effects.
I believe we need to shift the conversation. Data centers should pay their own way but that should be the floor not the ceiling. Wisconsin should use this wave of investment to modernize the power grid faster, cleaner, affordable, & reliable. If data centers need enormous amounts of electricity use that as leverage. Require developers not only to cover their needs, but to help build the next-gen grid WI needs. MKE should be central to that opportunity. We have underused industrial land, brownfields, high unemployment, budget pressure, & a heavy property-tax burden. Responsible investment can turn abandoned property into tax base, create skilled jobs, & help fund grid upgrades. MKE should negotiate to: protect ratepayers; with cleaner energy, grid investment, local hiring & training, public reporting, brownfield redevelopment, & public benefit. The question isn’t just how to stop problems. WI’s power is a fossil-fuel-heavy system. MKE had the highest unemployment rate among WI’s 35 largest cities. MKE’s Brownfields Initiative exists to create jobs & generate tax revenues thru industrial & neighborhood redevelopment.
Please respect communities’ preferences on data centers! I support a pause in the establishment and development of data centers until we can ensure our environment and communities will not be negatively impacted
Data centers have caused environmental damage in communities such as Beaver Dam and Port Washington. Milwaukee needs to pause development and consider what impacts data centers bring not only to the environment, but to the consumer and municipal development. Please consider the voices of taxpayers and the prices that get passed on to us in an already economically difficult time. Put your constituents first before the demands of large corporations and support a moratorium on further development!
There have not been enough long-term impact studies conducted on data centers in terms of their affects on the environment, energy demands, property values, economic costs/benefits to the community, etc. so I am strongly in favor of a pause on data centers development and would consider this one of the top issues that will inform my vote for the foreseeable future. On both sides of the aisle politicians rushed to offer tax incentives to these companies to get them to develop in Wisconsin, lured by the companies promises of economic benefits to these community that we have yet to see come to fruition, and the lack of public input as seen by the proliferation of NDAs and closed meetings (see Port Washington) has left tax payers without any meaningful say in such a transformational project in their community. Until we have long-term studies done by third party, independent agencies on how these centers will affect everything from water, to electricity rates and demand, property values and city/county budgets, etc. and come come up with a well-thought out plan for regulating these centers that puts the tax payers FIRST, no such projects should be considered in Milwaukee.
I am in favor of a temporary pause on future data centers being built until further environmental studies could show the true impact on our land and water. It’s been proven that areas where data centers have been built the water pressure has significantly decreased.What will our we energies bills look like? Have you heard the endless droning sound which data centers emit? Use our land to farm. Use it for parks. Do not sell our precious land and water to companies who have zero accountability to the cities into which they move. We have seen what greed has done for our country the past two years and it has not been good for the majority of the people. Please consider putting a temporary pause on all data centers being built. Thank you.
I am in favor of a temporary AI-specific data center moratorium. It is critical that the council recognize the vast difference in resource consumption, noise, pollution and community impact that AI-specific data centers have versus networking, cloud computing, and cloud storage data centers. Without those cloud centers, I wouldn't be able to submit this comment.
Data centers of all stripes should be considered warehouse or industrial and zoned accordingly. And their specific purpose, resource consumption, noise, generator exhaust, radiant heat exhaust, and potential community impact needs to be fully disclosed before being permitted.
MKE has plenty of industrial/warehouse zoned parcels. Data center development should not be granted variances to occupy former retail space. Those should be redeloped as mixed use retail/commercial and workforce housing.
A year is far too long considering Milwaukee already has long-standing data centers that are not impacting the community negatively. Milwaukee officials pass up economic opportunities too often and seems comfortable with vacant tracts of land.
I support a pause in the establishment and development of data centers. Long-term studies on how data centers would impact our environment, well-being, economy, and resources must first be completed and prove that there will be no negative effects.
I believe we need to shift the conversation. Data centers should pay their own way but that should be the floor not the ceiling. Wisconsin should use this wave of investment to modernize the power grid faster, cleaner, affordable, & reliable. If data centers need enormous amounts of electricity use that as leverage. Require developers not only to cover their needs, but to help build the next-gen grid WI needs. MKE should be central to that opportunity. We have underused industrial land, brownfields, high unemployment, budget pressure, & a heavy property-tax burden. Responsible investment can turn abandoned property into tax base, create skilled jobs, & help fund grid upgrades. MKE should negotiate to: protect ratepayers; with cleaner energy, grid investment, local hiring & training, public reporting, brownfield redevelopment, & public benefit. The question isn’t just how to stop problems. WI’s power is a fossil-fuel-heavy system. MKE had the highest unemployment rate among WI’s 35 largest cities. MKE’s Brownfields Initiative exists to create jobs & generate tax revenues thru industrial & neighborhood redevelopment.
Please respect communities’ preferences on data centers! I support a pause in the establishment and development of data centers until we can ensure our environment and communities will not be negatively impacted
Data centers have caused environmental damage in communities such as Beaver Dam and Port Washington. Milwaukee needs to pause development and consider what impacts data centers bring not only to the environment, but to the consumer and municipal development. Please consider the voices of taxpayers and the prices that get passed on to us in an already economically difficult time. Put your constituents first before the demands of large corporations and support a moratorium on further development!
There have not been enough long-term impact studies conducted on data centers in terms of their affects on the environment, energy demands, property values, economic costs/benefits to the community, etc. so I am strongly in favor of a pause on data centers development and would consider this one of the top issues that will inform my vote for the foreseeable future. On both sides of the aisle politicians rushed to offer tax incentives to these companies to get them to develop in Wisconsin, lured by the companies promises of economic benefits to these community that we have yet to see come to fruition, and the lack of public input as seen by the proliferation of NDAs and closed meetings (see Port Washington) has left tax payers without any meaningful say in such a transformational project in their community. Until we have long-term studies done by third party, independent agencies on how these centers will affect everything from water, to electricity rates and demand, property values and city/county budgets, etc. and come come up with a well-thought out plan for regulating these centers that puts the tax payers FIRST, no such projects should be considered in Milwaukee.
I am in favor of a temporary pause on future data centers being built until further environmental studies could show the true impact on our land and water. It’s been proven that areas where data centers have been built the water pressure has significantly decreased.What will our we energies bills look like? Have you heard the endless droning sound which data centers emit? Use our land to farm. Use it for parks. Do not sell our precious land and water to companies who have zero accountability to the cities into which they move. We have seen what greed has done for our country the past two years and it has not been good for the majority of the people. Please consider putting a temporary pause on all data centers being built. Thank you.
I am in favor of a temporary AI-specific data center moratorium. It is critical that the council recognize the vast difference in resource consumption, noise, pollution and community impact that AI-specific data centers have versus networking, cloud computing, and cloud storage data centers. Without those cloud centers, I wouldn't be able to submit this comment.
Data centers of all stripes should be considered warehouse or industrial and zoned accordingly. And their specific purpose, resource consumption, noise, generator exhaust, radiant heat exhaust, and potential community impact needs to be fully disclosed before being permitted.
MKE has plenty of industrial/warehouse zoned parcels. Data center development should not be granted variances to occupy former retail space. Those should be redeloped as mixed use retail/commercial and workforce housing.
Thank you, Darren Luke, D14, 53207.
A year is far too long considering Milwaukee already has long-standing data centers that are not impacting the community negatively. Milwaukee officials pass up economic opportunities too often and seems comfortable with vacant tracts of land.