LETTER: City needs to enforce rules on data center construction

To Ozaukee Press:

The City of Port Washington needs to protect itself and the roughly 13,000 residents who call this community home from growing unforeseen consequences of the $15 billion data center project underway. Anything left in a gray area will cause residents and the community at large to suffer, as we do not have the resources to go up against multi-billion dollar corporations for remedy. Focusing any frustration on the past short-sighted decisions of politicians like Gov. Tony Evers, who inexplicably considers himself an environmentalist, will not be productive.

An apropos example is the countless trailers arriving on the data site. It’s unclear whether or not these are intended for temporary living quarters. If so, this would be a clear violation of ordinance 485-112: “Except within an approved trailer camp, no house trailer shall be used for the purpose of permanent habitation in the city, permanent habitation being herein defined as more than three days of habitation.”

This ordinance should be either enforced or repealed (with sufficient opportunity for public comment). Looking the other way and choosing not to enforce longstanding rules that no other person would be allowed to violate cheapens the entire premise of city ordinances and opens the door to further weakening of our ability to put our friends and neighbor first, and large corporate interests second.

As a candidate for alderman in Ward 6, I’ve proposed stricter language regarding onsite power generation in the zoning code to prevent Port Washington from becoming another Memphis, where the emissions from large natural gas turbines for a data center have destroyed air quality in vulnerable communities.

I will continue to ask what mechanisms in local agreements or ordinances make us compliant with protections such as a requirement for the developer to purchase a bond to cover all costs of returning the site to its pre-construction state in the event of any potential abandonment if the project isn’t completed.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. The community needs to continue to respectfully bring forth concerns through official channels to make sure we have the proper mechanisms in place to protect our community. And in turn,  the city needs to show good-faith efforts to address those concerns.

Michael Beaster

Port Washington