Driftless Area Data Center, Cassville, Wisconsin

The Driftless Area Data Center, a proposed 400 to 500 megawatt data center in Cassville, Grant County, Wisconsin, is dead after residents voted 44 to nothing in late April 2026 to ban data centers in town. Two unnamed developers, one from the Northeast and one from the South, had offered 50 jobs and $5.5 million a year in taxes for a site of about 500 acres. The site would have used power from the Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line.

The developers first met with Ron Brisbois, who runs the Grant County Economic Development Corporation, on November 6, 2025, and he announced the project publicly on December 3. Opposition grew through the winter; on March 8, 2026, opponents including Pete Moris and Melodie Betts held a rally with comedian Charlie Berens. By April 6 Brisbois still called the odds "better than a coinflip," but the developers stopped returning his calls soon after, and by late May the proposal was, in his words, only a memory.

The town's vote was its first zoning regulation ever. The ordinance bans data centers for up to two years and requires town board approval for any change in land use. "This is the Driftless area for Christ's sakes," said resident John Hawn. "I suppose they didn't expect any problems coming into a small town." Town attorney Eric Hagen said the developers appeared to be "looking for the lowest-hanging fruit with the least amount of regulations."

Melodie Betts, who opposed the project, said: "If we don't stop this now, we're going to lose everything that's precious in the Driftless Area." Brisbois said afterward: "I put a lot of time into this and lost a lot of sleep over it." Several other Grant County towns and the county board have since adopted their own data center moratoriums, and Wisconsin's Public Service Commission has moved to require data centers to pay the full cost of the power they use.