Wisconsin Rapids' Common Council voted unanimously on Oct. 20 to deny PNK Group's conditional use permit for a data center campus on Fourth Avenue North, on the former paper mill property.
Council members based the decision on the public record in the case, which included a staff summary, recommendations from city staff and the Planning Commission to deny the application, PNK Group's Sept. 16 presentation, comments from 44 residents at the public hearing, and emails read into the record.
Staff and the Planning Commission had recommended denial, pointing to incomplete information, missed deadlines, standards in the city zoning code that were not met, and inconsistencies in the materials submitted. At the Oct. 20 meeting, a lawyer for PNK Group argued the council should either approve the permit with reasonable conditions or send the application back to the Planning Commission with updated materials.
PNK Group first applied for the permit on April 27. The city told the company on May 21 that the application was incomplete and set an Aug. 19 deadline for the missing details, later extended to Aug. 26. Staff said the required materials were not all submitted by that deadline and moved forward with a denial recommendation for the Sept. 16 Planning Commission hearing, where many residents spoke against the project as proposed and the commission voted to recommend denial.
The Oct. 20 vote closes out the April application. PNK Group could apply again in the future, but only after the city's data center moratorium ends and under any new rules the city adopts in the meantime.
That moratorium took effect Oct. 9 and can run for up to 12 months while the city studies infrastructure and develops a regulatory framework and code changes for data center development, addressing public health, safety and ratepayer equity.
