What We Learned at Tuesday's County Board Meeting

Tuesday night's Dane County Board meeting was supposed to be a formality—a quick vote to rezone the Johnson farm property for industrial use. NorthStar Computing and their lawyers clearly expected this to sail through without opposition.

They didn't count on 47 Maplewood residents packing the meeting room.

For two and a half hours, our neighbors stood up one by one to ask questions the board couldn't answer: Where will 1.5 million gallons of daily water come from when our wells are already dropping? What happens to property values for homes near a facility running diesel generators 24/7? Why was the environmental assessment only 11 pages long?

Board Chair Tom Hendricks tried to move the vote forward anyway, but Supervisor Maria Chen motioned to table the decision pending a full environmental impact study. The motion passed 4-3.

This is a temporary victory. NorthStar will push hard to get this back on the agenda in January, and they have far more money and lawyers than we do. But Tuesday proved something important: when we show up, we have power.

Next steps: We need at least 60 people at the January 14th meeting. Mark your calendars now. We'll be organizing carpools and childcare—email us if you can help.