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Why It Matters
A wave of large-scale data center proposals is landing in Montana communities — and some residents aren’t waiting for elected officials to act. Citizen-led efforts in at least two Montana counties aim to put data center construction to a direct public vote, reshaping how local governments handle one of the fastest-growing sectors in American infrastructure.
What Happened
Denise Kelly, a real estate broker in Butte, launched a nonprofit called 406 People First in February after Washington-based Sabey Corporation proposed building a data center in Butte-Silver Bow County. Kelly gathered community signatures and drafted ballot initiative language that would require a special election — with a two-thirds supermajority — before any county could approve data center construction or expansion.
Sabey Corporation withdrew from its Butte agreement in May, but the company is still reportedly exploring other sites in southwest Montana, including elsewhere in Silver Bow County. That uncertainty has kept Kelly’s effort alive.
A parallel initiative is now underway in Yellowstone County, spearheaded by Kassi Solberg, a Broadview homesteader and mother of six. Her push comes in direct response to a proposal by Houston-based Quantica to build a facility it calls the “Big Sky Digital Infrastructure Campus” on roughly 5,000 acres near Broadview, north of Billings. Quantica has requested up to 7,235 megawatts of additional capacity from NorthWestern Energy — a figure that dwarfs most regional energy demands.
Near Missoula, Idaho-based Krambu has proposed a data center at the Bonner industrial site. A change.org petition opposing that project drew nearly 40,000 signatures in April. Missoula County, which already has data center regulations in place following earlier concerns over cryptocurrency operations, is expected to make a permitting decision on Krambu by early July.
By the Numbers
- 3,652 signatures required to place the initiative on the ballot in Butte-Silver Bow County
- 16,560 signatures needed in Yellowstone County, with an August 12 deadline
- 15 percent of registered voters must sign to trigger each county ballot initiative
- 1,100 megawatts of power generation capacity proposed for the Quantica Broadview site alone
- 4,761 U.S. data center facilities are currently tracked on industry mapping tools, reflecting how rapidly the sector has expanded nationally
What Residents Are Saying
Kelly has been outspoken about what she sees as a disconnect between community sentiment and local government decisions. “I think the majority of people in this country — not just Butte — don’t want data centers,” she said in a public statement. “But I don’t know why the government, especially our local governments, aren’t listening to us.”
Solberg echoed that frustration, framing the ballot effort as a check on unresponsive officials. “This initiative gives citizens a voice,” she said. “When elected officials fail to do their jobs, citizens must step in.”
Both women are relying on Montana’s citizen initiative process to bypass county commissions and bring the question directly to voters. If approved, the proposed ballot language would require a two-thirds vote in a special election before any data center could break ground in participating counties.
Zoom Out
Montana is far from alone in grappling with the infrastructure demands of the data center boom. Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and cryptocurrency operations have pushed demand for large-scale computing facilities to record levels across the Mountain West. Communities from rural Idaho to the Oregon high desert have faced similar debates over power consumption, land use, water cooling requirements, and noise.
What makes Montana’s situation notable is the scale of some proposals — Quantica’s Broadview campus would rank among the largest planned data center projects in the country by acreage — and the speed at which grassroots organizing has developed in response.
For context on how federal land and resource decisions intersect with large-scale development in the region, see coverage of the Trump administration’s rescission of a major public lands rule.
What’s Next
Yellowstone County organizers face the most immediate pressure, with the August 12 signature deadline fast approaching. If both county initiatives qualify, they could appear on the November ballot. Missoula County’s decision on the Krambu permit is expected in early July, which could further energize or complicate the broader statewide conversation over data center oversight.
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