Port Washington attorney outlines town agreement to enable earlier annexation for proposed data center

Port Washington City Attorney Chris told the Common Council an agreement with the Town would let property owners initiate annexation for a proposed Cloverleaf data center as early as February 2025 instead of 2026, provided an end user is secured and a development agreement is finalized.

The agreement, which the Town approved earlier the same day, is intended to give Cloverleaf a clearer path to attract a data center user. Under the plan, the Town would receive an increased payment of $150,000 a year for five years (to be paid by the company if one is found), the project would fund extension of municipal water and sewer to the Town neighborhood called Canalsville at no cost to the Town or city, and the existing fire services agreement would be extended and capped for 2025 at about $176,000, with the company covering any shortfall required by a future development agreement.

Chris said the current intergovernmental agreement from 2004 prevents annexation of the identified site until 2026 and that the new agreement would move that date up to February 2025 "only if the annexation is initiated by property owners, and it cannot be initiated by the city." He told the council, "they cannot make a deal with 1 of those end users without assurances that the annexation could occur sooner than 2026." The attorney described the proposal as contingent on several steps: Cloverleaf finding an end user, the city and that end user reaching a development agreement, and the project agreeing to pay the listed fees and infrastructure costs.

If those contingencies are not met, Chris said the arrangements would be unwound. "If any of those things do not happen, then everything becomes moot. There is no annexation. If annexation's occurred and something doesn't go forward, then we reverse and detach the land back into the town's jurisdiction," he said. He added this is one step among many before the project could become a reality.

The council did not take a formal vote on the annexation agreement during the excerpted briefing; the attorney said the city council would consider the agreement at the regularly scheduled council meeting that followed. The transcript shows the Town had approved the intergovernmental agreement earlier the same day, according to Chris.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to adjourn into open session: moved and seconded; roll call recorded as Ward 1–7, all "Aye." Outcome: approved.

What remains: The agreement and its benefits are conditional. The key conditions identified in the briefing were that Cloverleaf must find an end user, the parties must execute a development agreement obligating the company to pay the town payments and to fund utilities and any excess fire service costs, and property owners must initiate annexation. If those conditions are unmet, the city would not annex the site or would detach the land back to the Town.