06/23/2026
Ok. Janesville....
A long time ago...in a galaxy far, far away....
Wait. Wrong story.
In July of 2024, a previous city manager and his senior staff began talks with brownfield developer Viridian Partners to build a data center on the GM/Jatco site. At the time, the site wasn't Janesville's to repurpose yet, and they knew there was no appropriate local zoning for community protections, but the wheels started turning anyway.
And you had no idea it was happening.
In July of 2025, the same administration decided to let the cat out of the bag in public, asking the current council at the time to authorize a Request for Proposal process so they could select from the developers that had come forward interested in building a data center at GM (records show is there were three possibles, though only two pursued formal selection). City Council (a different one than today) allowed it in a 5-2 vote.
And you came out to share your thoughts.
In November of 2025, the same leadership came forward asking Council to approve at Letter of Intent to negotiate a sale to Viridian to build an 8-11 building hyper scale data center. City Council (a different one than today), voted 5-2 to allow the process to continue towards building a data center. "But don't worry", they said.."we are just investigating! There's a lot of opportunity to change our minds!"
And you, Janesville, showed up again. And you showed up ready to fight for your community and for your right to have a say in how it develops.
And meanwhile, City Hall signed Non Disclosure Agreements with developers and slow-walked open records requests.
So, You put up signs and held protests.
You wrote letters and spoke at Council meetings.
You knocked on doors and signed petitions.
YOU BROUGHT A NEW CITY ORDINANCE TO REFERENDUM, which we will see in November.
YOU VOTED - and ushered in 2 new city council members.
Which brings us to now. Last night. Where a new City Council declined a 60 day extension and directed staff to develop zoning and supplemental ordinances.
Where your diligence, vigilance, and participation made ALL the difference. We did it, Janesville!
There is a side caveat to this discussion. While last night was an amazing success and essentially took the pending Viridian project off the table, four of your city councilmembers (Councilmembers Squire, Cass, Neeno, and Seeman) refused to direct staff to officially terminate the negotiation process or to refrain from considering any further data center projects until zoning and ordinance protections are in place. This community remains exposed when council direction to staff regarding this issue isn’t clear, in writing, with future development proposals contingent on the passage of protective language.
So what comes next?
Great question. We aren't done, though some of the immediate pressure of a proposal on the table is off.
Here’s where we go from here:
1. The GM/Jatco Advisory Board is starting work on a plan for GM/Jatco. We need YOU to participate. Responsible development isn’t just about what we DON’T want (a data center). It’s about figuring out the options that we can feasibly pursue and making a plan to get there. Almost everyone agrees that the GM/Jatco site needs help and that finding a useful way to handle it is a critical issue for this community. Wednesday is our first opportunity as a community to participate in building a plan, and your vision for this community is important. Join us to participate in this process. The first opportunity is Wednesday, June 24 - 5-7pm @ Hedberg Public Library. This is an open house style meeting - you can come and go as you please.
2. Zoning code updates are still out there floating. We will be monitoring the language changes and will need you to tune in as the rewrite process continues. There are some significant problems with this zoning code that need ironing out in order to protect the community. Plan Commission meets Monday nights (opposite days from city council) and agendas are available at: https://www.janesvillewi.gov/government/public-meeting-materials-videos. Updates to the zoning rewrite are available at: https://graef-usa.mysocialpinpoint.com/janesvillezoning. We need people monitoring both of these sites for the next opportunity to read draft language and evaluate it. And once we have that language, well…you know what we have to do.
3. Supplemental ordinance processes will be starting. As those come up, we need you to engage and share your thoughts. It will take a community to get this right. IMPORTANT: We can’t stop the proposals from coming. It’s unreasonable to think that we can. David vs. Goliath and all that. When Big Tech Bros are committed to spending trillions on this stuff, more will be coming. We know it. We don’t like it. But it is reality. In the absence of protections from the feds or the state, we need local protections. Those come in the form of zoning ordinance and supplemental ordinances to make sure our community has guardrails available and can regulate anything that might show up on our doorstep.
4. We still have a referendum for the GM/Jatco site (ANY projects over $450 million in project costs go to the voters for approval) coming up in November...more on this as we get closer to fall.
5. We have neighbors surrounding the city that are fighting their own data center battles - Town of Beloit, Town of Turtle and Town of Janesville. And they need our support. Even if we don’t have one here, facilities within miles of us will have impacts. This is a regional issue, and multiple projects in the area are still pending.
So...other than this Wednesday’s Visioning Workshop, we are gonna take a couple days to let everyone recharge and bask in the moment (they don’t come often), and then we'll be right back at it.
See you on Wednesday at the GM Jatco Visioning Workshop!
