You
And I think, based on your report of the couple people being asympt, I'll call that role call too.
So announcements.
I do not see any presentation as 4.1 presentation by the university alliance regarding public
services building.
Judd and Greg, can you kick it off?
Thanks.
Yes, we've had the opportunity to work with the university alliance.
A number of times, Megan McBride, who's the director of the university alliance, is here
on the call here tonight supporting the university students.
There's two different presentations tonight.
We'll start the first one with a group of, I believe, of seven students.
Greg and I got to go watch their presentation last week in class, and they're here to share
their results on a potential layout for a new public services building.
So I see Izzy is on, I don't know if she's got others with her, Izzy should be able to
turn your camera on and then you can share the screen if you want for your presentation
or others with you, or is it Fin is here too?
It's just me and Fin, yeah.
Okay.
So as I said, Izzy and Fin were two of the students that were participated in this and
they're ready to share their results.
Okay.
Can you guys see that?
Yep.
Okay.
Yeah, like they said, we were working on designing a new public works building for the
city of DeForest.
There were six of us, Fin and I are the only ones on the Zoom today because everybody
else had a prior commitment, but we're here.
So I'm Izzy.
I'm a fourth-year student studying geological engineering and then I'm Fin, I'm a fifth-year
starting mechanical engineering and then we also worked with Hannah, Rohan, Baraj and
so on.
So currently their building is too small.
That's their issue that they're having.
These are the two buildings, the two sites that they have.
One of them is by more like the downtown area and then one of them is up more north and
the one on Shankuwe has also a salt shed that I don't think is pictured in, or yeah,
there's a picture of it there.
Ooh.
Okay.
So the current building is too small, so we wanted to expand it.
The picture on the left here is a picture of their mechanic shop and then the picture
on the right is of their garage space.
This is an aerial view of the plot of land where we kind of took measurements as best
as we could from Google Maps to get a size estimate on the plot.
This is the Shankuwe plot of land that they're planning on building a new building on, so
we take the size estimates and then we wanted to kind of create a floor plan for this new
building and this building would have all of their equipment so it wouldn't be split
between two sites and it would be more efficient for them to be able to get out the equipment
and use it.
So what they gave us was a big spreadsheet of all their equipment and all their vehicles
and the first thing that we did with that is we sorted it into small, medium and large
and then figured out kind of size dimensions for the small, the medium and the large.
Vehicles.
And then we used kind of the cities of Stoughton, just kind of South Madison is kind of an inspiration
dragon general able to send us over what they had presented when they had a kind of a full
architectural actual kind of building design done, so we kind of use that as inspiration
to figure out exactly what we wanted to do with our design and then the kind of big needs
that we had, we talked with Greg and Judd a lot over the course of semester and kind
of tried to figure out exactly all the different rooms that they would want kind of in the
actual like office space and then kind of also the mechanic shop space, we wanted kind
of few office spaces for Greg and Judd and kind of others in that department, a large
conference room so you can kind of hold kind of emergency meetings in case of like a severe
storm or something like that, a water testing lab that's kind of expanded from a small one
that they have currently, a new mechanics shop that has a lot of different new features
that we'll talk about later, a new woodworking shop, and then also some storage for Parks
and Rec so that the coaches and where else can kind of access that after hours.
So this is the first floor of the floor plan that we came up with, you can see there's
a large garage space with a ton of spaces, and then there's also a mechanic shop, and
then there's kind of like the office section of the building, which would also have an
additional second floor.
So these are pictures from the current conference room and an example of a current office space,
you can see that they're not super huge and they just wouldn't have the capabilities
for all the meetings that they want.
So what we did is we created a two story kind of office section of the building, the first
floor is on the left, and that has some mechanic storage, a new water testing lab, which is
over double the size of the one that they currently have, and then a woodworking shop,
and then they asked for some library storage as well, so that's also on the first floor,
and then some recreational storage for coaches for the leagues, and that one they specifically
asked for a private entrance, so that the coaches could get in without having to talk
to their people at the public works department and making sure that somebody else was there
to let them in, and then the second floor is more of like the offices and the conference
room, so we added a big conference room and six smaller offices, and then an additional
small conference room, and then kind of like a miscellaneous office space that could be used for
really anything they need, and then we also moved the break room up to this floor, because
previously it was in the basement, and it didn't have any like windows or anything, so we decided
that putting it on the second floor where they could add a bunch of windows would be beneficial.
And then going on to the kind of garage spaces is obviously going to be the kind of largest
portion of the building, currently the issue again is that just kind of not enough space inside
for all the vehicles, so all of them are ending up stored outside, which is obviously not ideal,
so we're going to the next slide here, and this is kind of our current garage layout that we have,
you've got kind of the bottom left with kind of the larger trucks, whatever your dump trucks,
like plows, that type of stuff, and then the top right is going to be kind of your normal size
parking spaces, so those will comfortably fit a pickup truck, but not much more than that,
that'll kind of allow you to kind of have plenty of space for both the public works department,
and then also some extra space, I believe is currently nine spots allocated to the police department
as well, so kind of mixed use building there, and then the bottom right is going to be all the
implements kind of smaller things that wouldn't necessarily take up an entire parking space,
like lawnmowers and all the other stuff, and just giving the department a lot of different spaces,
a lot of different kind of abilities to store everything that they have inside, and then in the
middle there, you can kind of see those three red lines, those are going to be your entrances
to the mechanics shops, you can enter kind of from the garage space, you don't need to go
outside especially in the winter, so you can kind of keep the heat inside the building as much as
possible, and then on the next slide, you can kind of current machine shop, obviously very very
crowded, lots of stuff going on there, so the biggest kind of upgrade that we made, you can see
on the actual floor plan is that we add a lot of storage space, added a lot of kind of new
areas for them to actually work in, so they're not kind of cramming everything into one small
area, on this we've got two large bays for kind of those larger dump trucks, those are going to be
having a high enough ceiling so that you can fully kind of extend the bed upwards and be able to
service them inside the building, and then you've got two smaller bays for kind of your normal sized
vehicles, these a lot of them kind of do all the different tasks and maintenance on these vehicles
in-house that kind of need to ship them out to other people, and then you get that big storage
on the left side, so you've got plenty of space inside the building to be able to kind of
store all your different tools, everything else that you need, and then on the right,
you've also got a wash face, so you can wash off all the vehicles, get all the salt off them to
stop them from rusting, and then just generally be kind of the garage space a little bit cleaner,
which is obvious ideal, that's funny, and then here's kind of the general footprint that we've
kind of visioned with this current layout, you've got the office on the bottom right,
the shop in the middle, and then the garage, those white lines kind of indicate potential
what are driveways to the buildings, you can kind of see you've got a main
entrance in the front, the access is split the shop, and then also the garage,
our side entrance, which has on the right, has kind of employee parking as well,
and can also enter that garage and then access on the left as well, so we've got plenty of
entrances and exits, so that you don't have any kind of bottlenecks in the system,
and kind of issues with too many vehicles entering and exiting.
Okay, to kind of sum it all up, we created a floor plan that has lots of indoor storage,
it has task-specific rooms, it has some shop space, and then we updated the office space,
and then also kind of as we were going along and doing the project, we took our stakeholder input
and ensured that it would be a floor plan that they were happy with.
And then to the next steps would be to bring in an architecture firm, or some company that
could actually ensure the rooms and entrances and hallways all meet the safety standards and
then design more of the structural aspects, and then there was also a second option for a site
that they could build on, so they would have to choose which site, but our floor plan would be
able to fit on either site, so there wasn't much difference between those two there.
Thank you guys for listening. I don't know if we're doing questions or not,
but if we are, we would be happy to take any.
Yeah, the board might have questions for you, so let's jump on.
Yep, I think there's time. Is there any commissioners, questions, comments, right?
And maybe this is a question for Judd or Greg.
I'm talking about that other plot of land. Does this meet the need that what you were looking
for expecting, or if you had a bigger space to build on, would you expand?
We probably would have a slightly larger footprint if we had a larger space, right? So if we
went somewhere other than Shanku, when we're looking at a 15-1 acre parcel, there'd be more
things there, right? There might be more outdoor storage or other things that we could do as well
there, so we don't necessarily need that with the current location at Shanku, right? We do have
outdoor storage already in that other building, but I think it's a good start for ideas what we
can do for that next building. Any other questions, comments?
Colleen?
What is the projected date for this?
It'd be January of 2026. No, I'm just kidding.
Oh, I think we're probably looking at 28, 29 in that realm. I think Bill might correct me if I'm
wrong. Billing we have now isn't that old, is it?
Well, the Shanku building was built in 2018 at that time. That was what funds we had to
construct that, so we didn't build for the future. There were plans for future development
on that building, but as we continue to grow, that's not going to meet our demand either.
See how crowded we are pictures from Shanku look a lot like these did back in 18.
Yeah, it's a lot of moving back and forth, moving trucks, taking trucks out there,
jumping in trucks, they're going to our job sites, leaving trucks outside with
cord plugged in to them, so they start in the wintertime. Sometimes we have to take jumper
cables and jump on because somebody forgot to put the cable on.
Not highly efficient. No, no. Why does the police experiment have so many parking spaces
out there? What are they putting out there? PD currently isn't storing anything out there.
They might store a message board or a speed board right now, but if in the future we're able to
build another building, they would have extra storage instead of taking up space in their
apparatus bay here. They can put all their vehicles in there and all their speed boards
somewhere else. Okay, so it's not necessarily cars we're talking about.
Yeah, no. It's the all equipment. Just because I'm ignorant of your operation,
six offices, what's all the office space? So we anticipate
Judd and I, and it could be the rec department might be out there. The four men's, we got three
four men's, so that's five between Judd and I and three four men's and then Sam and
those other families. Yeah, I think you've been right now too with the current sites as we have
for some of the rec stuff. We have some of it stored here. We have some upstairs over there.
We have some downstairs. I think maybe some of the meeting space was for keeping all the rec
stuff somewhere else. Maybe it does make sense, especially since there's probably a lot of events
stuff stored there too that maybe we all migrate to that building. I think it's maybe kind of why
those six offices were there. I'm sure it makes sense to keep all your stuff in the same place.
Okay, just curious. Thank you. We currently have the three foremen are in probably a 15 by 15
office now, right? I mean, they're all crammed in there. There's three desks. One slides out,
they're backing into the other one, but that's the space we have. So we maximize what we have.
Oh, Alicia. Just looking to the future. I know this is on the agenda coming out,
but would we also be putting in pouted vehicles there as well? Electric powered vehicle in
pounded vehicles. That would be a question for the PD. I don't think so. There are,
there has been times where they've had taken vehicles out to their secured storage out there
at Shanku, but it's very limited. So probably not.
So a couple of comments here. First, the first one is in regards to the time frame and the timeline.
So the study of a public service facility is in our strap plan. The intention is to try to
time out that financing with when a tax increment district comes off. And so we can balance that
mill rate or the on a debt service side. So that 2028 timeframe, maybe 2029, that's when we forecast
our next tax increment district would be closing. Now there's decision points within that affordable
housing extension. Where are we on our debt service capacity, etc. And we can structure that
so that it's a lesser of an impact on taxpayers. So if you walk that back, you know, 28 construction,
27 really is the planning stages. 26 is continuation of space study and confirming the space demands.
That's the tentative schedule. And so I think there's going to be opportunities. We have
the opportunity here with University Alliance to get us started. Things obviously can change
between there, including different various sites. And then potentially the combination of facilities.
One of the other things that will need to be considered as part of this process is as we think
about where the public services services are moving to. What potentially could happen to the
facility that is there currently? And how does that actually equation?
Yep. Thank you. Anything else, Bill? Anything else? Say from the students or Greg?
I'd just like to thank Izzy and Finn for being here tonight and their other partners that helped
formulate this plan. It was an enjoyable experience to work with them. And I wish them the best as
they went around and knew new prospects, whether they're graduating in a semester or other things.
So the University Alliance has been a fun partnership so far.
Thank you guys. It's been a great opportunity for all of us. I know we all enjoyed it.
Thank you very much for helping us out too.
So next item is another presentation from the University Alliance regarding
health and bike park. It's like Judd, Greg, and Sam. Yep. So Greg and myself along with Reece
predominantly worked with the two owned bike groups. And this is the second one, right? So Lola
was supposed to be here in November, but I failed her and sent her the $6 o'clock for the
village board, meaning forgetting it was the work session started at five. So that was on me.
