Hudson WI Town Public Hearing Sep. 9, 2026

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[0:02] All right, it's 5:30 and we'll call this uh
[0:05] public hearing to order. Uh read the notice of public hearing
[0:09] Town Board, Town Hudson. Notice given that Town Board Town
[0:13] Hudson Town Board will conduct a public hearing Wednesday, September 9th
[0:17] at 5:30 p.m. to consider a proposed ordinance
[0:20] regarding the regulation of data centers within the Town of Hudson.
[0:24] Town residents would like to attend to provide comments on the proposed
[0:26] ordinance women. A copy of the proposed ordinance may be
[0:30] obtained at Town Hall or reviewed at Town Hall.
[0:34] So, I see one person in the audience.
[0:38] Uh we should just note for the record that
[0:41] we're not recording this in the town's um
[0:44] and not uh videoing. Um
[0:48] so, if the one person in attendance would
[0:52] like to speak, please put your name on the list and uh
[0:56] say your piece.
[1:03] » I got you.
[1:32] » Stephen Larson, 813 Hunter View Road, Hudson.
[1:38] The only thing I'd like to speak to on this is I protest.
[1:42] I'm against it. And I'll tell you why.
[1:46] Nowhere in this ordinance, this proposed ordinance,
[1:50] is telling us what the size of the data
[1:54] center is. What What is a data center?
[1:57] It does define it as a storage facility for a computer.
[2:03] But I'm somebody that has worked in data centers for decades.
[2:08] That are in residential facilities or residential zones.
[2:12] And I think we're we're writing an ordinance that is
[2:17] based on fear and not on fact. I would venture that
[2:23] not many here have been around a data center like that.
[2:28] The pictures that are shown are dealing with huge
[2:33] data centers across large areas of land. And I've been in some that are
[2:40] maybe a few acres in size. But I will tell you this.
[2:46] They're not as loud as people believe they are.
[2:50] I don't believe they take in near as much water.
[2:53] The The piece that I guess I'd like to
[2:57] remind the audience is that
[3:01] they are a job-based facility that pays very well.
[3:09] So keep that part in mind. And the other
[3:14] article I'd like to go to I found on the county website. They talked about from
[3:18] the an electric co-op's perspective on data
[3:22] centers. And like they say, you you put one of
[3:25] these things if one of these were to go in,
[3:28] they do help to lower the cost of of uh electricity to the consumer
[3:35] because it's a steady base load and that helps to offset
[3:40] changes in the uh which is what causes costs to go up.
[3:48] But somewhere I was hoping Dan would be they're tonight. There um
[3:52] I saw I believe it was on the county website and they tried to stipulate what
[3:57] a size of data center would be and it was
[4:01] like the size of my garage. Are we going to tell people you can't
[4:06] put computers in your garage if if it's used for a small business, let's say,
[4:13] cuz we'll classify it as a data center. To me that would seem really odd.
[4:21] So anyway, I'm just I'm I'm of the belief that this ordinance is really not
[4:26] needed. It's too vague and it ain't but in the event that anybody was to come
[4:30] into the town of Hudson and try to put up
[4:33] a data center that's going to make people uncomfortable,
[4:37] I believe it would be caught in the planning commission and in the board
[4:42] before any approval would be taking place. So,
[4:47] that's my piece. >> Well, thank you.
[4:50] Uh would anybody else like to speak about
[4:53] uh the proposed data center ordinance? This is your opportunity to share your
[4:57] thoughts with us. And if so, come to the microphone.
[5:01] » Yeah, but I haven't had an opportunity to read
[5:04] this. I tried to find it online and it wasn't
[5:07] there. >> Would you sign in, please?
[5:09] Where? Oh. Sorry.
[5:12] Um I'm against the data center
[5:16] at this time because we don't really know enough
[5:20] about it and how they're reacting on the other side of Wisconsin.
[5:27] And for the fact that they are big drain on our light work.
[5:31] They have to have more power lines put in, more utilities
[5:36] put in that's being passed on to me, the resident of the town.
[5:42] And my electricity has already gone up immensely.
[5:47] I'm also very much against them in the last there are a lot of requirements and
[5:52] regulations as how they're built. If they are built because of
[5:57] batteries in
[6:00] a tub underneath it, so that any leakage,
[6:04] corrosion, anything is caught inside that tub, cannot get into the ground
[6:09] water or leak into anything else, so that it
[6:12] can be cleaned up. I also think
[6:17] as I was listening to the news tonight and finding out all these AI people are
[6:22] quitting their jobs because they're scared to death about AI as well, too.
[6:26] That we need to take a while to figure out
[6:31] what is exactly going on. And is this kind of like
[6:37] the Foxconn thing where we're going to go in, we're going to create all of
[6:41] these jobs, which I don't know that much about the jobs
[6:45] other than the ones that I researched is is that
[6:50] the people that are employed are glorified maintenance people.
[6:54] And they're going to be working in a dark area around a lot of noise. They're
[6:59] going to have a lot of hearing problems even with their protection units.
[7:04] And they're only going to have maybe four to five people along with a
[7:08] security guard working. That's not adding a lot to
[7:15] our taxes. And if you do choose to put in the data
[7:20] center I'd like the requirement that
[7:23] the people have to live that work for
[7:27] in the state. Nobody coming over from Minnesota,
[7:32] nobody sitting in California, Texas,
[7:36] anywhere else doing it you know, from home.
[7:40] They have to reside in the state Wisconsin and be paying our taxes.
[7:45] And I wish I would have had more time to read this because I'm sure there's other
[7:48] things, but I just
[7:52] don't feel that we should be doing anything at this time until there's more
[7:57] information available from the plant cuz there's other ones that are going up on
[8:02] the other side of the state, which are creating a lot of problems.
[8:06] Thank you. >> Thank you.
[8:10] » And wasn't very well advertised in the
[8:13] paper. It was
[8:19] If you didn't get the serendipitous search the
[8:23] whole thing, you didn't know what was going on.
[8:26] » Got you. Thank you both for sharing your
[8:31] feedback. >> Ma'am, did you see there's a sign-up
[8:35] sheet on that table? >> Yes, I did.
[8:37] » you to be in get information as it's happening here?
[8:41] » Oh, no, I didn't see that. >> Okay, there is a a sign-up over there if
[8:44] you'd want to sign your email, and then you will be on the list, and then you'll
[8:48] get notified when we have we're going to have meetings,
[8:51] things that are happening. >> Yeah, please do that because that's an
[8:54] easy way for us to stay in touch with everybody.
[8:57] » I mean, I'll admit I'm not the most social media intact person in the world.
[9:03] But I am >> We would love to have you on the
[9:04] newsletter. >> Okay, thank you.
[9:09] » Any other uh uh citizen comments?
[9:18] All of hearing none, I guess we No, not public hearing. Yeah, I mean, I
[9:23] I I think then we'll we'll close the public hearing. Somebody want to make a
[9:27] motion to do that? >> So
[9:29] » I'll second it. >> Motion by Don, second by Susan. All
[9:32] those in favor of closing the public hearing, signify by saying aye.
[9:35] » Aye. >> Aye.
[9:36] Opposed? Motion carries 3-0. All right. That concludes our
[9:42] public hearing for
[9:44] Go Pats. >> Go Packers.
[9:48] » Pats. >> Packers.
[9:51] » Patriots. >> Go Packers.
[9:54] Are they