Wisconsin Town Defeats Big Tech, Shares Battle Plan

A small Wisconsin city just showed Big Tech that communities can fight back and win.

Menomonie, home to about 16,800 people, successfully blocked a $1.6 billion data center project after city leaders tried to approve it behind closed doors. The development firm Balloonist, LLC never even revealed which tech company would operate the facility.

The fight started in July 2025 when residents discovered their city administrator had been meeting secretly with developers for 18 months. By the time locals found out about plans to build on 320 acres of farmland, the city council vote was just weeks away.

"Community members were caught off guard, not given much time, and really scrambling to organize," says Brittany Keyes from Healthy Climate Wisconsin. But scramble they did.

Organizer Blaine Halverson and neighbors mobilized quickly, learning everything they could about hyperscale data centers. These warehouse-sized buildings house the massive computing power needed for artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.

The community organizing worked. Menomonie blocked the project entirely.

The Ripple Effect

Menomonie's victory is already spreading across Wisconsin and beyond. Organizers helped create a toolkit showing other towns how to fight unwanted data center projects before developers arrive.

The timing couldn't be better. More than 3,000 new data centers are being built or planned nationwide, with global spending potentially hitting $3 trillion by 2029. Wisconsin alone has over $57 billion in proposed projects after passing a tax exemption in 2023.

"It's like whack-a-mole; you knock out one data center, and another just pops up," Halverson says. "We're trying to help other communities do that proactively."

Other Wisconsin towns are already using Menomonie's playbook. DeForest quashed a hyperscale project earlier this year. Port Washington voters just approved the first-ever referendum restricting future data center development.

The toolkit teaches communities how to organize quickly, get information despite nondisclosure agreements, and engage elected officials effectively. It addresses the secrecy problem head-on, since many city leaders sign NDAs with developers months before residents learn anything.

What started as one town's desperate defense has become a statewide movement. Communities are now learning they don't have to accept every tech project that comes knocking, especially when deals are made in secret.

Menomonie proved that informed, organized citizens can stand up to billion-dollar proposals and protect their hometowns.