But she's here tonight. She presented her final presentation, I think last week, right, Lola?
And so she's looked at kind of the needs of a mountain bike, right? And she did the survey and
engaged it for us. So I'll let Lola kind of share with you all her results. Lola should be able to
share your screen if you want to share your presentation. And then you can unmute and take
over. Can you guys say the screen right now? Yes, we're here. Okay. So hi, everyone. My name is Lola,
and I'm a rising senior now at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I'm measuring in biology
right now. So today, I'll be presenting a project about mountain biking and difference.
And this presentation looks at community interests, environmental concerns, and how a new trail can
be designed in a sustainable way. So the goal of this project is to balance outdoor creation
with long-term environmental protection.
So this is the trail project overview. And so this project proposes the development of a new
mountain biking trail in the forest. And the trail is designed to provide safe and
scenic riding opportunities for people of all ages and skill levels. So an important part of
this project is making sure the trail is accessible and easy to navigate. And at the same time,
the design focuses on protecting natural habitats and supporting local ecosystems.
So the next slide is basically the current routes to the forest. And the map that you can see
right now is the satellite image of the area where the new trail would be placed. And the
village is planning to build a new trail in Resilience Parkland. And this area was selected
because it offers a safe access for residents. And it is enough like open Latin for trail development.
And it is also environmentally suitable for low-impact trail design.
And this means the trail can be built in a way that minimizes the damage to the surrounding
forest and wildlife. So this is like the detailed map of the satellite image. And this map shows
the proposed trail layout within the park area. And the trail is planned to run throughout the
site to avoid distributed use. And the possible boardwalk crossing, which is circled right here,
they're included to protect the sensitive areas such as wetlands. And this design
choices help reduce the soil erosion and protect natural or natural features.
And I actually did a survey to get some opinions from the residents about the new biking trail on
the village difference website. And we got over like 300 responses from the residents. So
from now from the new slide starting here, it's just the summary of the survey that I did on the
residents. So I'm going to start with the awareness and park uses. And the survey results show that
only about 20% of the residents are aware of existing trails. And however, more than 80% of
residents use park quickly or even daily. So this tells us about like that people already value
out their species, even if they're not really familiar with current trails. And this gap really
shows us strong opportunity for better trail development and communication.
And the next slide is about the community interest in new trails. So more than 80% of residents
that they are really interested in a new mountain biking trail. And most of this residents reported
being very interested, not just somewhat interested. And this strong level of support shows that the
community is ready for an official and well managed trail. So it also highlights the importance of
planning the new trail in a thoughtful and sustainable way.
And the next slide is about how how residents were asked like what makes a trail more inviting.
And the scenic routes were the most important factor for most of the people. And also the safety
and family friendly design were also the major priorities. And this shows that people want
trails that feel welcoming, safe and enjoyable for all ages.
And the next slide is about what residents expect from a new trail. And the community's
vision for the new trail focuses on three main goals, which is recreation, health and wellness
and the youth engagement. So the residents want the trail to support physical activity like going
out to the outdoor spaces with family and overall well-being. So they also wanted to be of space
where younger community like children members can safely enjoy the outdoors together with the family.
And there are also the community concerns and priorities reported. And most of the residents
reported having no major concerns about the project, but some people expressed some concerns
about environmental impact and safety. So other concerns also included trail maintenance,
coast and noise. And some of the people were worried about the people from other village
coming to the trail to enjoy their outdoor spaces. But these concerns show why careful
planning and long-term management are really important in making this new trail.
So how we're going to address this environmental concerns were basically we have like four goals
right now. And one goal is to achieve higher high user satisfaction while maintaining the
healthy ecosystems. So mountain biking recreation, we are planning to achieve an 80%
fill user satisfaction rate by 2029. And the next one will be improving the Uland habitats
and reducing invasive species and protecting the stream quality by 2029. And this curve is also
helping sure that recreation does not come from like the coast of environmental health. And these
are the main four goals of the environmental concerns. And this map is basically from the
other team who's working on just the environmental concern analysis right now. And this diagram
shows how different environmental factors like climate impacts, invasive species, and erosion
are connected to each other. And by understanding how this vector interact, planners can make
better decisions. So this approach supports both the conservation efforts and the sustainable
trail usage. And more detailed analysis will be presented by the other group.
We also asked about how they want to be connected with the project and residents prefer receiving
project updates through social media and the village website, where we basically did the
survey on the residents. And quick and accessible desert communication is important for the
community's engagement. And using this platform like social media and the village website helps
keep residents informed and involved throughout the project. So that was it for my presentation.
And in conclusion, like the community feedback shows strong support for this mountain biking
trail project and the project addresses the recreation list while practicing the environmental protection.
Thank you.
Thanks, Laura. I just want to add in she had talked about the other findings. So if you
call last board meeting work session, we had the other university alliance group did that
more in depth stuff. So we connected the two university alliance groups, the fact group last
weekend, Lola. So Lola could incorporate some of that stuff into her findings as well. So
it was nice to have that connection. And that was like the the diagram, yeah, and their name from
that other groups stuff. But it was great working with Lola as well. It's been a joy to work with her
ever facilitate the mountain bike stuff. Thank you. Any questions, commissioners, comments?
I guess I will thank you. The one question that I have is you showed a aerial view that talked
about, say, think boardwalk crossings. I guess what I gathered from that is you're sort of showing
the areas that are maybe more environmental concerning as far as that we want to cross.
And I'm just wondering, has there been any thought of, say, trail layouts yet, or is that to come?
That'll be the comm. We've not even really looked at how the trails might be laid out in there.
We have considered looking for an old Nelson stewardship grant, right? So boardwalk is a
more expensive proposition for trail segments rather than asphalt. And we want to make sure
these areas are environmentally protected. So as we move along with that trail project,
we will certainly look into Knowles Nelson as ways to get across the two sensitive areas there
that are lowland, wetland, sedgmentalish. I guess I'll ask you, Judd, or maybe Bill,
is this in our capital improvement plan? Is it a year out there?
Yeah, I don't believe that it's in our 26 capital improvement plan. At this point,
I think there's still a couple of planning steps that need to happen before we do so.
Thank you. Any other questions, comments?
And thank you, Judd, Greg, and Lola.
Thank you.
Item number five is department updates. 5.1 administration updates. Anything, Bill?
I don't have anything beyond what's on the agenda.
Okay, financial updates, Carol.
Yeah, just let everybody know the tax bills did go out last week. So we are starting to collect
payments already. And they can be paid online. So anyone who wants to pay their tax bill online,
go out to the website, you'll find the link to get to that. And we are accepting payments online.
Very good. Thank you, Carol. Police department, Chief Olson.
Yep, just one thing. Last week, Wednesday, our newest officer, Elissa Bailey, graduated
from Walk Area Technical College Police Academy. So she's now a full sworn law enforcement officer.
Her first day in the office was today. She'll hit the street just right after Christmas.
So excited to be at full strength.
Very good, Chief. Public services update, Judd. Nothing but snow.
Yeah, quite a bit of it too.
Community development update, Alex.
Updates.
Administrative services update, Kelly.
I was just going to say we are very busy collecting taxes. A lot of people are coming in to pay
their to pay their tax bill. And people are being very pleasant. So we really much appreciate it.
I think I'll add. I'd also paying your hats to your dog license.
Yes, we are in the middle of dog license renewal. Also, we did start that a little earlier this year
in hopes of avoiding the mad rush of dog license and tax payments. And it's working out very well.
So we'll continue to do that of sending out the renewal in the end of November right before
Thanksgiving. So people have an opportunity to do that and then can focus on their taxes.
Thank you. Item number 5.7, recreation and community enrichment. So is that you tonight, Sam?
Yep. So two weeks ago, we had the holiday tree lighting and the candlelight hike.
We both had good independence from both the events.
Thank you to all the park guys for helping set up the park.
And it was a great two great events. We also have the Mary and Bright Tree Challenge. It's
still going on. You can still vote up until up through the 31st of December. So just
heads up that that is still open. And then Tricia has started to get a city stream of
applications for the forest dragon art fair already. And then the shop local event will end
the Saturday, December 20th. Thank you very much, Sam. Any other businesses that
lawfully come before the committee? Seeing none. Item number 7 is adjournment.
Second motion by Tricia. Seconded by Brad. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.
Any opposed? Motion passes. 5-0 and we are adjourned at 5-34.
We will be back here at 6-0. The next meeting. Thank you.
20-20.
Village Board meeting to order. Those present Jane Cahill-Wolfgram is not here tonight.
And so procedurally, here the board will need a take a vote as to who to
chair the meeting this evening. And so I'll let it go from there.
I'll make a motion to nominate Trustee Simpson to chair the meeting. Second.
We have a first and a second. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed?
Thank you, Bill and Trustees. So item number 1, call the meeting. The order's already been done.
Roll call, Kelly. And also be noted that Jan is absent tonight.
Recital of the Pledge of Allegiance. Brad, could you leave us?
Thank you.
Item number 4 is announcements. There is none.
Item number 5 is consent agenda. And staff noted to me that one of them, is it the,
what item is that, Bill, that we're moving along?
Yeah, Jim, we would like to pull out item 5.3.3 resolution 2025-113.
A resolution terminating tax increment district number 3.
We'll bring that back to a future meeting in 2026 as that is the terminating year.
Thank you, Bill. So we're looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda,
or if anybody wants to remove one for discussion, Alicia.
I'd like to make a, I'd like to remove item 5.2.1.
Okay. Any others? Okay.
Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda minus 5.2.1?
So moved. Motion by Tashidra. Is there a second?
Second.
Second by Alicia. Any discussion? No, there is none.
So all those in favor, please signify by saying none.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0.
Item 5.2.1, ordinance 2025-0-4-0.
Wanna start a decision?
Just in reading this, when I had some questions for Chief Olson,
just in really enforcement. And so I can just say all my questions, is that?
Preferable? Or do we need to kind of go through it first?
We address them one by one. Please, that might be easier, so we don't miss anything.
Sure. All right. So for this one, would enforcement be reserved for egregious or repeat reckless
driving offenses? And I guess more specifically, sorry, just asking how, you know, is this
every reckless driving charge is getting impounded?
No, it's not every reckless driving charge is getting impounded. So previous state law had it,
you had multiple offenses prior to being able to tow the vehicle. A lot of the problems aren't
necessarily with us, but what this ordinance does is adopts it a new state law that allows law
enforcement to tow reckless vehicles after the first offense. A lot of times the drivers of
these vehicles are not associated with the vehicle, in other words, it's not theirs.
So very little care. They're putting the public at risk. They're putting lives and property at risk,
just out of control, egregious behavior. So what it allows us to do is have the vehicle
towed to a secure lot of a tow company. They hold the vehicle till the owner comes to claim it.
And then the owner of the vehicle is charged a towing fee and a storage fee. At the same time,
the drivers issued a citation that goes to the municipal court for reckless driving.
So this isn't just, oh, you were speeding too much. This is reckless driving. There's a lot of
different behaviors. Thank you for the clarity. I have one more question then. Are there any
hardship considerations or appeal mechanisms built into the tow process? And you might have
already answered that that it's going to go to court. The citation itself would go to court.
Any kind of tow fee is collected by the tow company. So that would have to be a matter for the tow
company that was removing the vehicle from the scene. But again, because these are based on
pretty significant adverse driving behaviors, our job is to protect the public interest and
the public safety. So that matter would have to be just negotiated with the tow company and the
individual, the owner of the vehicle. Thank you. You're welcome.
Thank you. Any further discussion, Brad?
If is that officer discretion or does it have to go to a sergeant for approval?
We will set parameters inside the police department. I don't always have a supervisor on duty. I can
say in the time I've been here and I'm knocking over right now, we haven't had anything that would
qualify for this. But again, not being prepared for something that could happen would leave the
village exposed. That's why I'm asking to adopt a new state law into our ordinance code.
Anything else, Brad? Anybody else? Is there a motion?
Motion to approve. Second.
Motion by Tashidra. Second by Lisa. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes, 5-0. Thank you.
