Town trying to stave off invasion from City of Port

The Town of Belgium is exploring options for land development rights in order to preserve its farmland and prevent possible annexation and expansion of the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus in the City of Port Washington whose land touches the town’s southern border.

“We’re concerned that the City of Port Washington someday might invade us. We don’t want them to invade us. We want to keep them at bay,” Town Chairman Tom Winker said at the Feb. 2 Town Board meeting.

“We like the Town of Belgium, our quiet little community, the agriculture we have here, and we’re very proud of that.”

Concerns quickly spread across the town after the City of Port last year annexed land from the Town of Port that borders the Town of Belgium in order for Colorado-based Vantage Data Centers to construct a four-building facility.

The Town of Belgium, with its swaths of farmland nearby, thought it might be a target for expansion of the data center.

The town had scheduled Midwest Senior Farmland Program Manager Angie Doucette of the American Farmland Trust to speak, but she was sick and is expected to present on development rights at the March 2 meeting.

“Say you have 200 acres of land. This land trust will come in and give you X amount of dollars. It’s going to basically buy the development rights off that 200 acres of land into perpetuity,” Winker said.

“Even someday if the City of Port did encroach into our boundaries, that can never be anything other than farmland.”

Winker said he and Zoning Administrator Charlie Parks are working on some initiatives as well.

“We have a very wonderful town. I want it to stay a wonderful town. We like agriculture in our town,” Winker said.

Even with the data center located in Port, the town is affected. Large dump trucks traveling to and from the data center site during construction are going through the town, garnering complaints about noise, speed, road damage and items falling out of the vehicles.

Winker said he talked to Ozaukee County Highway Commissioner Jon Edgren and County Sheriff Christy Knowles, telling both, “I don’t care what you do — if you have to, write tickets, whether it be for overweight or speeding,” he said.

He said 303 trucks came to and from the data center site in one day. Supt. Tom Bichler said that could reach 500.

Supr. Bill Janeshek said resident Dan Large and his son helped videotape Dixie Road to log any damage done by the truck traffic.

Janeshek said Ozaukee County is working on an agreement for Vantage and Michaels Corp. to pay for road damage, but the town isn’t included in that.