The News: WILL issued a warning to the American Transmission Company (ATC) regarding its plan to build a massive new transmission line across the property of Tom and Mary Uttech in Saukville, WI, for the sole benefit of a new AI data center in Port Washington, WI. If approved, the proposed transmission line project would destroy the Uttech family’s scenic landscape, which is protected by a conservation easement and is the inspiration of many paintings created by Mr. Uttech, a nationally renowned artist. Unlike other states, archaic Wisconsin regulations encourage the construction of miles of unnecessary and destructive power lines for data centers instead of on-site power generation.
The Quotes: WILL Deputy Counsel, Lucas Vebber, stated, “The use of eminent domain power must be the absolute last resort, and even then, should be used only when the public need is so absolute there are no alternatives. This is not such a case. We will do all we can to protect the Uttech family’s private property rights.”
WILL Client, Tom Uttech, stated, “This land is our home, and my wife and I have spent decades cultivating and caring for its natural beauty. As an artist, this land continues to be my inspiration for all that I do. My wife and I do not want to sell and certainly do not want this land stolen from us just to benefit a privately owned data center.”
The Clients: WILL represents Tom and Mary Uttech from Saukville, Wisconsin. Their property and economic livelihood are threatened by ATC’s proposed route. The Uttech family’s 52-acre property is not just a home, but the artistic studio of Tom Uttech, a world-renowned landscape artist.
As a respected figure in contemporary American art, Mr. Uttech’s work features in permanent collections at institutions such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Wisconsin Art, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Throughout his long, award-winning career, Mr. Uttech’s work has been featured in innumerable solo exhibitions, and he continues to hold solo shows at prestigious venues like New York’s Alexandre Gallery. Mr. And Mrs. Uttech have planted and cared for hundreds of trees and other plants on their land in the decades that they’ve lived there.
Building the power lines on their land would cause irreparable damage to the natural beauty and wildlife the Uttech family has spent decades developing, and which Tom enjoys as inspiration for his work.
WILL’s Legal Argument: Utility and transmission companies have a distorted view of the eminent domain power. The Fifth Amendment prohibits the taking of private property “for public use without just compensation” (U.S. Const., Amdt. V) and the Wisconsin Constitution similarly prohibits the taking of anyone’s property “for public use without just compensation therefor.” (Wis. Const., art. I, § 13.) But utility companies have been delegated this power in certain circumstances, and for too long the state has simply rubber-stamped projects for which the “public use” requirement is tenuous at best.
This proposed route, if ultimately approved, would eventually end with the privately-owned transmission company exercising government power to take the Uttech land against their wishes. But this project would not even be proposed but for the proposed data center, and that is not a “public use.”
Many alternatives exist, from different and less impactful routes, to allowing the data center to generate power on site. Taking land from our friends and neighbors to benefit private business is not why the eminent domain power exists.
Why This Case Is Pivotal: As AI data centers expand, they will continue to demand larger portions of our power grid. While other data centers, like a recent example in Memphis, generate their own power on-site, Wisconsin regulations discourage such plans. Policy solutions exist: New Hampshire recently passed a law encouraging off-grid power generation, which is one solution to limit unnecessary eminent domain powers like the one proposed here by ATC.
Read More:
- Letter to ATC, October 2025
Lucas Vebber
Deputy Counsel