Item number six, presentations. There is none tonight under that item. Old business, resolution 2025,
114 resolution approving 2025 water supply service area plan. This is going to start off by staff
presentation of Judd and Greg, and it looks like Craig. Yeah, well,
Craig's here. Greg's helping out front. So there was a memo on the packet, right? So we had the
public hearing on November 18th, we were presented the plan. It was an opportunity for feedback from
the community. During that time, we received no significant feedback. There were two comments on
Facebook post about it, but they didn't really apply to the actual plan itself. They were general
comments. So the only other comment I think was from Trustee Simpson about where there was a
placement of a water tower in the plan. That's really just a placeholder. I mean, it's not
we're a long way away from that. That'd be the second water tower we would need after,
you know, we need one before that. And we have areas that are we may be identified for that. So
at that point, one that if if and when we need to have a fifth water tower, we would those
decisions would happen long after this plan, right? So this plan will be updated every two years
biannually. So really what we're here to do is for you to ratify it so we can then submit it to the
DNR by the end of the end of the month that needs to be in before the end of the year. So
Darren Bope from Verebecher is also on. So if there are any additional questions and Craig's here,
we can answer those for you. Thank you, Ted. Go ahead.
Rookie, sorry. Just add to that, we're going to be looking at this every two years from this point
forward. So, you know, to your point with looking at a different location for a water tower or any
other facilities for that matter, it'll be continuously reviewed.
Thank you. So next item is public appearances and I have non-registered for this item. So
discussion and possible action. Commissioners, any comments, concerns or action?
Colleen. I make a motion to approve 2025-114. Second. Motion by Colleen. Second.
A petition to she draw any comments.
Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0.
Thank you, guys. Well done, plan. So, thanks.
New businesses. Item 8.1 is resolution 2025-115, a resolution amending the village to the forest
2026 operating budget. And Carol is going to leave this staff presentation.
Yes. So, if you remember, last month, the board approved the 2026 budget as it was recommended.
At that meeting, members of the library board came forward and requested that you consider
giving them some additional funds to help bring their salary and wages up to a competitive amount.
At that meeting, they just kind of gave you a total dollar amount. So, this is how much more we need.
The decision was at that point for the board to just approve the budget as it was recommended
and asked me to come back with an amendment so that you could see a little bit more detail
behind that number. So, that's what I have provided you tonight is the breakdown of the positions
and what was approved in the budget versus what they are now asking to bring those wages up to
and kind of what the additional amount works out to be. In order to keep our budget balanced,
the extra funds for the library would need to come out of the amount that we had intended
to go to our capital improvement fund, which was going to help fund our equipment purchases
for the year. So, it will reduce the amount that we put into fund 400 for that purpose. But
that's the only way at this point that we can keep things in balance.
Okay, any further discussion or sorry, following the agenda,
public appearances, there was none recorded for this item. So, discussion and possible action
commission. I keep saying commissioners trustees, right? Make a motion to approve the resolution
amending the budget. Pack up. So, motion by Brad, second from Tashita. Is there any further discussion?
Carol, I just want to say a real good job doing this. Our library is the central hub of our community
and the workers there doing amazing jobs. So, I really appreciate you taking the directive,
going back and figuring out how we can give our library workers competitive wages so we don't
continue to lose staff and ultimately impact the community and what they get to receive.
They put on great programs. They offer a safe space for everyone in our community.
So, I just want to say thank you for doing that. You're welcome.
Any other trustees?
I guess I do want to say I also appreciate your work, Carol. I do find it pretty concerning the
last-minuteness, I'll say, of this. So, I'm concerned that we're, I don't want to set a precedence
that this continually happens, but I agree it's important to keep staff happy and that's what
I'll be voting for, even though it does tear at me that how this was presented at the budget meeting.
So, any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye.
Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Item 8.2, ordinance 2025-042, an ordinance to rezone
approximately 69.29 acres from A3 agricultural transition zoning district to the M2 general
industrial district located east of Hickory Lane and north of Daly Road in the village of the forest
and staff presentation on this is going to be Mark and Alex.
Mark, I'll start us off. Good evening. I'm Mark Rothfers. I haven't met all of you yet. I've
been doing planning and zoning work for the village for about 20 years now and I helped
review this particular proposal and a couple of others that you'll see tonight. This proposal
as Trustee Simpson suggested would rezone about 70 acres on the west side of the interstate,
well south of Highway V off of Hickory Lane. It's really a continuation of the business park that
exists along Cape Parkway and has been there for several years. This land is primed and
positioned for industrial development. It's in the village. It's been planned for industrial
development for at least 20 years. It's in the northern urban service area. It has utilities
directly adjacent to it and it's currently has an interest from the Dickman company who's developed
for buildings in the forest over the last five years. This would be for similar purposes,
leaseable space for manufacturing and warehousing type uses. The item before you would rezone the
land to M2 for that industrial use. Following rezoning, the Dickmans would need to come back
to the planning and zoning commission when they were ready to get building on each of the several
buildings that they envision within this business park. They would also need to come to the village
board likely for infrastructure and other development agreements associated with the individual
building and infrastructure projects that would be required to serve it. The P&Z reviewed this item
of following a public hearing at its last meeting is recommending approval of the ordinance.
The ordinance would conditionally approve the rezoning subject to the conditions that are listed
within it. Those conditions relate to responsibility for payment to fees to the Madison Metropolitan
Storage District. They will require the Dickman company to prepare a master grading plan for the
entire 70 acres when they come forward with the first building to make sure everything kind of
works in concert and together. The rezoning ordinance would require the dedication of the
approximately one acres site for a potential water tower to serve this development and others
in the area. Another condition relates to the road that's at the South Bend Daily Road.
It's very lightly improved at the moment and shouldn't have industrial traffic on it for the
foreseeable future to that condition, sanitize access to that road to its future improvement.
And then within the center of this development, there's a there's a sand and gravel operation.
The final condition would require that that be fully reclaimed or future industrial use
by the applicants. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. Anything from Alex?
So item 8.2 by 2 is public appearances. Yes, I do have one registered. I quite.
So there's a cast summer field. If you're in the room or if you're not, if you could please come
into the main board meeting.
Thank you. And again, for the record, if you could state your name and if you're
willing your address. My name is Cassandra Sommerfeld. My address is on the form.
I just wanted to again reiterate my concerns with the rezoning of this. I think that there
were already losing irreplaceable farmland at an exceptional rate. And I think we need to slow that
down. One of the comments that was made last time was that there was no environmental impact.
That is not true. There is actually quite a bit of environmental impact whenever industrial
facilities come into an area and it's especially concerning that that's where a future water tower
is supposed to be because that's going to put a lot of negative and externalities into that water.
That's then going to be put out to the community. So that's going to be, I mean, obviously,
depending on what kind of manufacturing facilities go in there, but you're going to have anything
from VOCs, PFAS, iron, different toxic metals going into there. There are spills. There are
things that happen. There is no way to really avoid this. So I think it's concerning that there's
going to be an industrial park, right, where there's supposed to be a future water tower.
I wouldn't want my water to come from there knowing everything that goes into the system
with those industrial areas. Speaking of the loss of farm
land, I think that we do need to take that into account. So between 2001 and 2016,
Wisconsin alone lost nearly a quarter million acres of farmland due to development.
Just between 2017 and 2022, so that's only five years compared to 15 years, we lost almost 130,000
acres. So that's almost half of what was lost in 15 years. It's accelerating at a very concerning
speed. And we are one of those communities that does rely on those farms. And I think that taking
that away is something that should be considered. I mean, just because this is a farmland community
and we are losing it so rapidly that, I mean, you do play a part in that. I also think it's,
it doesn't quite seem right that the neighbors weren't notified just because they weren't within
500 feet of that, because the impacts of that on the air, on the water, on the soil, all that
to the neighboring farmland, to green acres pet resort that, you know, likes to advertise that
it's the rolling hills and everything. So you really think they're going to have a lot of good
business when they're surrounded by a bunch of buildings in an industrial park. So I think that,
you know, it needs to be taken into account that there are going to be impacts, not just environmental,
it is going to impact the neighbors, it is going to impact the local businesses there. So
when it said that there's no impacts, I guess I, it's frustrating because it's, I don't think
that's true. And I think that it would be important for them to be notified and for them to maybe
have some input, whether it be green acres, whether it be the local farms around that. I know there's,
there's also the ST genetics that's right near there too. I wonder if they're even aware of this
and how that's going to impact their facilities. Because the big thing with rezoning that we need
to look at is that the whole point of rezoning is to be accommodating to the other areas around it.
So when you rezone, you should be making a very distinct barrier between residential farmland
and industrial and commercial, because you are going to have those impacts that leak into those
other areas. So it's going to be more than 500 feet. So I don't know if that's something that
could even be looked at as expanding, but I do think that those individuals should be brought
into this discussion. Thank you. Jim, I apologize. I forgot to start the clock on that one, but we
are watching the minutes and we're good. Yep. Yep. I was going to comment on that too. Thank you very
much. So that, that concludes our public appearances. So there's discussion and possible action
that we can start. So trustees want to start to have any questions. I know the
Dickmans are here for any questions. I guess I'll leave it again, the trustees. I noted some
questions to us, but I'll leave it up to you guys to start anybody wanting to start the discussion.
Okay.
Jim, the SAMS. This is not a manufacturing facility. Is that correct?
We're not right now. All of our buildings, this is our fourth building in the forest,
and none of them were manufactured, but we don't have a particular tenant for this building yet.
And when we put up, so we put these buildings up on spec and we look at different types of
tenants, but we're very careful to screen them so that they are responsible companies.
I think if you look at the tenant list of the ones that we have, you will satisfy
good corporate citizens and substantial companies. There's no question you're good corporate
citizens and all of the other buildings are distributed distribution centers, so to feel.
We put on all of these, we don't sell our buildings, so we have to be careful who we put in there also.
We wouldn't want someone in there who puts the building or causes problems because it just comes
back to us. Thank you. Any other Trustees? Correct?
And Bill, can you remind me this is part of our comprehensive plan that was developed?
Yeah, so this area is identified in the northern interstate corridor area for our
comprehensive plan that was adopted a few years ago. And as such, and when the property annex to
the village has been all along the part of the plan, including the extension of sanitary sewer
onto that side of the highway. Anything else, Brad? Anybody else?
I guess I was going to ask for maybe a call of clarification or elaboration, and Mark,
I'm looking at you. I know we talked about as far as notifying people, and we had our
policy of notifying somebody like within 500 feet. And even though that did not include some,
say, neighbors, but how long has this plan been in place? So, I mean, I think you stated that at
the planning meeting. Yeah, just for the record, the village has an ordinance that says it will
notify everyone within 200 feet of any rezoning. So, the folks that run the pet resort were notified.
Folks that run the biotech business were notified. Everyone within 200 feet in adjacent was notified
of the hearing. That goes beyond state law requirements. Your second part of your question,
Trustee Simpson, I'm sorry. Just the point I was making is just how long it's been in our plan.
So, to say that somebody wasn't notified to me, they had quite a bit of an opportunity to see the
comprehensive plans and maybe future land use. And I know you mentioned how long that's better
in place. Sorry about that. The plan for industrial development in this land preceded my
involvement with the village and I started with the village in 2004. The land was actually part
of a preliminary plat around that time. That was to be a continuation of that Cape Parkway
Industrial Park. For whatever reason, the landowner decided not to move forward with that industrial
development at the time. But it's been decades since it's been planned for industrial. In fact,
you know, fair amount of it has been disturbed already is in a quarry operation.
And the rest of it is high and dry land, so to speak. So there's no wetland. There's no floodplain.
No environmentally sensitive land. No intent to draw water from this area to my knowledge either.
A water tower doesn't mean a water well. So that is important to know it as well.
Okay. Thank you, Mark. Can you cut my other question too? So, any other comments, concerns or
a motion? Colleen? I would make a motion to approve Ordinance 2025-042.
Motion by Colleen. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Brad. Point of clarification.
That's the ordinance as written, I think, with the conditions, correct? As written. Yeah.
Okay. Any other discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Thank you.
