A Yellowstone County judge denied a Broadview woman's effort to continue gathering signatures to place a ban on data centers on the November ballot, likely killing the measure.
Judge Ed Zink ruled Tuesday that the deadline for Kassi Solberg and other concerned citizens to collect signatures had already passed, and gatherers likely wouldn't meet the threshold if it were extended to Wednesday, Aug. 12.
Solberg originally submitted the petition for county approval on June 12, then an amended version three days later. At the time, she was told the deadline to collect 16,650 signatures was Aug. 12.
On Aug. 3, citing further legal analysis by County Attorney Scott Twito's office, Yellowstone County commissioners announced the county believed the deadline to collect signatures had already passed on July 13, according to Zink's ruling. The county had also raised previous questions about the proposed initiative overstepped the county's regulatory authority.
Zink wrote in his ruling that it was "regrettable" that county officials gave Solberg the wrong deadline in the first place, but he didn't feel the error was enough to overturn the county's decision. He also noted that Solberg had collected 7,706 signatures by Aug. 3 in a compressed timeline and would have struggled to meet the initially stated, though incorrect, deadline of Aug. 12.
Solberg, who lives near the proposed Quantica data center, led the push for the initiative, which sought to require a two-thirds approval of voters for all data center developments in Yellowstone County.
Quantica is seeking to build a large-scale data center on 5,000 acres about three miles south of Broadview. Opponents have argued the project is a major power user that will force increased costs for other ratepayers and potentially dry up water sources in the area.
