JANESVILLE Rock County has no intention of diving into the business of data center moratoriums.
The countys Planning and Development Committee unanimously rejected a proposed 12-month countywide data center moratorium brought as a resolution on Thursday morning.
The committee sunk the proposal after committee members and legal counsel said the county lacks a zoning framework under state law to enact and impose such a moratorium. That, the officials said, is because land-use decisions are under the authority of individual towns in the county.
Under their interpretation, a county moratorium on data centers would not only be unenforceablebut could expose the county to lawsuits if developers seeking to build data centers in the townships challenged the rule.
The committee also narrowly rejected a proposal for a 13-member moratorium exploratory panel that would study whether data centers and their compatibility in Rock County, although that proposal is being revised for separate consideration by the County Boards Staffing Committee in September.
County supervisors brought forth both items as a growing number of towns in Rock County are considering implementing their own moratoriums on data centers.
Supervisors Doug Sutter and Kim Schneider brought the moratorium resolution, intended to give the county and its towns a framework rule that would allow for local governments to research and look into potential environmental risks of data center developments.
Other counties, including Dane County, are working on countywide data center moratoriums.
Planning and Development Committee Chair and County Supervisor RJ Sutterlin opposed the data center moratorium resolution in public comment prior to the committees discussion and vote.
Sutterlin, who represents parts of the city of Janesville, read aloud notes from county attorney Richard Greenlees legal review.
If the county were to pass this resolution, it would put the county in legal jeopardy from entities who may allege that the county is attempting to take an unlawful action in order to chill the development of data centers in the county, Sutterlin said.
Sutterlin worries that if the county enacted any illegal land-use provision such as a blanket moratorium for certain types of development, the countys insurers would not pony up to cover a loss leading to taxpayers being on the hook in a lawsuit.
Its one thing to be sued. its another thing to defend, and dont think we can defend this, Sutterlin said.
Under a legal review of the ordinance, the countys corporation counsel advised that the lone way the county could enact and enforce such a moratorium would be to write and approve its own general zoning and land-use rules.
Individual towns would have to adopt the countys zoning rules to make a countywide zoning or land-use policy applicable.
The countys legal review concludes that any legal challenge of a town thats blanketing itself under a county moratorium might roll back on the county via a developer suing the county.
County Planning Director Andrew Baker said the countys greater conundrum is that it would need to have applicable land-use rules to actually carry out county planning work analysis and a determination of whether data centers would be a compatible land use. Such work would required to go hand-in-hand with a data center moratorium.
You cant just adopt a moratorium and sit on your hands for a year. You have to actually do something, Baker said.
Some county committee members asked if any towns have reached out to county staff or administrators to press for a countywide moratorium.
County Administrator John Light, Baker, and County Economic Development Manager James Otterstein all told the committee theyve gotten no requests from the towns for the county to enact its own data center moratorium.