DeForest Village Board says ‘no’ to residents who want a vote on the QTS data center project

DeFOREST, Wis. (WMDX) – As residents of DeForest push back against a data center proposal, they were hoping to get to vote. Instead, the village board has said no. 

Residents had organized a petition asking the DeForest Village Board to change the rules. Their proposal would mean when the Village of DeForest wants to annex hundreds of acres of property, it would have to go to referendum. That would give residents of the village some say in whether the village itself gets larger. 

Virginia-based QTS originally wanted to build a data center in the town of Vienna. Vienna residents were strongly opposed. After that, QTS staff approached DeForest officials to propose annexing that same property from Vienna, about 1,600 acres, for the data center.  

The petition asking for referendums on big land annexations got more than 1,000 signatures. That meant the petition had enough support to go to the village board. 

Hundreds of people packed the DeForest Village Hall January 6 for a meeting. 

Kelly Mack said because of her work, she’s been in these data centers before. 

“I’ve seen these communities, and … these promises don’t typically come all the way through to the residents,” Mack said during public comment. “I would just love to give that warning out to you guys, these promises are amazing. What’s gonna happen when they don’t follow through?

Dan Jansen said he filed an open records request to see contact between the Village Board and QTS leadership. He said he received emails showing Village President Jane Cahill Wolfgram advising QTS on how to present the project to the community. 

“Among her feedback, she noted that ‘calling this a Dane County is inviting opposition from County Board members (Patrick Miles) and staff. Some are organizing a task force in opposition’,” Jansen said at the meeting, quoting the email from Cahill Wolfgram. 

“She also advised QTS to maintain consistency in communications regarding cooling, because ‘lots of these folks are college-educated and smart, and looking for ways to question’,” he said, another direct quote from the email. 

WKOW requested those same records, and confirmed what Jansen said was accurate. 

QTS staff have said the project would create thousands of short-term construction jobs. 

Madison resident Scott Watson was one of the few people at Tuesday’s meeting speaking in support of the data center. 

“[This] project is one in a lifetime coming to these areas,” Watson said. “I hate seeing when projects like these end up being shut down.” 

The Village Board did not sign off on residents’ petition to allow a vote on annexing property. They’re free to continue private discussions with QTS.