Ordinance 8.3 is Ordinance 2025-043, and Ordinance amending the Village Zoning Code,
chapter 15, affecting conditional use permits, evaluation criteria, and Alex is going to start
the staff presentation. Yeah. So I'm just noting that this item and the next item I've
made as the lead, but Mark will actually be the lead, and I apologize for Trustee Williams and
Trustee Cords for not introducing Mark. That was the first time. So Mark is our consulting planner,
and he leads most of our planning activities. So take it away, Mark. Thanks, Alex. So this item
bubbled up from our staff development review team, which meets every month to take a look at
development activity and solutions. And in particular, it includes police, fire, and other
protective services personnel. Meanwhile, we have proposals bubbling around in concept
to build more housing for seniors in the community, which is a good thing, and everyone is supportive
of. But as you know, seniors can have unique demands, including demands on municipal facilities
and services like fire and EMS. We have generally require a conditional use permit for uses of that
type within the community. A conditional use permit requires planning and zoning commission
review and approval in reviewing and improving conditional use permits. It's important to
and stick to the letter of law. The law suggests that such actions have to be based on substantial
evidence and or things that are written in your ordinances as opposed to conjecture and speculation.
And so what we're proposing to do in response to all that, all the above, is to enhance the
standards for granting conditional use permits, which would apply to both senior living facilities
and any other use that would require a CUP to make sure that they have the facilities, services,
and operational plans in place to serve the populations that they're serving, whether they're
folks that live there or folks that work there or visit. So the proposed ordinance is in your packet.
It's marked with the changes. You can see a little bit of that on screen that would be added as
enhancements, giving the village a couple more arrows in its quiver to make sure that we are
responsible in reviewing any conditional use permit that goes forward to make sure it doesn't
unnecessarily burden the village. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. And public comment there was
non-registered. So Trustees discussion, questions, motion.
I'll make a motion to approve 2025-04-3. Motion by Colleen. Is there a second?
Second. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0.
Item 8.4, ordinance 2025-04-4, an ordinance approving a preliminary and final path for
ridge and foxial replat. Southeast of the intersection of Peterson Crossing and
Bear Tree Parkway, Village of the Foresting County, Wisconsin, and staff presentation,
we just found out it was going to be led by Mark. This is a development that's been before the
village board and planning and zoning commission a couple of times before. It's a 62-unit duplex
condo development that's just north of the Hooper corporate headquarters building.
The developer has been successful, particularly in marketing one of the two building types within
that development. It's a ranch condo building type and you see most of the perimeter of this
development has been developed with ranch condominiums. In 2023, there was a second building type,
a two-story condominium. And the builders had a more difficult time marketing those as he tells
me. I think two units of those have sold out of the several that were envisioned. The concern
that many have voiced is that there's no first floor master bedroom. And so he's come forward,
has gotten P&Z approval for a third unit type that would provide that two-story with the first
story master. Those buildings would be built within the center of the development, the center loop
that you can see displayed around where the words out lot one are on your screens.
Unfortunately, when the land was platted, the lots there were not platted with anticipation
of the bigger footprint at that building has. So the only thing that's before you tonight is to
approve both preliminary and final subdivision plats to make the lots that were a little bit
smaller, a little bit bigger with this replat. Other than that, the development flavor will be
similar. We'll have one additional building type adding a little bit more variety to the development
when it's all set and done and hopefully a product that's more saleable for the builder.
Thank you, Mark. And I just want to add that it's not changing the number of U and that's
so it's the same density that's been approved. Correct. I think it's owning it in the past.
And P&Z, by the way, I should have mentioned this last time P&Z did hear this and recommended
approval at its last meeting. Thank you, Mark. Thank you.
Trustees, again, there is no public appearance. People wishing to speak, so discussion and
possible action. Motion to approve. Motion by Tashijia, seconded by Brad. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye.
Any opposed? Motion passes, 5-0. Item 8.5, resolution 2025 is 1-16, a resolution approving
the agreement with STAN Tech Consulting Services, Inc. or a grant administration and grant application
support for the Ahira River Stream Restoration Project. And I think that's
good, or it looks like maybe Craig and Greg. Oh, Craig's out of the way out. Thanks, Greg.
Thank you. Got to work for me to move, Greg. So I'm just going to stay here. Yeah, no, that's
fun. How do you guys have any questions that was in the mama? I'm here to answer anything.
Okay. Let's sing them from trustees. I guess, can I ask a question as far as what do we have
now for grants and what we're hoping to? Yeah, so right now we've got phase 1 and 2. We got around
a little over 600,000 allocated from grant funds that STAN Tech's helped us with. So we're looking
to go through phase 3 and 4 and get grants for those. We did get notified that we did get a
trim grant for grant for phase 3, which was 200 and I think, I don't remember, 15,000 on a safe,
be on the safe side. It might be a little higher than that. But again, we were awarded that grant
and STAN Tech's done a good job for us in securing the grants. So that's why we want to continue with
them in this effort to help us get the grant applications for phase 4 as well. Thank you. And
can you remind me you're saying you're working on phase 3 and 4? Is that the end of our study or
is there phases after that? There's a total of five phases with the project. I think we might
have to circle back to phase 1. There's some stuff, just self, the cell street bridge there
that we're not doing in phase 1, just because of the timing of it. So we'll have to bring that back
at another point. But there would be a fifth phase as well that we might look to incorporate
into those things. Okay. But the agreement in front of us today does not go all the way to the
phase 5. No. No. Thank you. So again, there's a resolution. Do we make a motion? No. Motion
to approve. Motion by Tashita. Is there a second? Second. Second. A bit colleague. Any further
discussion? I just want to say good job, guys. It is not easy to get grants right about now,
especially with all the different changes and all the different levels. So I appreciate your
due diligence to really continue to go after the money that will help us improve our community,
where it doesn't impact the taxpayers. But grant writing is not easy. So I'm really grateful that
you have a company that is helping you to get through phase 1, 2, and a term grant for 3 is
pretty exciting. So keep up the good work. Thank you. Yeah, we're very appreciative of
stand tech. And they're going to help us finish the process in the end with all the receipts and
to get the money in the end. So that's another big process. Thank you. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. And we are on item number 9, which is general public appearances.
So this is the portion of the meeting that we have appearances that are not
specific to item. And I'm holding in my hand at least 20 people that have filled out forms.
I don't know how many are wishing to speak yet, but we'll find out as we run through them all together.
During this general public appearances, we give somebody three minutes. And I would say
after three minutes, if you're not done, either quickly wrap up or we'll have to ask you to stop
real shortly. I know it can be a stressful thing, so please take a second to the column yourself
if need be. But we ask that you state your name. If you're willing to state your address,
please do that. And what I'm going to try to do, knowing that there's quite a few people wishing
to speak, is I'll call somebody to the floor or to the table and I'll give the at bat or whoever is
up next. And with that, I think this is pretty much as it came in the room is what I was told.
Yes, Kelly. I know some people aren't liking to state their address, but if you wouldn't mind
stating the municipality that you reside in so that I do have that for the record and for the
minutes, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you, Kelly. And I guess I'll mention to as far as
to quorum, we try to keep the comments from the audience to a minimum. We want everybody to feel
comfortable speaking. So please hold your applause and things and things until the meeting is done
and you can congratulate people after the meeting. So the first person that's on is Lynette Jackson.
So if she could come in up to the microphone and the next person is Keegan Stradley.
Is Lynette here? I guess I need to turn the page and make sure she would speak.
Yeah. Thank you, Lynette.
There's a button you turn in on green and my name is Lynette Jackson and I live in the forest.
Okay, okay. I'm voting yes on the proposed ordinance. It's in the best interest of residents and
business owners of the forest to make decisions on any properties that are wanting to be built
of more than 30 acres. That will have an overall impact on the quality of life here in this area.
I am opposed to the data center being built with our community having the right to say yes or no.
As this will have a negative impact on our quality life that include farmland, nature,
animals, affecting properties with noise and light pollution, the ongoing frequencies that
can be heard and felt throughout the community, the rise of utility taxes and decreased property
values, I feel this will be a detrimental effect on the community. That's all I have.
Thank you very much. So Keegan Strabley, if you couldn't make your way to the podium or table
and up after Keegan is at Morgan Roth, Jr.
Hello everyone. My name is Keegan. I live in Morrisonville, Wisconsin. My family has a past
and a present history here. My grandfather and my great grandfather both grew up here. He also
built a couple homes here and was a union carpenter as well around this area. My father
lives here as well as my mother, just coincidentally, actually separately. But I'm raising my daughter
here. I'm married to my beautiful wife and we're raising our daughter who's now four years old.
Since I've been here raising my daughter with my wife, I've always felt a connection to this
community, the people, the businesses and the history here. This place feels like more of a home
than anywhere I've been. But that's enough about me. I want to talk about the topic of today,
which is my opposition of the QTS data center. I'm here today to ask that we pause for some time
and truly evaluate the impact of this data center. We've all heard how it will potentially raise
our utility rates, pollute the water table, force local wildlife out with sound and light pollution,
that aside, this whole project lacks transparency. If this is a data center, then where is the data?
There needs to be a comprehensive plan in place. We need to see it in writing the following.
Water usage estimates, power usage estimates, including what it will do to our utility costs,
the exact positions or jobs they will be creating, full tax transparency, including a list of tax
breaks, credits and long-term exemptions this company will be getting, as well as the water
pollution and air pollution estimates and all NDAs or hidden agreements revealed.
This is what we need, I feel, as a community. Many of us here are raising our families. We as
great residents of this community need to know the facts, not false promises. We spent four years
planning a bike path along the IHARA. I sat here and listened to almost an hour-long presentation
mapping out the impacts, benefits and solutions needed to make it work. I believe we need the same,
if not more, for the QTS data center. We have the land and resources that QTS needs.
If they truly want to benefit this community, this should not be an issue. I've said it before
and I'll say it again, the burden of proof is put on the wrong people here. The burden of proof
should not be put on the community, but on QTS. I may never agree with this data center,
but the community deserves transparency and to say thank you. Hopefully, I'll speak too fast.
Thank you very much. So, Ed Morgan Roth, and then after, Ed is Rhonda Meinholz.
Thank you. Good evening, everybody. My name is Ed Morgan Roth. I live in the village of
Forest. I wanted to ask a question, and I'm not sure whether you can acknowledge the question
or not, but then make a brief comment on the data center. In light of this huge issue that
you're all looking at, including Bill and Alex and everybody else on staff, how many of you on
the board and Bill and Alex, how many of you have been up to Beaver Dam to check out the meta
construction site of that data center? Anybody raise their hand or acknowledge it or possibly?
I guess I thank you, Ed. We will talk about that in the agenda, but we're not under public
appearances. We don't answer a question. I understand. I thought I'd just give it a shot.
All right. I have taken the time to go up to Beaver Dam. It's about 35 minutes up there,
drove up there and looked at the meta site. It's actually completely under construction or
virtually completely. It's about 500 acres, which is a little less than the 600 to 650,
that is in phase one of QTS. I guess I just ask and request and implore you all to
take an hour and a half and go up there and see what the construction site of that size looks like
and what it has done to that community. It's an abomination. It looks like a moonscape
with a strip mine on top of it. It's on the north side of town to the west of 151,
bordered by highways, W and A, and I don't know what the fourth side of it is, but it's
slightly less size than the first phase of QTS. Construction vehicles everywhere,
dump trucks on all the roads. If this goes through into a forest, you'll have the first phase,
they said, is five to 10 years. You'll have five to 10 years of just nonstop moonscape type
devastating construction trucks on all the roads. We already have enough trucks from the quarries
on both sides of the highway. I'm going to check back later and find out. I really think it's
important that people go up and going to Cedar Rapids is one thing that's an all day or a weekend
road trip, but this you can do in an hour and a half. I'd ask again that you all go up there and
check it out. Thank you.
Thank you. Oh, up next is Rhonda Meinholtz and then followed by Lindsay Bray.
Rhonda Meinholtz, town of Vienna. As mentioned many times previously, I am a lifelong member
of the DeForest community. I grew up in what is now the village of Windsor and have lived in
the town of Vienna for the past 24 years. At the village board meeting, on November 18th,
we heard a board member state that the board has only known about this data center project for
a couple of weeks. And at last week's planning and zoning meeting, we heard a staff member
indicate that this project is in the very early stages of this process. Both of these statements
appear to be false. We have open records documentation that proves that staff members have known about
this project since around the beginning of the year, and that board members have known about
it since at least the beginning of September, which is definitely more than a couple of weeks ago.
