Holly Gilvary
CALEDONIA — More than 20 residents on Monday spoke against a land use amendment and a rezoning that would allow for the construction of a datacenter in the village.
The Caledonia Plan Commission is considering an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map and a parcel rezoning for 244 acres along Douglas Avenue and Botting Road.
Energy and water usage needed for a datacenter, as well as the disruption of the area’s ecosystem, were among the biggest reasons many residents opposed the rezoning and the possible development.
The amendment would change the land use category from Agricultural, Rural Residential, and Open Land and Low-Density Residential to Transition Light Industrial to allow for the future rezoning of the site to M-1, Light Manufacturing and Office District. The rezoning would change the parcels to M-1 from A-2, Agriculture, allowing for the opportunity for a future development of a datacenter.
The Caledonia Village Board approved the creation of the Transition Light Industrial land use category in February.
Addresses for the land involved include 8591, 8414 and 8127 Botting Road; 6005 County Line Road; and 8632 Douglas Ave., as well as multiple parcels along Douglas Avenue without numeric addresses.
The applicant for the land use amendment and rezoning, Rich Brittingham of Dewberry Engineering, said Monday that there are “many unknowns” about the project at this point, including what type of technology would be used and how buildings would be laid out on the property.
The Plan Commission postponed voting on both items until its next meeting, at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25 at the Caledonia Village Hall, 5043 Chester Lane.
If the commission approves the land use map amendment and the rezoning, the items will be sent to the Village Board for final approval.
The board’s approval would not necessarily mean a datacenter will be constructed on the land, but gives developers the opportunity to propose a more detailed plan to the village.
Resident Tiffany Hammond said she works in construction and converts a lot of “beautiful farm land” into industrial parks or new residential developments, and said she has seen developers go against their word on conservation efforts and other promises made to residents for development projects.
“They’re going to do whatever they want,” she said.
Hammond added that she and many other residents moved to Caledonia to escape “industrial parks.”
“We don’t want that here,” she said. “We’ve never wanted it here. We’re never going to want it here.”
Andrew Hendricks questioned the benefits of a datacenter to the village, saying neither Plan Commission members nor Brittingham had addressed this.
“All I really took away … was, ‘We want to put this thing here, and it’s OK because there’s (the WE Energies) power plant nearby,’” Hendricks said. “What does this offer us?”
Trustee Nancy Pierce said the question of a datacenter’s benefits should be discussed at future meetings after a decision is made on the land use.
Lee Wishau, who is a Village Board trustee but not a member of the Plan Commission, said that if a datacenter project materializes in Caledonia, it should be built in one of the village’s Tax Increment Finance districts, such as the development at the former South Hills Golf Course.
“In our budget, we are subsidizing our TIF districts to the tune of a million dollars a year because … they’re not producing the income yet, at this point, that we need it to to be in positive territory” Wishau said.
Brittingham encouraged the commission to delay the vote until the August meeting, saying he didn’t feel it was appropriate for the commission to rush into a decision when the conditions of approval were new both to Dewberry and the village.
He also encouraged residents to continue asking questions about the land use, rezoning and possible development.
“We don’t take it lightly that this is a request that poses a lot of questions to everyone in this room, and those conditions of approval are really the guiding conditions … that are going to shape how this development occurs,” Brittingham said.
He also addressed residents’ concerns about water usage, saying new datacenters use a “closed-loop” liquid cooling system, unlike those built five to 10 years ago that “admittedly, used a ton of water.”
“The water usages that you hear about are from the old technology, and the industry has adapted, because that is not sustainable,” Brittingham said. “The water usage (for new datacenters) is negligible.”
In other business, the commission approved appointments to the village’s new Special Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, which will assist in the development, review and recommendations of updates to the village’s Comprehensive Plan. The committee will serve in an advisory capacity to the Plan Commission.
The commission voted 6-1 to appoint Michael Moore, Josh Sobczak, Laura Million, Dave Pennings, Chris Tribbey, Marla Wishaw, Bob Prochaska, Kim Hood, Roger Therkelsen, Torben Christensen and Nate Haig.
Pierce voted against the appointments, saying she did not recognize a majority of the appointees listed and that several nominees told her they were not contacted by the village for interviews. Village President and Plan Commission Chair Tom Weatherston said he reached out to all nominees, but some never returned his phone calls.
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