# How a small Wisconsin city scuttled a secretive $1.6bn datacenter project

- Source: Guardian Business
- Published: 2026-11-01T17:00:21+00:00
- Category: Business
- Original: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/nov/01/wisconsin-city-menomie-meta-datacenter
- Canonical: https://groundlevelnews.com/story/how-a-small-wisconsin-city-scuttled-a-secretive-1-6bn-datacenter-proje-3a5401/

Residents of Menomonie mounted a successful protest against a huge campus proposed by Meta – and community resistance to the AI boom is growing In the spring of 2025, Sydney Brennan was riding high. The 22-year-old was finishing college and was a newly elected councilwoman in Menomonie, a city of about 17,000 in the lush plains of north-western Wisconsin. Weeks into the new job, she was invited to

_Ground Level News shows a short summary only; the full article and all rights belong to Guardian Business._