Wisconsin’s Belanger pushed Sheboygan Amazon sale ahead of new zoning rules

Wisconsin Republican John Belanger helped push Sheboygan to sell 58.1 acres of city-owned land to Amazon for about $2.03 million, backing a deal that advanced before the city finalized its stricter zoning code. Now, as he campaigns for Wisconsin’s 26th Assembly District, his record on the project offers a way to examine how he balances economic development with public accountability. Belanger faces Democratic Rep. Joe Sheehan, a first-term incumbent, on Nov. 3.

According to his campaign website, one of the former Sheboygan alderperson’s top legislative priorities is “preventing data centers from passing costs on to residents.” But earlier this year, he helped advocate for a new Amazon delivery facility in his city that offered no protections from it later becoming an AI data center.

Belanger’s support was part of a broader push to fill SouthPointe Enterprise Campus, a largely vacant business park whose infrastructure had left the city carrying debt without generating the revenue officials hoped for. Belanger said he had personally lobbied City Administrator Casey Bradley to attract one large corporate anchor tenant to the park, which ultimately became Amazon. He had previously made SouthPointe’s vacancies and infrastructure debt a campaign issue, arguing that the city needed to bring businesses onto the property.

The Jan. 12 Finance and Personnel Committee meeting record shows Belanger voted with Alders Dean Dekker and Trey Mitchell to recommend the sale. The committee rejected a motion by Grazia Perrella and Michael Close to delay consideration until the new zoning code was finalized, and the recommendation passed 3-2. The full Common Council approved the sale 7-3 on Jan. 19.

The agreement priced the 58.1 acres at $2,033,500, or $35,000 per acre. Residents questioned whether the city was getting a fair price and raised concerns about confidentiality provisions and the lack of a contractual safeguard against future data center use. The council packet includes the draft purchase agreement and a signed appraisal agreement, but not a completed appraisal, which is key to assessing how the price was determined.

“Someone’s getting ripped off,” one Sheboygan citizen said during the Jan. 12 meeting’s public comment section, according to the Sheboygan Press. “I’ll let you figure out who is, but it sure isn’t Amazon.”

Belanger publicly dismissed residents’ data center concerns as “misinformation” and “this big to-do over nothing,” according to reporting on the dispute. The concerns were fueled in part by the planned Oracle and OpenAI data center campus in Port Washington and questions about confidential negotiations.

Amazon representatives said the project would be a delivery station, not a data center, and argued a contractual prohibition could delay it. The purchase agreement does not explicitly rule out a data center.

That debate followed Belanger into the Republican primary for the Assembly seat. His opponent, Tyler Schneekloth, campaigned for a temporary moratorium on AI data centers and criticized tax breaks and subsidies for large companies. Belanger won the August primary, receiving 2,080 votes to James Brotz’s 748 and Schneekloth’s 444.

Belanger has experience with municipal infrastructure, land use and development. He chaired the council’s Public Works and Building Use committees and served on the Plan Commission. But his support for the deal, despite the lack of an explicit ban on future data center use, leaves unanswered whether he prioritized residents’ long-term interests and whether his opposition to data centers extends beyond this particular project.

The city’s decision also has practical consequences for residents. The planned 216,000-square-foot delivery station could bring jobs and tax revenue, but it will also generate vehicle traffic and require storm water management. Residents raised concerns about road wear and pressure on police and fire services. The project’s confidentiality clauses prohibit the city from detailing the project’s expected public costs alongside its projected benefits.

The Belanger campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.