This is concerning and something that the community has brought up several times.
There is clearly a lack of transparency regarding this project, and that needs to end
immediately. In addition, I want to bring to your attention some information regarding the
substation on Patton Road in the town of Vienna. As most everyone knows, this substation is the
reason why the town of Vienna became a target for a data center. However, the substation as it
stands today could never provide the amount of power needed to support a data center without a
significant increase in size. A few weeks ago, while traveling through the area, I noticed a
construction sign near one of the entrances to the facility, and I stopped to take pictures of it,
as well as pictures of the massive amount of construction materials on site, which can easily
be seen from the road. After reaching out to the town of Vienna clerk, I was made aware that there
is no construction permit in place for a line energy. Therefore, no construction should be
happening there. A complaint was filed with the county at that time. On Monday, December 8th,
an inspector from the county went out to the site and confirmed that construction is being
done on site without the necessary permits, and based on images from Google Earth photos,
it appears that this has been the case since at least July of this year, which is interesting,
because the landowners involved in the data center project all signed their agreements with QTS
on or just before July 1st. After this discovery last Monday, there was a cease and
desist order put in place on the substation construction project. Since that time,
a line energy has filed a conditional use permit, which will likely be not reviewed until February.
Why is this important? Because it shows that just like the situation, Cedar Rapids where QTS
was fined for drilling several wells illegally, their business partners apparently also think
it's not important to follow procedures or protocols. Instead, they do what they want
and ask for forgiveness later. Is this really what you want to get yourselves into?
The proposed project is a monster, and these companies are so well-resourced that you don't
stand a chance against them if any issue were to arise. You are literally dancing with the data.
Your time has expired. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Rhonda.
Lindsey Frye. And then after Lindsey is Megan McKay, that looks like you'll be you again.
Yeah. Yes, please.
There. Okay. Lindsey Frye here in DeForest. I live in DeForest and my address is on the sheet.
I wanted to thank you so much for serving and listening and being here. I appreciate the time
and energy that this must take. And I also continue to thank you for having the sun zoom.
QTS doesn't have our local interests at heart. I wrote in an earlier write-up, you know, they
don't know where all the pumpkins are for sale on River Road in the fall. They're not a local company.
So one concern too that I have is that they're owned by Blackstone and Blackstone does not have
a good history and they're worth 150 billion. I think I looked up to and they have like trillions
of dollars in assets. If there are issues with the data center, they can hire more lawyers and
we just won't be able to go to court. They'll just out lawyer us. I'm also very concerned about
water. When I got my brochure in the fall that was addressed to my husband, not to me. I thought
that was interesting. They say they use a closed loop system. I have yet to find out what that
means. There's nothing in that brochure that tells me what water they use. So even if they use a
closed loop system, they have to use some water. And if they don't use water, what are they using?
I'm also concerned about the physical size of the land that is needed for this. I'm also concerned
too that living about two miles away from this, that my property value is going to go down.
I already live close to the interstate and on Zillow you can go look and there's a ding for noise.
I don't need more noise. What do we do if QTS or Blackstone files for bankruptcy?
And then what do we do if the center becomes obsolete? Does it get torn down?
What are we setting up our youth for having this for? Who knows how long?
I do support the petition giving the residents a greater say in what happens in our community.
I do not support the center coming here and other large projects coming here without our input.
Please listen to the people of divorce and vote yes to accept the amendment that the community
has asked for. We don't need this data center. There are too many unanswered questions,
too many unknowns. Thank you. And that's what I had.
Thank you, Lindsay. And then it looks like a Megan McKay, which is you to speak on her
behalf and it looks like she is the forest resident. Yes. And after you speak for Megan,
there is a MAC seat and stand up next. Sorry, I have a little bit.
I'm sorry. I lost it on my.
If you want to step down and then we can.
Here it is. Okay. Thank you.
I apologize. I'm so sorry. I had the window open on my phone.
All right. So good evening chair and board members. I'm reading this on behalf of Megan
McKay, who lives at 513 Bayfield Court here in the village of DeForest.
I wrote this because I strongly oppose the QTS data center being built in our small community.
DeForest is not just a convenient location on a map. It's our home.
Many of us choose to live here because of a small town character. It's farmland.
It's quiet neighborhoods in the sense that residents have a voice in shaping the future.
I urge you to vote yes to accept the amendment initiated by the community petition.
This amendment is about giving residents a greater say in a major development in major
development decisions that will permanently impact our community as stated in the petition.
I support the petition giving DeForest residents a greater say in what happens in our community.
I do not support the data center coming here and I do not support other large
private projects coming here without our input.
Please listen to the people of DeForest and vote yes to accept the amendment that the community
has asked for. I also urge you to listen to the residents of Vienna who clearly voted against
annexation. Ignoring that vote undermines public trust and sends the message that residents voices
matter only when they align with predetermined outcomes.
As a resident of the small community I respectfully ask that you vote down the
annexation of this land. Beyond process and representation there are serious concerns with
data centers themselves. These facilities are extremely resource intensive.
They consume enormous amounts of electricity placing strain on local infrastructures
and increasing long-term energy demands. They require significant water usage for cooling
raising concerns about water availability and potential pollution risks. Noise pollution from
constant mechanical systems generators and cooling equipment would permanently alter the
character of nearby neighborhoods. Once built these facilities limit future land options
often leaving behind land that is difficult or impossible to repurpose.
This decision will shape DeForest for generations. I ask that you prioritize residents over corporations
long-term community health over short-term gains and a democratic input over expedited
development. Please listen to the people you represent. Vote yes to accept the amendment.
Vote no on the annexation and no to QTS. Protect the future of DeForest.
Thank you Lindsay and if you could also thank Megan for us.
Thank you.
Some Mack Stevenson and after Mack is Sam Mel.
My name is Mack Stevenson.
My name is Mack Stevenson. I live at 5758 County Highway DM. What that is is a family farm.
It's been in my wife's family since 1849. We live there. We love it here.
We like to stay there until the end of our days so we're acutely aware of any kind of issue
that comes up which we believe would enhance precluding us from being able to do that.
So I'm here now to state my opposition to the proposed annexation of Vienna land by the forest
to build this enormous data center here. First I'm concerned about the loss of a large
swatch of prime agricultural land that's going to be lost forever. Secondly I believe that this
project would cause a significant negative shift in the culture of both the forest and Vienna.
The forest would lose much of its small town character that makes it such a uniquely wonderful
place to live. Vienna would lose a significant number of our friends and neighbors for many
decades that have been on this farm. They've been farming for many decades.
I believe that the forest leadership should support support over a thousand of the forest
practitioners who called for a referendum to decide whether to approve this large annexation.
The board should refuse to accept the risk of unproven mitigations of its infrastructure
requirements that require water usage, sewage disposal etc. In support of the data center at
this point in time we don't know enough information. I request the board commission an independent
environmental impact study to ascertain
what the real effects would be. I hope this project will be voted down but at least let the denial
or approval of it be the will of the people of the forest. Thank you.
Thank you, Mac. Next up is Sam Mel followed by Lydia Reed.
Sam Mel Vienna. Hello, my name is Sam Mel and I'm a 20 year old
deforest graduate and lifelong resident of the town of Vienna. I'm here tonight to ask you
directly and respectfully to sign this petition and allow the people most affected by these
decisions to have a real say in what happens to their land and their community as well as to
vote no to QTS. A town should not be able to take land from a neighboring community simply
because they have the authority to do so especially when the people who live there made it clear that
they do not want it. Vienna has made it clear that land is not for sale and is not something to be
persuaded with incentives or promises. When we only know forward when the only way forward is to
override the will of the people that should tell us everything that we need to know.
The land represents far more than developmental potential. It represents opportunity for young
agriculturalists who want to farm it someday to steward it and to carry on a way that has been
sustained for it who has sustained this area for generations. We do not make more farmland.
Once it's gone, it's gone forever. No amount of revenue can replace land that feeds people,
supports family, and angers a community. It to force truly values its neighbors,
its future, and the people who inherit these decisions in the path forward is simple.
Allow the community to have meaningful say in what happens to this land rather than
forcing decisions upon them. The very first words of the United States Constitution are we the
people. Not one board, not a handful of decision makers, we the people. Those words are a reminder
that the government exists to serve the people, not the other way around. Decision should not be
made, decision should be made with the people and for the people. And what I have seen, the
people have spoken. Community members understand the potential economic benefits, they understand
the reasoning behind these proposals, and still, they do not want them. That is a clear message.
When the opposition is this strong and this widespread, these requests should not dominate
town board agendas or divide communities to this extent. I have not been alive for that long,
but I cannot recall another issue that has caused this much unrest in the DeForest community.
That alone should give us pause. In my role as Wisconsin state FFA officer,
I am entrusted with representing Deforest, section 5, Wisconsin FFA, and the organization
as a whole, which is 1,042,245 members. I live by the principal, we the people. I seek input,
I listen, and I make decisions based on what is best for those I serve, not just my own beliefs.
If I can do that at 20 years old, I believe you guys can too. I do not want to live in a place
that looks indistinguishable from Madison, and I know all the people behind me don't want to be there.
Please listen to the people who are asking to be heard. Please listen to the youth who will
inherit the consequences of these decisions, and most importantly, please listen to be the people.
Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Lydia Reed, followed by Tricia Belki.
Hi, I'm Lydia Reed. I live in Deforest. Thank you for the opportunity to speak,
and for reading and responding to written messages regarding my opposition to the
village annexation and the potential QTS data center. From my perspective, this effort appears
to be moving too fast and with little transparency. For example, I attended the December 8th Planning
and Zoning Commission meeting, and one of the members made that same comment, which was surprising
to me, given she is on the commission. She and other members of that board should have been actively
engaged as soon as a proposal of this magnitude was brought to the village board. This development
also does not align to our community goals or values. When looking at the village's long-term
development plan, there is nothing about this proposal that aligns to the stated priorities.
Instead, what is stated on the village website is the following. This plan puts forth a vision
and strategic implementation plan for revitalizing underdeveloped areas of the village based on public,
input, and community goals. Fortunately, the village president and village staff reiterated this
in statements made to the local paper of the star in January of this year. From the village
president, we have found that by going after the right developments, we can be selective about
who we choose to develop in our community. Also noted by the president and the article,
village officials have done a redevelopment plan to protect and upgrade the old community.
We don't want to lose sight of that. We look at a high standard for quality growth,
and we look to find other folks who value and have the same value structure as we do.
Alex Allen, community development director, was quoted as saying, I think growth is kind of the
theme of the moment around Dane County. One of the things that we also want to be mindful of
is how we're effectively managing that growth and not straining our environmental resources.
Bill Chang, village administrator, was also mentioned stating that the need for overall
investment for the community is through job creation, growth, and recreation opportunities
to draw new residents and maintain current residents. Therefore, given that the annexation and QTS
proposal is not something the village sought out, will not protect our environmental resources,
will not lead to long-term jobs, and does not align to community values.
I support the petition giving divorce residents a greater say in what happens in our community.
Please listen to the people of divorce and vote yes to accept the amendment that the community
has asked for. On a final note, although we have been told that repeat messages and
appearances are unnecessary as the board is actively listening, please know I will keep
attending meetings, either in person or on Zoom, sending emails and publicly commenting on this
effort as it is too big, too risky, and unwelcome among many of us. Thank you.
Thank you, Lydia. So Tricia, I will refrain from saying your last name because you smiled at me.
Yes. And after Tricia looks like Prescott, I should refrain from saying his last name, too.
Belch. Belch. Thank you.
Um, Tricia Bolki.
Tricia Bolki, I live in divorce. Many of you have said that you will balance what's best for
divorce with what the people want, and the people of divorce clearly do not want the data center.
People who've shown up at meetings and unprecedented numbers spoken up against it,
emailed you and called you in formidable amounts to register thoughts and concerns.
Over 1,000 of those people signed our petition in only six days to help stop the data center
and large projects like this from coming here. That petition was certified and will be presented
to you on January 6th. I implore you to vote yes to accept the petition and amend the ordinance.
