Madison, WI Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Moratoriums (2026)

The Common Council declared the moratorium under its authority in Wis. Stat. § 62.23(7)(am), the state's general zoning-enabling statute, finding it necessary to protect the health, safety and general welfare of Madison residents while the City studies data centers' impacts. It applies to any data center or telecommunications center proposed as the principal and primary use of a site once its floor area, counted across a single building or a collection of buildings, exceeds 10,000 square feet. A data center is defined for the moratorium as a facility whose primary use is storing, managing, processing or transmitting digital data, including the servers, air handlers, generators, cooling systems and substations that support it, plus any accessory office space needed to run it; a telecommunications center is an office facility handling transmission and processing of communications.

During the freeze, the Office of the City Attorney and the Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development are directed to draft a permanent ordinance amending Chapter 28 to regulate these uses before the moratorium expires. Existing telecommunications centers over 10,000 square feet become nonconforming uses for the duration, meaning they may only undergo structural repairs or alterations up to 50% of the building's total assessed value. The moratorium exempts data centers or telecommunications centers that serve another principal use already allowed on the same zoning lot. It runs 12 months from its effective date or ends earlier if the Council adopts a permanent data center ordinance first.