Menomonie Planning Commission passes new data center zoning

CITY OF MENOMONIE
PLAN COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA
Menomonie City Hall 800 Wilson Avenue
1st Floor, City Council Chambers 7:00pm
Monday – December 8, 2025
   1. Roll Call.
   2. Approval of Minutes – November 10, 2025.
   3. Public Hearing:
       a) WisDNR NR 854 Water Supply Service Area Plan.

The primary part of the plan is the drilling of well number 9 to increase water capacity.  There were no speakers in the hearing.

   4. Public Comments (agenda items only).

Multiple people spoke in favor of New Business item 5a. 

Adam Accola, director of Economic Development of Dunn County, provided information asking that the new Data Center ordinance not become a hindrance to future development and asked for clarification of the ordinance. He asked that the commission receive further clarification from the City Council.

   5. New Business:
       a) Consider recommendation regarding Proposed Ordinance 2026-01, an Ordinance amending portions of Title 10 of the City Code with respect to warehousing definition, data center definition and creation of I-4 Data Center Industrial District – discussion and possible action.

Public Works Director Schofield said that the intent is to flesh out the ordinance in the future to populate it with additional requirements in the nexxt weeks and months. The Ballonist property will remain I-1 zoning. Another ordinance will be prepared in the future with stronger requirements.

Plan commission members asked several questions about how this would work with existing buildings and existing data centers that are separate buildings.

The question was rased as to why these requirements were not put into the current ordinance. Schofield said it was important to move forward quickly so that public comments could be taken on the further restrictions in the future. It makes it ossible forr the city to not re-zone, for example, the Balloonist property under the I-4 zone. The question was raised about whether this change in rules would subject the city to legal repercussions and Schofield replied that this is being considered by legal council. 

A motion was made to approve the ordinance by member Kropp and seconded. The ordinance was approved by voice vote.  The new zoning ordinance will now be referred back to the city council.

A short break took place to allow the data center crowd to leave.

       b) Consider approval of Menomonie Holdings, LLC’s Proposed Certified Survey Map on 59th Street NE – discussion and possible action.

The motion was approved by voice vote.

       c) Confirm availability for next meeting date – Monday January 26, 2026 – discussion only (no action).

The normal 4th Monday meetings will resume in January. 

Phillips Plastics is expanding in size to 3-4 times their current size. 

The new Amazon center was briefly discussed as well.  This will be a 120,000 square foot facility used to break up large truck shipments and then send them out for last-mile delivery in vans. 

The question was raised of the hole in the ground on Main Street --- it is currently for sale The two property owners will need to work out the problems of dealing with the space. There eventually could be a requirement to raze or repair. 

The gas tanks at SuperAmerica East have been removed since they did nojt have monitoring systems. It is not clear if that property has been sold. 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 pm.