Data Center Deal Puts Port Washington Mayor on Recall Hot Seat
Critics argue the city’s tax increment financing plan for the OpenAI and Oracle-linked project shifts risk to residents while locking in decades of repayment to developer.
This is an aerial rendering of what the planned data center campus in Port Washington could look like. Photo courtesy of the City of Port Washington
Residents who have been opposing a $15 billion data center in Port Washington for months are now trying to recall the city’s mayor. They say he’s refused to listen to their concerns about the massive development’s impact on the environment and energy usage.
Construction has already begun on the data center, which is part of a national push to expand capacity for tech giants Open AI and Oracle as part of the national Stargate project.
But opposition has been fierce. Three members of opposition group Great Lakes Neighbors United were arrested at a Port Washington City Council meeting in early December.
Now the group is working to recall Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke, who has been in office since 2021. Great Lakes Neighbors United member Mike Beaster told WPR the mayor has been secretive about the data center’s details and hasn’t taken residents’ concerns seriously.
“This thing has been going on for months, where people have been showing up to meetings and expressing their concerns about the project, and nothing ever gets through,” said Beaster. “And the common council is unanimous in almost every single vote. Every single member of the common council just votes lockstep with what the mayor wants.”
Neitzke didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the recall.
Beaster said his group is worried about how much water the $15 billion data center will use for cooling and how its expected 1.3 gigawatt electricity draw will affect local utility rates. He said his top concern, though, is the city’s tax increment district deal with the company behind the project.
Under the agreement between Colorado-based Vantage Data Centers and Port Washington, the company will pay upfront costs of infrastructure improvements and the city will reimburse Vantage for those costs from new property tax revenue.
“We had to rely on the developer to pay those costs upfront,” Beaster said. “And then we are paying them back with interest over the next roughly two decades.”
In order to recall Neitzke, Great Lakes Neighbors United would need around 1,600 signatures from city’s nearly 13,000 residents. Beaster said the group is confident it can get them.
Data center opponents launch recall of Port Washington mayor was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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