Adams County panel adopts 12‑month moratorium on data centers and battery storage applications

The Adams County Planning & Zoning Committee on a voice vote approved a resolution imposing a temporary moratorium on accepting new applications for data centers and battery energy storage systems.

Planner Dusty told the committee the pause — proposed at 12 months — would give staff time to draft zoning standards for where and how such facilities could be sited. "The idea is to allow us time to get it into the zoning ordinance to actually regulate these," Dusty said. He added several counties across the state have adopted similar moratoriums this month.

Committee members debated the appropriate length. One member urged a short pause of three to four months; another said he had seen moratoria as long as 18 months in other Wisconsin counties and warned that a multi‑year ban could leave the county open to legal challenge. "If we were to try to do, say, a 5‑year one, that the data center developers would have a good case that we're just trying to stop them forever," one committee member said.

Dusty and other staff clarified the moratorium would not apply to towns that do not operate under county zoning: "This does not affect them at all," Dusty said, meaning municipalities with their own zoning ordinances would remain free to act. The committee approved the resolution; Dusty said the moratorium could be shortened if sample ordinances from other counties allow quicker revisions.