Oppidan Edge Data Center (Beaver Dam, WI), Beaver Dam, Wisconsin

The Beaver Dam Common Council voted 11-3 in April 2026 to sell about 13 acres of city land at Highway 151 and Hemlock Road, in Dodge County, Wisconsin, to Oppidan for a proposed 90,000-square-foot edge data center, the second data center coming to the city. The sale price was $407,340, and Oppidan said construction was set to begin that summer with the facility going online in 2028.

The council set a minimum taxable value of $41 million on a project Trent Campbell of the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation expected to be valued near $72 million, with no other incentives in the deal. Residents filled the council chambers and hallway, some holding signs, and public comment was limited to 20 minutes.

Former alder Kara Nelson told the council data centers put real demands on local water, power and land: "That means to manage their impact falls squarely on you." Alds. Frank Ferree, Elwood Flaherty and Jeff Bierman voted no; Flaherty called it a speculative investment: "I'm not against growth, by no means. But I'm against the wrong kind of growth."

Alder Andrew Perkins voted yes with misgivings: "Why did a well dry up, right? Why are we having these issues, and can we resolve those? Because that does bother me," he said. In August 2026 the Dodge County Board of Supervisors voted 29-2 for an 18-month moratorium on data center development, citing changes residents reported in groundwater near the Meta and Oppidan sites.

Beaver Dam resident Maily Kocinski told the county's public hearing, "For the last 14 months, I have been searching for answers because we have experienced changes in our groundwater." Supervisor Cathy Houchin said the county should study what the data centers are doing to land and water.

The council's April vote cleared the land sale; Oppidan had set construction to begin in summer 2026, and no report of groundbreaking has been published since.