JANESVILLE — The Janesville City Council on Monday is expected to discuss proposals for a data center at the former GM site, but those discussions will be behind closed doors.
That isn’t sitting well with a growing number of city residents who are urging people to attend Monday’s council meeting and share their concerns during the public comments portion.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, Oct. 22, 2025 in the council chambers at 18 North Jackson Street. AGENDA
The meeting also will stream live HERE.
A social media post Friday from the city said the Council will not take any action on issues related to the property during this session. Any action related to the property will occur during an open session at a future council meeting.
According to the agenda, the public will be able to comment on matters which can be affected by council action early on in the meeting. People wishing to address the council are asked to sign in on the roster in the lobby and keep their comments under four minutes.
At the end of the meeting, council members will go into closed session, “for the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session, in particular the GM/JATCO sites data center proposals,” according to the agenda.
Multiple organizations, including the Janesville News Report, WCLO and SNOW, a grassroots organizations that advocates for the south side, have submitted open records requests to see the data center proposals.
But just last week, WCLO reported that Rock County District Attorney Jason Sanders says the city must respond within a week to Big Radio’s now 43-day-old open records request for the data center proposals – or Sanders will file for a court order to force compliance with state open records law.
The Facebook group No Janesville Data Center also is urging opponents to pack the council chambers.
Last July, The city of Janesville began seeking proposals to bring a data center to the former GM/JATCO site on the city’s south side.
But data centers have grown increasingly controversial as communities grapple with trying to figure out the impact.
These data centers are large industrial facilities that house computer systems, storage and networking equipment — basically the backbone for what people refer to as the digital cloud.
In Janesville, the former GM/JATCO site is in a TIF district, which means significant tax benefits to local residents will be years off.
Data centers are expanding rapidly across the country as demand for AI and cloud computing booms. They typically use vast amounts of electricity as well as water for cooling. However, the centers employ relatively few workers considering the size of the investment.
There currently are at least five data center projects in development in Wisconsin.
They range from a $3.3 billion project from Microsoft on the former Foxconn site near Racine to a $200 million project in Wisconsin Rapids.
Gov. Tony Evers recently signed Wisconsin Act 16, which will create exceptions for Tax Increment Districts in Port Washington and Beaver Dam. The legislation aims to support attracting new data centers and continue growing the multi-billion-dollar data center industry in the state.