Cheyenne City Councilman Says Petition Won’t Stop Data Center Project

The Cheyenne City Council wants legal clarification on whether a referendum to put the annexation of 3,460 acres for a Microsoft Data Center expansion to a public vote is valid.

The council on Monday voted to have the city attorney ask for legal clarification on the petition. However, while that is sought, the certification process of the petition by the City Clerk's Office will continue.

The council last month voted to approve the annexation. But a group of citizens has been collecting signatures to put the annexation to a public vote.

Councilman Esquibel: Petition Won't Stop Data Center

But Ward III City Councilman Ken Esquibel says it's important to understand that even if the petition is successful and if the annexation is ultimately defeated, the project will move forward.

It will just be under county jurisdiction rather than the city's.

Esquibel said of the petition that people need to realize "that what they sign is not going to prevent the owner of that property from continuing to move forward with their plans. It will just be moving forward in the county with less regulation than what the city has. So if you signed that referendum thinking that you were stopping a data center from going in in that annexation, that is not the case."

In regard to the proposed referendum: under Wyoming Title 22,  "An ordinance adopted by a municipal governing body shall be subject to a referendum vote if a petition signed by ten percent (10%) of the qualified electors registered in the city or town is filed with the municipal clerk not later than twenty (20) days after the ordinance is first published after adoption as provided by law. To be counted the electors shall be registered voters when the completed petition is submitted for verification."

But Wyoming Statute 15-1-409 deals specifically with annexation, and includes the following:

"(a) If any landowner in the territory proposed to be annexed or any owner of real property in the annexing city or town, or utility is aggrieved by the acts of the governing body, he may appeal to the district court for a review of the acts or findings thereof."

Councilman Tom Segrave said he thinks there is some ambiguity in the law regarding the status of the petition in the statutes, so he would support a declaratory ruling from a judge.

Several council members commented that they weren't necessarily opposed to the referendum, but think some legal clarification on the petition is needed

The resolution to get a declaratory judgment passed on an 8-1 vote, with Mark Moody voting no.