Oneida County WI one-year data center moratorium (2026)

Oneida County, Wis. — ONE-YEAR MORATORIUM on new data center development in the county's ZONED AREAS, adopted by the Board of Supervisors as RESOLUTION 56-2026 / ORDINANCE AMENDMENT 02-2026, AMENDING SECTION 9.57 of the county's ZONING AND SHORELAND PROTECTION ORDINANCE. PURPOSE: to give the Planning and Development Committee time to study the industry's impacts before permanent regulation. THE SECTION REUSE IS THE TRANSFERABLE TECHNIQUE: \u00a7 9.57 PREVIOUSLY COVERED A SINCE-EXPIRED LIVESTOCK FACILITY MORATORIUM. The county did not create new authority or draft a standalone instrument; it amended the provision where its previous moratorium had sat. A jurisdiction that has lawfully paused a use before has a tested provision, an established procedure and local precedent that the mechanism holds \u2014 which speaks directly to the defensibility concern recorded on Garfield Township MI data center and crypto mining ban (2026), where officials chose a zoning-ordinance-amendment route expressly because municipalities enacting standalone 'knee-jerk moratoriums' 'are being challenged and losing in court'. OPERATIVE EFFECT: for 12 months the county will NOT ACCEPT, PROCESS OR ISSUE PERMITS for new data center DEVELOPMENT OR EXPANSION in unincorporated, zoned areas, unless the board extends or replaces the moratorium sooner \u2014 note the three-verb formulation and the inclusion of EXPANSION, which most instruments here omit. TWO EXPRESS LIMITS: it DOES NOT APPLY RETROACTIVELY to projects already holding valid permits, and officials stated NO DATA CENTER APPLICATIONS WERE PENDING at adoption. TERRITORIAL: unincorporated, ZONED areas \u2014 a double limitation, since Wisconsin counties zone only the towns that have adopted county zoning, the same gap recorded on Chippewa County WI 12-month data center moratorium (2026) (six towns only) and Cottage Grove WI 18-month data center moratorium (2026) (Dane County's pause not reaching villages with their own codes). WISCONSIN DURATION CONTEXT: one year is the base statutory allowance described by Bellevue's village administrator (Bellevue WI 12-month data center moratorium (2026)), with one six-month extension available.