Janesville passes ballot measure as part of national wave against data centers

Janesville joined dozens of communities across the country last week in passing ballot measures that could restrict future data center development. More than 60 percent of voters in the city of Janesville approved a referendum giving residents more power over the future of the city’s former General Motors plant site, according to unofficial results from Rock County . The referendum came in response to a failed data center development on the property. It was one of 41 ballot measures across the country last week responding to the national data center boom, according to Ballotpedia . And in all but one measure this year, voters have favored outcomes limiting development. Understanding Wisconsin, Together. WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” newsletter keeps you connected to the state you love without feeling overwhelmed. No paywall. No agenda. No corporate filter. LinkedIn This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Email Subscribe In many ways, those outcomes were a response to voters’ broader economic anxieties and feeling left out of the development process, said Stephanie Justice, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Americans for Responsible Innovation, which advocates for transparency around data center development. “They just really sent a message that they’re tired of being cut out and learning about the data centers coming to their towns way after the fact,” Justice said. “The theme of these ballot measures is really accountability, and that anger out of being shut out was a factor in these measures passing.” Janesville became the second community in Wisconsin to place new rules on development through a ballot measure in response to a data center project. In April, roughly two-thirds of Port Washington voters approved a referendum question giving residents more power over local development incentives. Port Washington is home to Oracle’s massive $15 billion data center campus , currently under construction. And in August, 87 percent of voters in northeast Wisconsin’s village of Wrightstown told the village they did not support data centers through a non-binding advisory referendum. The vote came after the community learned local leaders had had preliminary discussions with a data center developer. Business groups have expressed concern about the binding referendums passed in Janesville and Port Washington. They’ve said the measures could make it harder for communities to build everything from housing to new manufacturing facilities. In Janesville, the ballot measure requires the city to receive approval from voters through a public referendum for development plans at the former GM site that exceed $450 million in value. Unofficial results from Rock County show 62.82 percent of Janesville voters approved the measure. Cathy Erdman, a volunteer with community groups Southside Now Janesville and Janesville for Responsible Development, advocated in favor of the referendum ahead of the election. She said the large margin of victory shows that residents want a voice in development after many felt the city was slow to respond to their concerns about the now-defunct data center proposal. “I do think this is a step in the right direction,” she said. “I think it makes our local government and its development processes more accountable to the citizens, and that’s important, especially on a site that’s widely recognized as being one of the most critical redevelopment sites that our community has ever seen.” Business groups concerned about referendums limiting development But ahead of the vote, business groups advocated against the referendum, arguing it would complicate redeveloping a brownfield site that already faces $30 million in environmental remediation costs. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, or MMAC, issued a statement after the vote, saying economic development “depends on clear, predictable processes.” The spokesperson said companies and developers have “choices about where they invest” and requiring a public referendum “introduces another level of uncertainty that can cause investment to move elsewhere.” “With nearly 100 percent of U.S. communities not requiring a referendum for land development, Janesville now faces significant headwinds in redeveloping a brownfield that has sat vacant for two decades,” the statement read. MMAC and other business groups sued the city of Port Washington to block that community’s ballot measure , which requires residents to vote on future development incentives over a certain threshold. An Ozaukee County judge dismissed that suit , but the new requirement could be challenged in a higher court. Beyond the measures already passed, the MMAC spokesperson said expanding the use of referendums limiting development across the state risks making Wisconsin “less competitive for jobs, investment and broader economic benefits.” To gain community buy-in, Justice, with Americans for Responsible Innovation, said developers should avoid entering into nondisclosure agreements with local governments, seek a public community benefits agreement and begin discussions with residents well ahead of planned development. Polling highlights opposition to data centers, economic anxiety The votes giving residents more control over development have come as data centers are increasingly unpopular in Wisconsin. An October Marquette Law School Poll found that 75 percent of Wisconsin voters believe the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits. The poll also highlighted voters’ broader economic anxieties, with just 16 percent saying they were better off than a year ago and 42 percent saying they were worse off. Marquette’s September poll also showed that 61 percent of voters said the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy, while 65 percent said artificial intelligence will be bad for society. Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, said negative sentiment around data centers — combined with voters feeling pinched and like the system isn’t working for them — likely factored into referendum results in Janesville and nationwide. “That’s all I think part of a mix of economic anxiety and real felt pain, especially right now during the increase in gas prices and food costs,” Franklin said. “But it joins this mix of anxiety about the tech future (and) about some of the claims that big tech has made about the impact of AI.” But data centers may not be the only sorts of developments that struggle to gain future voter approval in Janesville and Port Washington. While the vast majority of Wisconsin voters, 92 percent, say manufacturing and commercial development are important, voters were skeptical when asked what kind of large development they would like to see in their area, the September Marquette poll shows. The most popular of the five types of development presented to voters was a computer chips manufacturing plant, with 33 percent of voters saying they’d like to see one in their area. Data centers were the least popular at just 9 percent. Forty-five percent said they didn’t want any of the developments. “It does feel like there’s more opposition to these big developments now than there were 15 years ago,” Franklin said. “I don’t have a great explanation for that other than that people are focusing on the disruptive elements, and maybe they’re a little less concerned about the job impact, whether it’s construction jobs or ongoing jobs.” Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board. 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