Additionally, our no data center Facebook group has grown to 3,000 members and followers,
including some of you sitting with us. If you're not already there, you should be
because you could not in good conscience vote for this after reading through the articles,
videos, posts, and comments. Here is just a sampling of some of those articles which refute
every single QTS makes, every single claim they make,
proof that massive data centers cause several nuisances according to Wisconsin State Statute 823,
especially during 10 years of construction. They are detrimental to our health, electric bills,
our natural resources, our infrastructure, our taxes, and our property values to name a few.
None of those risks are worth however many dollars you see, and according to our net new
construction numbers, adding this high risk project is completely unnecessary.
Not only does it make me wonder how and why you would ignore overwhelming evidence against this
project and a residence profuse opposition, but also why you would ignore the Vienna residents
who would have to live around it and whose board unanimously voted against this. With the annexation,
DeForest would lose the safeguards and assistance Dane County would provide and face a multimillion
dollar company alone. It is incomprehensible to think you alone could do everything necessary
to manage this. Moreover, you created a comprehensive plan to guide what's best for DeForest and
define your goals. It's why people like me moved here, that you ignore that too,
by continuing to rezone the land that was preserved for agriculture and our environment
to build at a ridiculous speed, and the reasons we moved here are disappearing.
If you're going to amend the comprehensive plan anytime a developer wants to do something that
doesn't fit within the current plan, then why do we have one in the first place?
It is mind-boggling to me if you don't see the astronomical risks and several negative impacts
on the residents in the name of unnecessary growth. Frankly, it's completely irresponsible and
short-sighted if you think this project would be good for DeForest. Listen to your residents,
the greater community, the research and the legislators across the country putting moratoriums
on building these monstrosities and reject the annexation. Reject QTS. Thank you.
Thank you, Tricia. Prescott, followed by
Joe Whitney.
My name is Prescott Bulch. I am from Caledonia, Wisconsin, where we successfully encouraged
Microsoft to look elsewhere with their data center. Our situation was very different,
but much of what we learned is relevant to DeForest. DeForest has the 11th best
net new construction percentage in the state over the last eight years. DeForest growth has
been remarkably consistent and strong. Whatever you're doing, it's working to drive new construction
and you are the envy of your peer villages. But there's a danger with a single large new
development. If you were to add a $2 billion data center to your evaluation over the next few years,
your average of 94 million per year in new construction would go from 4% to 1.9% of your
evaluation. You will then have to double your average new construction to continue to grow
at your current rate. It is possible to grow too fast. If data centers attracted jobs or
supporting businesses, you might get indirect economic benefit that could help boost the 1.9%.
But data centers don't do that. A data center campus is a large, unproductive boat anchor on
your future growth. If you use a TID to support this project, increasing the tax
levy using the new construction as it hits the tax rolls will be an unfair and expensive burden
on the current residents who likely have been promised tax reduction or at least lower tax
increases. Mount Pleasant just did this with their first Microsoft data center adding 8%
to their levy on the backs of their current residents. 15 to 25 years is the average lifespan
of a data center over the last 40 years. There is no data on hyperscale data centers because
they're too new. But will this time be different? There's no way to tell. But are you protected
against obsolescence no matter when it happens. Construction will also last for several years.
Tech companies put up buildings consecutively rather than currently in order to manage their
risk of technology change. This is good for deforest in that it helps lengthen the obsolescence
timeline, but it's terrible for anyone living close to the construction site.
And will anyone dare build anything near that construction site for that next decade?
Lastly, if this deal doubles your valuation, this taxpayer will be a very high percentage
of your tax revenue, a dangerously high financial concentration risk. AI bubbles bursting single
large taxpayer failing technology and so on all put the village in a precarious position
from which only the current residents can bail you out. Please consider the risks and
not just the rewards. The people here want you to do things for them, not to them.
Prove to them it's a good proposal for them and not just good for the people who have to
manage the village's budget. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Prescott.
So, was it Joe? Sorry, Joe. And after Joe, looks like, again, I apologize.
Hey, old guy, Celia. Joe? Good evening. My name is Joe. I reside in deforest currently,
but I'm born and raised in Wisconsin and I'm actually a lifelong farmer. I grew up on a farm
in prairie to sheen, Wisconsin. And we raised red Angus beef cattle and crops for cattle like
hay, corn, and a variety of different greens. Good evening to you all to the guests here too.
I'm going to just mention a few things that I think are important in this project.
First, I would like to say I appreciate the carefully how carefully this board has approached
QTS proposal thus far. The significant decision and it deserves a careful, thoughtful review,
which I think we all are here tonight doing. I do not think we should rush for approval,
and I also do not think we should automatically reject the approval either. I'm speaking it
tonight for support of the continuing annexation and zoning process for QTS with strong enforceable
conditions. Not because this is a perfect project, but because I believe deforest is capable of
shaping it responsibly. Data centers are not speculative developments. QTS is an international
company with properties in Netherlands, which I encourage everybody here to look into. In 2019,
QTS took over Netherlands and developed two data centers that were already there. And their
continued development even in 2025 has been a great success. The Netherlands develops their
ranked number 15th internationally for sustainability environmentally, I think far above American
standards. So I think they are a good representation of what could happen here in our own state.
And then we obviously have looked at the Cedar Rapids project, which the governor,
the local politicians and the local community members to a certain extent have gotten on board
and seen the positive it could bring in the future. I've heard the concerns about the water
usage, the power demand and the environmental impact. These concerns are valid. They are
exactly why this project should be reviewed and through a formal and go through the formal
annexation process and zoning process. The strongest protections of this village can
secure water caps, energy sourcing commitments, build out phasing and enforcement mechanisms,
only if the village remains at the table. I also want to emphasize that supporting the
process does not mean ignoring the residents, many of whom are here tonight.
In fact, it's the opposite. Public hearings, staff review and planning and zoning recommendations
are how the residents concerns become binding conditions, not just comments in the record.
This board has an opportunity to require clear limits on water usage, infrastructure, cost
responsibility on the developer, phase development tied to performance and the accountability
if the commitments are not met. Those protections don't come from saying no early. They come from
negotiating from a position of authority. I respect all the residents here in opposition
to the project, but I ask the board to distinguish between opposition of growth and the responsible
management of growth. To force us, always grow and deliver. Excuse me, Joe, your time has expired.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. The next up
is Eola. Sorry. And followed by it's like lovey old Brian, I believe.
All right. Again, could you state your name and residents for record? Yeah, my name is
Bo La Lera Santiago, and I live in Madison, Wisconsin.
I sit before you this evening to express my deep disappointment in every town,
village and city board that is approved or is considering the development of a data center.
I'm here to ask of you a few things. First, I ask you to reflect on your loyalties as members
of the board. Do you listen to QTS, Blackstone, or do you listen to your community?
People do all kinds of things for money, including abandoning their values and betraying the
people in their community. No amount of money is worth betraying your neighbors.
The forest residents are begging you guys to slow down. The forest residents have also
submitted a petition demanding to have more of a voice in this system. They want to be able to
vote on approving or denying projects that are larger than 30 acres. It's beautiful and
inspiring to see the amount of people in your community that want to strengthen the democracy
of this village. In a time of rising authoritarianism in the US government, it's imperative that
local governments fight back. We must remind everyone that it's we the people who have the power.
Not some want to be dictator, not the 1%, and definitely not large corporations who only care
about their shareholders. Therefore, I urge you to approve the petition with the amendment
that we presented to you all on January 6th of 2026. Second, I ask you to reject the annexation
of the 1600 acres for the proposed data center by QTS. QTS is planning to build 15 buildings over
1600 acres. They expect they express that they're expecting only one client to occupy all buildings.
The signals QTS is intent to lease the building for about 15 to 20 years is what they were saying.
To what we can probably estimate will be a tech giant like Microsoft or the Stargate project
with open AI, Oracle, and SoftBank. We already know that Port Washington's data center will
be for the Stargate project. That data center will have 11 data center buildings on 1900 acres.
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin released the unredacted document stating that the Port
Washington data center will be a 1300 megawatt facility comparing Port Washington's data center
campus similarities in terms of size. So that proposed by QTS, it seems that this facility will
be requiring a similar amount of energy. The 750 megawatt renewable energy credits that QTS
would buy for a lion don't even cover their full energy use. QTS mentioned this at the November
12th open house they held. Furthermore, those potential credits wouldn't be in operation for
years. Tony Palese from a lion energy told me that at the moment they were finishing up construction
on an energy storage dome. Once that was completed, he said there were other projects in the queue
that they would focus on before the one that QTS would invest in.
I'm sorry your time is expired. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Next up is said Levi.
Hi.
Levi followed by looks like Deanna I believe.
My name is Levi O'Brien and I've been a resident of a deforest for almost 30 years.
My wife and I have raised a family here and they're now young adults who went through the
deforest school system. So it's been a great community, a great experience for us.
So thanks for letting me come forward here and express my take on the QTS
opposed development. I stand in opposition to the development. I have ethical concerns.
I have environmental and health concerns and economic concerns.
And so the first concern has to do with the simple fact that the town of Vienna
voted for nothing. It gets again important unanimously to not approve the development
as it was proposed. So and for us to override that seems like being a bad neighbor and that's
really concerning to me. There are concerns that many people have expressed tonight
just about this whole thing is happening so quickly. It feels like we're being put in a
position where and I say we I mean that people have deforested in the end of the village board
and we have to make some decision right away. It feels very rushed and very
very rushed. And there seems to be a limited amount of information. The transparency question
is very large in my mind too. Every time I turn around there's new information coming out.
The transparency just doesn't seem to be there. I just have a lot of questions about
what's actually going to happen over there. I grew up in a farm not too far from here. I
shouldn't say grew up in a farm. I spend a lot of time on a grandfather's dairy farm. And so I'm
very familiar with the dairy culture here or the farming culture here in particular. And I don't
want to lose that. That's a part of who we are in Wisconsin. We're the dairy state. I don't care
what California says. We're the cheese state too. So my grandfather produced cheese not too far
from here. So very familiar with that culture and that's part of what we are and I don't want
to lose that. And I'm concerned that a 1,600 acre development that's over a quarter the size of
deforest. I mean this thing is massive. People are probably familiar with
boy I'm bringing that time here with epic right. Epic is 1,600 acres right. So that's the size
of this development. And they employ 14,000 people. I mean this is going to, this QTS
development center will probably employ 700. I mean okay, so there's pros and cons. So
and I guess my time is up here. So I just encourage the board to really
come forward with a hard no on this as it's proposed. Thank you.
Thank you.
So again, I believe this is Diana Carl's that looks like to me. All by which I believe is
Michelle will see her.
Yeah, please again state your name and I got a gym voice. So I
but I appreciate you being here. All these people want is their voices to be heard. So thank you.
On behalf of myself as well as several others from Bain,
Lodi and the Wanna Key. Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt you again, but I need you to state
your name and municipality. Diana Carl's Dane. So on behalf of myself as well as several others
from the Dane, Lodi and Wanna Key communities, we would like to state that we are opposed
to the data center and the annexation. We feel that this project will not only affect the residents
of DeForest and Vienna, but also impact your neighboring communities as well as future generations.
We have several concerns, but a few of them I'd like to drop to you because most of them have
been stated. We are concerned about the e-waste, which contains hazardous materials such as lead
and mercury. Is that going to be buried in DeForest? We fear that dealing with a global
company like QTS that you are nothing but a line item on their balance sheet. If something were to
go wrong environmentally, water contamination, infrastructure, failure, it will be the residents
of DeForest who will carry the burden. The community of DeForest does not have the financial
resources to litigate against a corporation the size of QTS. These are just a few of our concerns,
and it is our hope that there will be a public question and answer forum so that everyone can be
heard and that we get to hear what they have to say as well. I hope the board not only follows
the voice of the forest and their community members, but also the concerns of your neighbors,
those of us and the other communities surrounding communities. I hope that you vote no to the
proposal and annexation, excuse me, that does not fit at all in your comprehensive plan,
which is your commitment to your community. Thank you for listening.
Thank you. Again, I believe it's Michelle Osher. Followed by Jenny Sweet, I believe.
Oh, there you go. Oh, green light. Got it. My name is Michelle Osher, and I live on the
north side of Madison adjacent to the Cherokee, Cherokee Marsh area. I'm here as a newcomer to
this issue. I've been hearing and learning a great deal from everyone who's been speaking
about all of the environmental concerns. I'm aware of the energy issues, the water usage issues,
and so on in a sort of a general way, but I hadn't known about the specifics.
