This story was produced and originally published by Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. It was made possible by donors like you.
How did a $1 billion, 520-acre data center proposed by one of the world’s richest companies go unnoticed in tiny Beaver Dam, Wisconsin?
A key reason: In a city that lists “communication matters” atop its core values, officials took steps to keep the project hidden for more than a year.
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Now Meta, the trillion-dollar company that owns Facebook and Instagram, is building a complex as big as 12 football fields in a city with a population of 16,000, enough to fill only a fifth of Lambeau Field.
It’s one of seven major data center projects pending in Wisconsin that combined are worth more than $57 billion.
In four of them, including Beaver Dam, local government officials kept the massive projects under wraps through confidential nondisclosure agreements, a Wisconsin Watch investigation has found.
Secrecy also occurred in the three communities without NDAs.
In one, the Madison suburb of DeForest, officials worked behind the scenes for months before publicly announcing a proposed $12 billion data center, which residents are fighting.
The lack of public disclosure, while relatively common for typical development proposals in the planning stages, raises questions about how much time the public should have to digest projects that dramatically affect the economy, land use, energy, taxes, the environment and more.
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