Town to plan for life with a data center campus

Looking ahead to the day when the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus is completed, the Town of Port Washington Plan Commission last week agreed to hire Mead & Hunt to update the town’s comprehensive plan with an eye toward the area around the data center.

Undertaking two of the four stages of the project outlined in a proposal by the firm is expected to cost $15,350, according to the company’s proposal.

“This is due,” Town Chairman Mike Didier said, noting that the current comprehensive plan didn’t anticipate anything like the $15 billion data center complex.

“Doing nothing is how we got here. We have to do something,” Supr. Greg Welton said. “If we don’t, we’re moving backward. There’s all that open area. The town is going to grow. We have to figure out what we want to do around the data center.”

“The town is moving into a very different phase with sewer and water coming in,” Town Planner Christy DeMaster said.

Mead & Hunt Project Manager Dustin Wolff told the commission it’s important to look ahead.

“It’s a big development site,” Wolff said. “Nobody saw a data center coming. It wasn’t on the radar screen of anyone’s.

“At the end of the day, this will be land use and community input and what you want in your community.”

The City of Port is extending sewer and water service into the Knellsville area of the town, and Wolff said this will pique developers’ interest in the community.

“You have to have conversations about where do you want to have development, where do you not want development and how far you’re going to go to say no,” he said.

“You’re dealing with 1,200 acres that are not in the community. A data center will have 1,000 people working there who are highly technical. Where are they going to build a house? What do you do next? What zoning changes are needed to develop the way you want to develop ... to stop the things you want to stop. That’s what this plan focuses on.”

The questions to be considered also include relatively small things, Wolff said, such as whether developments should have paved driveways or gravel ones as well as larger issues such as what kind of transition there should be between the data center and other uses.

One big question the town needs to consider, Wolff said, is “what do you want to do to preserve agriculture long-term?”

One option is for the town to buy conservation rights, which essentially prevents land from ever being developed, he said.

Wolff was asked if he had hands-on experience with data centers and if he had spent time in areas with established campuses, and he said Mead & Hunt has offices in areas with those centers.

Noting that the data center boom is just getting underway, Wolff said, “The country is still learning about what comes with (a data center).”

Wolff explained that the comprehensive plan isn’t the same as zoning.

“Zoning is the tool to implement the comprehensive plan,” he explained.

Wolff told the more than 40 people at the meeting that he is prepared to work on the Port plan, noting he grew up in the area and has family living here.

The first two phases of the project include an inventory of the existing conditions in the area and interviewing residents to find out what they want.

It will include meetings with stakeholders and focus group interviews, as well as an online survey and a story map to disseminate information about the process, he said.

“We will look at the entire town with a focus on Knellsville and the data center,” Wolff said.

“You’re not going to see wholesale changes (recommended for) the southeast end of the town. Where the rubber hits the road is where the development pressure is.”

The process, DeMaster said, will give the town information not just on what people in the Knellsville area are looking for but also provide input from residents of the entire township.

“There has to be a balance,” she said. “What do private property owners want and what does the community want?”

Wolff said a timetable for the work has not been established, but a project like this typically takes six to 12 months to complete.