I decided I'd like to come and speak for a somewhat different reason since I can't speak from an
insider perspective, and that has to do with what are data centers and why are they all of a sudden
appearing in such numbers and demanding such large amounts of acreage from the communities
all around the country, but particularly in the Midwest. And what I want to say about that is
they do not provide any value to a community. What they exist to do is to crunch data.
That data has nothing to do with anyone's best interests. For example, you may have noticed,
if you're ever online at all, that GPs and AI assistants and all the rest of it are cropping up
on everybody's, every company's interface with the public. And I think what's happening is that
there's an absolute, there is no market for what they're doing, except for what they're trying to
create. Why are they trying to create it? Because their business is mining your data. Their business
is finding out more and more about the people who are using whatever services they're selling,
because the value of selling data on the open market is enormous, whether it's
details about an individual's buying patterns, health issues, anything you can think of. That
is what data centers exist to agglomerate information for and to provide to the people who purchase
the information that they sell from just what we tell them about ourselves. It is not a transparent
process at all. It does not produce anything of any value to the communities that house it.
It's really a product or a market that is in the process of being foisted on people in this
country, because it's not going to give you anything for your money. There's no value received
for it. It's just you're giving them information. Hard to imagine that that's what they are buying
and selling, but it is. And the more we use AI, the more normalized it becomes in our lives. The
harder it will be to discourage the proliferation of these centers. So that's what I'm here to say.
Thank you very much. Jenny, sweet. Followed by, I believe this is Eugene Riordan.
All right. I'm going to start in regard to the water supply plan. My public comment is
maker. Would you start with your name and municipality, please?
He's right. Vienna. So again, I'm going to start with the water supply plan, because my public
comment was inadvertently overlooked. And I'm going to share my thoughts and these seriously
consider mending what we had just heard. I'd like to express my concerns regarding a portion of
the forest water supply service plan resolution 2025-114. The plan states this is not taken to
account QTS water needs, however, seems to have considered the project. The plan contains maps on
pages 31-32, figures 3.1 and 3.2, with figure 32 noting a 20-year expansion area. This area
includes the exact area QTS is wishing to annex. The same land is included in the recently completed
comprehensive plan as agricultural preserve, as found in the map on page 20 or 50. The section
of the land should be aligned as the other egg preserve land with no need to be in the 20-year
water supply plan. The maps contradict each other with the updates favoring the current project.
I would like to see the board request that the QTS section be removed as 20-year expansion in
the water supply, as the QTS project progresses, and if they provide specific details on the project
related to future water needs, supplies and impacts, this could be reevaluated. Until then,
the supply plan should correlate with your comprehensive plan. That was recently adopted
just in April of 2023. I recommend removing the highlighted area that corresponds to the QTS land
for the water supply plan in the 20-year land, please. So I also had something to say on the QTS
annexation kit. So if I go over, do I get a time, or is this considered the separate one,
because I was overlooked on that one? Oh, on her farm, she actually has both. We just didn't have
the agenda item, so I apologize that we didn't call you up during that agenda item. So I'm
thinking we should start her three minutes over for it. Okay, I probably won't take that long, but
that's what you wish. Yes. All right, I'd like to record my opposition to the QTS prior
annexation and annexation. I would also like to present some concerns related to the current
activities revolved around the QTS proposal. It was made aware that on October 20th,
QTS signed a reimbursement agreement with the village of DeForest. October 31st was the first
annexation submitted to the DOE and the village of DeForest. At the November village board meeting,
a village board member stated that we have only found out about this, we have not found out about
this before anybody else based off that meeting. These dates were communicated. December 4th,
the village had a special meeting to reject the two-part annexation required by QTS,
or requested by QTS. Typically, special meetings for emergencies are for emergencies or to address
a particular time-sensitive item. QTS said themselves, they did not want to rush the project.
Therefore, one would have anticipated the reject of the annexations on tonight's regular board
meeting agenda. I asked the board as I await to reply from my email, why was a special meeting
called? The community deserves to be a part of the process that will affect those that live
here and those that live around the village. We deserve transparency from the board and the
village staff. This is a multi-step process and the hope is to be involved prior to big decisions
that will impact this process to the village and surrounding areas indefinitely. Thank you.
Thank you, Jenny, and sorry again for missing you on that item.
So, Eugene Reardon, followed by Jonathan Bronk.
Good evening. My name's Eugene Reardon. I live at 4785, I would be the fourth.
I'm in the town of Vienna, but I'm not easy. Basically, I want to say that I'm in opposition
to the data center. I haven't got a sticker. Basically, it's a zoning thing. Earlier tonight,
you approved an industrial park, and it's 63 acres, I think it is. That's been in a 20-year
comprehensive plan. A lot of thought went into that. We've got a community that, if you look
on Google, we're a quaint community outside of Madison. Lately, in the last five years, I've lived
here for 25 years. In the last five years, the growth in this area has been more than in the
previous 20. If any of the ingress or egress from the forest, it looks like an industrial
park coming in here. We weren't pointing anymore. You got like a six-block radius here in downtown
village that looks pretty nice. Coming in, it's apartment buildings and industrial.
For the industrial park that you just approved, that is multi-tenant buildings that are going to
serve this community. Those companies are going to come here and do things for this community.
This data center is 23 times the size of what you just approved. We're in an ag area. We're
America's Dairyland. It says it's on our license plate. That's where I moved to. I moved there
from Los Angeles so that I didn't have to look at urban sprawl. This is urban sprawl. These
things belong in the Mojave Desert where there's no people. Land is cheap, not here.
A word on the power, it sounds like they've committed to 200 million bucks for power that
they're going to consume. However, it says, I'm just looking at Google numbers, because they're going
to consume a gigawatt of power. That's more than the Columbia Energy Center to coal fire plant
up and portage. They're going to need and build a new power plant, and solar's not going to get
it done. Solar's not base load energy. A new power plant to support that's going to cost
north of a billion dollars. They're committing 200 million, right? The math doesn't work for this
project. Basically, we don't need it. The people don't want it. That's kind of what it happens.
Thank you.
Thank you, Eugene. Jonathan Bronx, followed by Quincy Shob.
Good evening, everybody. My name is Jonathan Bronx. I'm here tonight in opposition to the
annexation of land in the proposed QTS data center, because of water quality concerns,
increased utility bill costs, impacts to the environment, impacts to our neighbors and our
community's quality of life, and conflicts with the current deforest comprehensive plan.
With strong public opposition, including a petition signed by over a thousand residents,
it concerns me the village continues to move the process forward. While the village appears to be
trying to give due diligence, which I do appreciate, through things like the pre annexation agreement,
one must wonder if a development that requires all the extra legal assurances and financial
incentives from the developer really benefits our community. Communities across the Midwest
are saying no to data centers as the negative impacts and unknowns become more transparent.
I ask the board to reject the annexation of land in the data center development and to vote
to approve the proposed amendment. Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan. Up next is Quincy, followed by Scott Mueller.
My name is Quincy Shab, and I live in deforest, and I've been here for about 10 years.
Oh, I'm just here to let you know that I oppose the annexation of piano, and I want to kind of
think about the AI centers a little more globally. I want to thank the members, and I want to ask
you how do you want your children, your grandchildren to learn? We already see ourselves
on these devices more than they're even recommended.
Do we want the next generation to learn from our family and our elders?
You know, we have history, we have tradition, learning our morals, and the way that we remember
is important. Do we want to let the computers take this task?
Should we hand over our liberties and freedoms to the computer?
They're not emotional. They take no special considerations.
Our future is hanging in the balance of the data centers that are trying to take over all of the
jobs that we take pride in and have special kind of way of doing it. You know, that makes it special,
like Harley Davidson, you know, things like that, where we would want it, you know, to be particular.
I just don't see the emotion or the caring in data.
They're not going to be a helping neighbor that's going to come over and borrow you some sugar,
or, you know, if you need a little something, they're not there for that. They're there for a
specific task, and I don't believe that they're going to really benefit us. I'd like to see us
going back to being a community in a hole and not relying on computers as much, because I think
we lose knowledge. I think that if you were in a middle of forest and there was no reception,
I kind of wonder what you would do. And I hope you think of these things and base your decision
on them. So I'd just like to say no to the QTS data center, and I appreciate your time listening
to me. Thank you. Thank you, Quincy. Maxis Scott, Mueller, followed by Amber
Alt, I believe.
It's Scott here. Okay. So Scott, we have an unmute you, and I believe you have to accept it. Is that how that works?
Yeah, I think.
Scott, I believe if you I think you can unmute, if you can attempt that now, and if you can
state your name and municipality, please. Can you hear me now?
Perfect. Yep. Great. My name is Scott Miller. I am a DeForest resident,
520 Dennis Drive. I wish to speak in opposition to the QTS annexation.
But one of the things I want to really talk about is QTS is promise of 700 jobs.
Now, I've seen some things on that website that I question the those numbers. It's possible that
the QTS salesmen have exaggerated a little bit. But I want to I have been
I'm retired IT from the state of Wisconsin. Since I have retired, I have been working
for the state of Alaska. Now, you're going to say, hey, Scott, that's quite a quite a commute.
And in fact, it is. The last time I went up there, it took me almost 30 hours to get there.
Fortunately, I haven't had to go there for over 10 years. And so that's really my point of my
conversation tonight is that of the 700 jobs, how many of those are actually going to be on site
in DeForest in Dane County in Wisconsin, or even in the United States, I can do my job
been doing it for 10 years. From my spare bedroom in DeForest, there's without ever going into the
office. Most of what the higher paying jobs are going to be doing from QTS can be done remotely.
I was at a seminar a while back, and I heard an interesting statistic. There are more
honors students in India than there are students in United States. So, in my work, I deal with a
lot of software developers from around the world. And I guess my point is how many of those
700 jobs are going to be actually on site in this QTS installation when
certainly most of the work can be done remotely. Thank you.
Thank you, Scott. So, next up is Amber, followed by nobody. So, you are the last one tonight, Amber.
I'm Amber Alt. I live in Madison on the north side
of the part of Cherokee Marsh that will also be affected by the QTS data center, ultimately,
I'm a little out of place because I wasn't born here. I was born in Ohio, please.
So, I've been here 30 years, and so now I consider myself a Wisconsinite. When I moved, I didn't know
really what life in Wisconsin would hold for me, but I want to share a little bit about what I
have discovered about living here specifically. So, I have a deep appreciation for the technology
that has been developed here. So, somebody earlier mentioned Epic. So, Judith Faulkner
creates this electronic health record that has, system that has transformed health care
in many ways. So, I think about that. That has happened during the time that I've been here.
I also think about Monte Schmitt, who innovated software in sonic foundry that really has
revolutionized music and probably led to the development of every teenager sitting in his
bedroom recording CDs now. That comes from here. So, this has been a place of exciting
innovation. So, we can think about this as a place that is not opposed to good technology,
to good technological developments, and has the chops to bring these things into the world.
But as I got to know Wisconsin over the course of the last 30 years, I also learned about John Muir
who grew up at a farm in Portage and became the father of the national park system,
or about Aldo Leopold, about Estella Leopold, about Governor Nelson, about Ruth Hyde, about Lori
Aldo. Do you know what she did? She spent her life in the 1970s drawing attention to DDT,
which was destroying the health of people who were consuming it or inhaling it or swimming in it.
She came from Wisconsin. So, the Wisconsin tradition includes these kinds of people who are
vigorous, brilliant environmental activists who have protected your environment, the environment
that I've been lucky enough to live in as a transplant these last few decades. There was
Francis Hammerstrom, who created the DNR's first endangered species list, or Winona LeDuke, or
Dory Valier, or Tia Nelson, who's still at it, or my friend Maria Powell, who died two years ago,
whose work was focused on environmental health and justice, and working to empower communities
and address disparities and exposure to environmental hazards. So, excuse me, Amber, I'm sorry, your
time is exciting. We've got both. We can bring them together. I'm asking you to vote no on this
until the technology is environmentally friendly. Thank you. Thank you, Amber. And I do want to
express a deep appreciation that we've got through the 20 Summit, and the decorum in the
room was very much appreciated. Great job, everybody. We are on. We do have some more items
to go through. There is an item 13 that you may be interested on, but I invite you
to please take this opportunity to leave if you need to. But we will move on to item number
10, which is check a register. Normally, there's not discussion, so I'm going to move forward on
that one. Item number 11 is committee, commission, and board report. Update regarding the DeForest
Area Library. Brad is our public safety commission. Colleen, anything you want to mention?
