RVs in town may be latest fallout from data center

Town of Port Washington residents who are angered by the noise and dust from construction of the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus could also face an influx of recreational vehicles used as temporary housing for workers unless the Town Board takes action.

The Town Plan Commission was expected on Wednesday, March 11, to consider a request to allow temporary RV and camper housing in the Knellsville area and discuss whether it wanted to change the town zoning code regarding temporary camping.

Right now, Town Chairman Mike Didier said, ordinances allow RV parking for as many as 30 days throughout the town.

Considering the town has about 700 parcels, he said, “tomorrow 700 trailers could come into the town. Imagine that, and imagine them moving every 29 days. My question is do we want to have this?”

In the Knellsville portion of the town, he said, a temporary use permit is required for  temporary RV parking or camping. That prompted Jeff St. Peter, who owns the former Heatwole Foundry at 3760 Highland Dr. to seek permission to keep five campers behind his building.

Didier said there have been a number of inquiries about RV parking through the years. When We Energies converted its Port Washington power plant from a coal-fired facility to one fueled by natural gas, a number of the workers stayed in RVs and campers in the town, he noted.

“A lot of these workers lived within four hours of the town,” he said, so they would stay in Port during the week and leave on weekends.

“They kind of blended in,” Didier said, and no one objected to it.

There are about 700 people working at the Vantage Data Centers site, and by summer that number is expected to increase to a couple thousand, company officials said.

The data center property is in the City of Port Washington, and city officials said in a fact sheet last week that trailers on the job site are only being used as offices.

Vantage seemingly has ample space for temporary living quarters on its property, but that land is in the City of Port Washington and its ordinances prohibit workers from living in trailers there, the memo states.

RV parking in the town is a hot topic, Didier said, noting he quickly received an angry message from someone after the Plan Commission agenda was posted.

Didier said that while he is loath to take a property owner’s rights away, there are legitimate questions to be considered by the commission.,

“I’m going to turn to the Plan Commission members and see what they have to say,” he said. “But if you’re going to allow it, it should be in a commercial or industrial setting. There should be some guidelines or it could be helter skelter.”

The idea of trailers moving from property to property every 29 days to skirt the existing ordinance probably isn’t what residents want, Didier said.

The commission will likely also look at more clearly defining the ordinance, he said, noting the current law doesn’t define whether campers and RVs can be parked on a lot for a total of 29 days annually, for 29 consecutive days and then moved to another property or whether they can be parked on different lots for 29 days.

Any potential Plan Commission action would be a recommendation to the Town Board, which is scheduled to meet next on Monday, April 6.

In other data center news:

• Highway LL was reopened to traffic on Monday, March 9, a move that officials hope will reduce the pressure on Highway KW and Lake Drive.

Highway LL has been closed for months as crews work on extending sewer and water services to the data center site. That has funneled traffic heading to and from the northern end of Ozaukee County along Highway KW and Lake Drive, roads also being used by construction traffic from the data center site — a situation that has caused traffic congestion and angst among motorists.

Trucks coming to and from the data center site will be directed not to use Highway LL, city officials said.

The newly reopened portion of Highway LL will be a gravel road until asphalt plants open later this spring.

Until then, the speed limit along that portion of the road will be 25 mph.

• Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke said Tuesday that he is still working on a plan to trim construction hours at the data center site — a plan he expects to present to the city’s Plan Commission when it meets on Thursday, March 19.

The city gave Vantage permission to work around the clock Mondays through Fridays and 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays this spring but said those hours could be cut if problems arose.

Area residents have told city officials those hours are untenable, saying they cannot sleep or relax due to the constant noise, light pollution and dust from the construction site, and last week Neitzke said he was working with Vantage to end the 24-hour construction hours.