BILLINGS — Yellowstone County commissioners have filed a lawsuit to determine if a citizens' initiative on allowing data centers is legal under Montana law.
At Tuesday morning's county commissioners meeting, County Attorney Scott Twito's office recommended filing a lawsuit asking the district court for a ruling to determine if putting the data center decision to a vote is allowed under Montana law.
Yellowstone County commissioners and the county election administrator had previously approved a petition to gather signatures that would give voters the option to approve or reject the data center. However, a recent Montana Supreme Court decision found that a citizen-proposed initiative cannot override the county's land use planning authority.
County commissioners said they want to do the right thing and are leaning on their attorneys for direction moving forward.
The initiative was launched by a citizens group seeking to block a proposed massive data center near Broadview proposed by developer Quantica Infrastructure. The company is seeking to build the campus on 5,000 acres three miles south of town, along with a power generation capacity of 7,000 megawatts of power.
Quantica is hoping to capitalize on rising demand for artificial intelligence, which requires large data centers.
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The citizens' group, Yellowstone County Voices, argued in a news release that county officials had been quietly pursuing the lawsuit for weeks before alerting petitioners.
“If county officials have real concerns about this initiative, they should make their case to voters in the open, not behind closed doors in a commission meeting most residents never even knew was happening. Transformational development — the kind that reshapes water supplies, power grids, and rural communities for generations — deserves a public vote, not a back-room legal maneuver designed to make sure that vote never happens,” said Kassi Solberg, a Broadview area resident spearheading the initiative, in a written statement.
The effort to block the data-center initiative in Yellowstone County comes as other similar proposed projects in Montana have fizzled. This week, developers in Bonner in western Montana withdrew their plans for a data center, citing community concerns. In April, another company, Sabey, withdrew its plans to build a data center in a Butte industrial park after a neighboring company, REC Silicon, exercised a right-of-first refusal on the proposed parcel of land.
Related:
Broadview resident proposes putting data center approval to voters
Quantica seeking to boost energy capacity at proposed Broadview data center
Proposed AI data center sparks debate in rural Montana