Um, we approved one. We denied one. That's it.
Thank you, Colleen. The Forest Area Senior Center, I believe that is Jan, and she's absent.
And we need development authority that you too. I think that's a chain.
You want to bring it to Alicia? Alicia, sorry.
We need to think really the biggest updates are they cleared the corner construction and
just moving forward on that project. Thank you.
Planning, zoning commission, Colleen and I sit on, and I can say most of the items that was on
that committee came up tonight under our agenda items. So I'll leave it at that.
Public Services Committee, I think, was in me yesterday.
And the Forest, Windsor, Fire, and I get last. Anything to report on that? Is it you again, Colleen?
Um, I think there's just following up on the fire station to schedule that's extended a bit here.
So we anticipate that the second phase of drawings will come back. First go to the fire board.
I'll leave that beginning beginning a couple weeks in February. That will then come back to us,
then it would go to Windsor and with the hope of looking a bit for that project.
In addition to that, right now we are going back and forth on that cost share agreement
between us and Windsor, so that I think we're stuck on two issues, two bigger issues. And so
we hope to bring that to the village board around the same time.
Okay. Thank you, Bill.
Item 11.2 is minutes. So I'm hoping you read those minutes.
And item number 12 is President's report. And I don't have anything to report
as I did not go to the cities and villages. And I don't know, Bill, do you go to that?
Okay.
Okay. So item number 13. 13 one is discussion regarding a pre or draft pre annexation agreement
with QTS Madison one LLC. And Bill, did you want to open up that discussion?
Yeah, I can leave this discussion. So there's a detailed memo in the packet.
I want to take a pause here and talk about what a pre development or pre annexation agreement is.
It's generally a document that is not required as part of the annexation process.
However, we thought as we hear folks talk and we talk, we spoken with third party
organizations interested in the data center. We felt strongly that that pre annexation
agreement was warranted to set up parameters and guardrails protections to the village prior
to the village board, even considering the annexation petition. So I and I and other staff
hope to you to work on that. I do want to note that even as we work to the pre annexation agreement,
the pre annexation agreement and the annexation petition are separate items. So by by approving
or not approving the pre annexation agreement, doesn't necessarily have a direct effect on new
voting on the annexation petition itself. Secondly, as we continue to receive comments
through our public process and continue our discussions with third parties,
we continue to add detail to the pre annexation agreement, but eventually if approved by the
village board and seen seen and approved by the village board will ultimately make it to the
development agreement. Now, if you follow previous developments in the forest, the development
agreement is required by ordinance. It's usually an agreement that doesn't come until much later
in the process when we have a lot more detail about the project. So generally, that's that's
something that we are used to negotiating after the properties already been annexed to the village
of the forest or is in the most of the forest. Again, in this case, we felt that important and
often to ensure some of these protections and guardrails on the concerns that we've heard
prior to you even having to consider the annexation. So question is, what is in this pre annexation
agreement? The details, the specific details, well, is starting a negotiation and so to discuss
those terms and to review and consider new terms, that's something that is suited for a
closed session. But generally, the pre annexation agreement provides protections for reimbursement
of village expenses. So we in the forest have consistently historically believed that if there
is a development coming to the forest that they are responsible for the charges and expenses in
reviewing the projects, and that that shouldn't be born of the tax payers. There's construction
and operational restrictions. We talk in there about or require funding for public
infrastructure improvements, similar with other projects in the forest, if water or sewer or
public infrastructure needs to be extended to that project site that developers is responsible
for it, unless the village board decides otherwise. We have guardrails for water, wastewater and
stormwater, usage and limits, etc. We have guidelines on property tax and village budget impacts. So
things like, you know, in the past, in development agreements, we've looked at property value
guarantees. We look at quality of life protections. So that's something that we've heard. You know,
what happens to my property? What happens to quality of life? We've heard tonight environmental
concerns, and so we have in here environmental investment. We also add decommissioning and
reclamation clauses. And then lastly, I'm an outlier. We have some language in here in regards to what
QTS has promised in for the 50 million community fund. So that's a general overview of the sections
of what's included in the developer obligations in the pre-annexation agreement itself.
That's not limited to that. So there's more, could be more, and again, this is a negotiation. So the
draft that we will be discussing is a staff repulsed draft. I know you haven't had an
opportunity to look at that, but this is part of that process. I imagine that this is, again,
will be going back and forth until ultimately it's approved. Following on that, we did include,
I did include a memo, a timeline as part of the memo, looking at the next several meetings,
of the village board and planning and zoning commission and being able to utilize both
bodies of government. And as we go through this due diligence process for not only the annexation
process, but the rezoning and the comprehensive plan, I think a lot of folks are curious to know
how one affects the other. And so we did intertwine that process. And so it's our intention to walk
through each of the sections of impact through those meetings, eventually leading to the public
hearings and eventual decision on those items. So with that, if there's a question on timeline
and generality of what the development agreement or pre-annexation agreement has, I'm happy to answer
that. If there's a question or change in regards to specific terms, again, to preserve that
negotiation, I'd recommend that you move to call session. Thank you, Bill. And I'll say before I
open it up to the trustees, I wonder if we could poll that I'm lining up on the screen, or Bill,
could you maybe mention the next couple of meetings? I suspect we'll be going the close
session at some point, so I want to just make sure everybody in the room knows what's to come
sometimes soon. I do have it up in front of me if needed.
So for the January 6th village board work session, we are looking to discuss the economic
impact analysis. This was something that was conducted by Alliance Energy, and so we invited
them to talk about the economic impact analysis and why QTS was brought to you.
In the village board meeting on January 6th, we intend to look at the fiscal impacts. So
primarily local fiscal impacts. What does it mean to our tax base? What does it mean to the mail
rate? As part of that, we'll take a look at not only municipal, but what does it do to the
school, the forest areas, what districts, the mail rate, and then county and MATC.
Tuesday, January 20th, we intend to look at local utility impacts. So one of the areas that
we're taking a closer look at is specifically the separation of utilities and authority.
We know that electric utility utility rates, et cetera, are controlled through the PLC,
and that's a process that we as a municipality don't have authority over.
So here it's really intended to concentrate on the village utilities, water utility, sewer utility,
and sewer water. So we'll take a look at the infrastructure impacts. We'll take a look at the
rate impacts. As part of the utilities, we'll take a look at the road construction, how that
looks like, where those connections, and have a better understanding of the infrastructure way
out of the project. Tuesday, January 27th is a planning and zoning commission meeting.
This would be a presentation of a full development concept plan. So the concept plan that you've
seen previously in the village board is for phase one. And as you know, we requested that they
withdraw there, or we rejected the annexation petition in order for them to
to resubmit a full annexation petition so that we can see the whole picture, and we're sticking
with that. So this will be an opportunity to take a look at the full site.
There is, as you can see on the agenda, or the tentative timeline, again, that is a planning
and zoning commission. So the invitation would be to go for the village board to attend that
meeting. If possible, we could have that concept meeting at the village board, but we're replicating
that in those presentations again. February 3rd is a village board meeting. We intend to talk about
land use impacts. So generally, land use impacts are going to be reviewed on the planning and
zoning commission side as part of that commission's decision on consideration on comprehensive plan
and on rezoning. However, because the land use impacts are so important in this case, you know,
we felt it necessary that as you decide on the annexation petition and the pre-annexation
agreement, that you as the village board also understand the land use implications.
Monday, February 9th is a planning and zoning commission. That's the public hearing regarding
comprehensive plan amendment and the rezoning application. Tuesday, February 17th is a village
board meeting. Then I will consider and take a look at public safety impacts of Fire EMS,
emergency management and PD. And then February 24th, a Tuesday planning and zoning commission,
tentatively, that's the schedule for the planning and zoning commission to to make their final
consideration and recommendation on the comp plan amendment, the rezoning and potentially
an urban area urban service area amendment application to the village board. The last
meeting that we have on this agenda, I mean, this calendar here is March 3rd, which is potentially
available for the village board to consider a pre-annexation agreement, the annexation petition,
and then the recommendations from planning and zoning commission on comprehensive plan,
rezoning and that urban service area amendment. So that's the tentative timeline and schedule for
all that's coming up here. Subject to change. As we start to understand from the submittals from
QTS and in talking with our consultants, the jic matter experts, there's a lot of
coordination that we have to do in order to ensure that we have the proper information to
make the proper analysis and be able to present that to you. I'll stop there.
Okay. I have a questioner to myself, but I'm going to open it up to Trustees to continue the discussion.
Seeing done from other Trustees, I guess I will ask Bill this pre-annexation that we'll likely talk
about in closed session, I'm guessing at some point. How does the public say provide input? I
know we've had a lot of people talk tonight. I suspect a lot of those things are going to be
already in this pre-annexation or will be part of the conversational how they have in closed session,
but when does that say get to the public or how do they provide the input going forward and what
are the opportunities to say amended or is it going to be a living document?
So the way that we think that it's going to work here and is that once you have an opportunity to
take a look at it, there's some negotiation in between there. We continue to take comments
and incorporate that, whether it's to staff or to yourself. Again, generally a negotiation of
an agreement doesn't require a public hearing per se or public comments on that agreement.
And so we want to think about how do we come across that or how do we consider that
as part of our negotiation. Again, we want to be mindful about as we go through negotiation of
the agreement, what is the push and pull and the intricacies of getting everything right versus
trying to get terms that meets the majority of folks. But following an approved pre-annexation
agreement, it's intended that the pre-annexation agreement terms are then adopted into or accepted
into the development agreement. And I would imagine at that point when we're negotiating the
development agreement that there be additional terms because we're going to have no more detail
about the development itself. Okay, thank you. So it sounds like to me this pre-annexation is
say nearly like a kickoff to the future development agreement if that's the way things go.
Yeah, these are I would say minimum terms for consideration of annexation and that
or that to be again implemented into that the more detailed development agreement
later down the line. We want to secure those obligations at this point before any consideration
of that petition. Okay, thank you for that clarification. You know, you're not being
along to do you want to add anything? Yeah, just to clarify the agreement itself says that
any development approvals will require a more detailed development agreement
that the zoning and conditionally use permit. Those types of things will be conditioned on
them entering into a separate agreement. What this basically says is that that agreement,
that future agreement will at least have these provisions there. Okay, before we even consider
annexation, we got to have an understanding on certain issues. That doesn't mean new
issues can't be added or the provisions can't be changed. It just means that this is a baseline
that you know, let's not even talk about it unless we've got an understanding on these issues.
Okay, thank you very much for those clarifications.
Trustees.
So staff, I'm assuming we, I guess,
you know, we need a motion to go on the close if that's what we want to do is to talk about the
the items and the agreement. And I guess I would ask Trustees or I will make that motion myself.
I'll make motion.
And you have to read the announcement on the close issue. Oh, I got to read the whole thing.
I apologize. So, item 13.1 again, his discussion regarding a draft pre annexation agreement with
QTS Madison 1 LLC and the village board may convene into close session as authorized by
Wisconsin statute 1985 1E for the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchase of public
properties. Investing the public funds or conducting other specific public business whenever competitive
or bargaining reason require a closed session. The village board may reconvene an open session
and further discuss the subject matter disgusting closed session. That is the whole agenda item.
Tashidra, are you following that up with the motion to go on the closed again?
For the purposes of discussion, I make a motion to move into close.
Thank you, Tashidra. Is there a second?
Okay. Second. Seconded by Brad.
Roll call, please.
Trustee Little. Trustee Simpson.
Hi. Trustee Williams. Trustee Allen.
Trustee Quartz. Motion carries high zero.
Thank you. We will be going in the closed session. It is 814.
Thank you. So, we are out of close. It is now 952. We had a rather long discussion about
this pre annexation agreement, but in the end, we don't have any action that we're taking at this
time. And item number 14 is the reconvening. So, item 15, any other business? Anybody
Trustees? No. Item number 16.
Fair enough. Second. Motion by Tashidra, seconded by Brad. All those in favor, please signify by
saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned at 952.
Thank you.