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

Polk County, Wis. — ONE-YEAR DATA CENTER MORATORIUM approved by the County Board. DISSENT RECORDED: SUPERVISOR JARCHOW 'says county might as well hang out a CLOSED sign' — the economic-development objection, captured in the dissenter's own framing. RECORDING DISSENT IS A DELIBERATE EDITORIAL CHOICE HERE. Most entries in this dataset capture the measure and the prevailing rationale, which can make contested votes read as consensus. The counter-argument is real and recurs: Port Angeles WA six-month data center moratorium (2026) records business and economic-development representatives cautioning against 'shutting the door on projects'; Marion County FL 12-month large data center moratorium (2026) records Commissioner Kathy Bryant dissenting from the OPPOSITE direction, against the exemptions rather than the pause; Loveland CO 12-month data center moratorium (2026) records Mayor Pat McFall voting against his own council's measure over its guardrails; Sauk County WI 18-month data center moratorium (2026) passed 27-1. A dataset that logs only unanimous-sounding adoptions misrepresents how these decisions are actually made. WISCONSIN CLUSTER, now among the largest: Sauk County WI 18-month data center moratorium (2026) (18 months, 27-1, pre-emptive with no pending project), Sun Prairie WI 12-month large data center moratorium (2026) (12 months, large data centers), Oshkosh WI temporary data center moratorium (2026); plus Milton (18-month, with State Sen. Mark Spreitzer addressing the council), St. Croix County (unanimous, with an ongoing lawsuit over a Hammond conditional use permit) and the Village of Tigerton in the queue; the ledger also holds Town of Turtle, Town of Beloit, Town of Rock, Rock County and the City of Janesville as unindexed leads. DURATION: Wisconsin practice is generally understood as an initial term of up to 12 months with one 6-month extension, so a one-year term is AT that ceiling and is the conservative position — contrast Sauk County's 18-month single enactment, flagged on that entry as at the outer edge. NOT ESTABLISHED: the vote, Supervisor Jarchow's first name, the exact date, the ordinance number, the operative scope, and any threshold.