Rural Howell Township is smack dab in the middle of the high tech/artificial intelligence race as it considers whether to become home to the largest data center in Michigan. A proposal that would open the door for this high-tech project is going before the Howell Township Planning Commission on Tuesday.
Data centers — facilities that house essential data infrastructure equipment like servers, networking hardware and storage, as well as the power, cooling, and security systems needed to protect it all and keep it running smoothly — are essential for our connected lifestyle. If it moves forward, this project will encompass a thousand acres of farmland, and the $1 billion initial capital investment of the unnamed tech company will immediately make it Livingston County’s largest taxpayer; it would also open the door for similar projects down the road.
Make no mistake: this is a project of gargantuan significance.
In all my years covering Livingston County, there has never been a project pitched that could affect life in our mostly rural community in such a seismic way, though a proposal in 1999 to site a casino in Howell Township comes close.
While work to build enthusiasm for the data center project has been ongoing, there is a growing resistance organizing on social media, frustrated with what it says is a lack of information and transparency. And that resistance worries that once the decision is made to open the door to big tech, there will be no turning back.
The first step comes on Tuesday, when the Howell Township Planning Commission considers adding a research and technology district to its zoning categories. Should that be adopted, the planning commission would then take the second step of considering the rezoning of 19 properties in its southwest section, including a sliver of land in Handy Township — the properties total somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 acres — from agricultural residential to the newly adopted research and technology designation.
The properties run along Grand River Avenue, bounded by Fleming Road to the east, a bit past Marr Road to the north, and a bit past Owosso Road to the west; a sliver of it is in Handy Township.
Those thousand acres are roughly equal to about two square miles.
For those of us who appreciate visual comparisons, the size of the data center property would be larger than the entirety of Oak Pointe in Genoa Township, which still ranks as the largest residential/golf development in Livingston County.
The project will initially generate a thousand construction jobs, and after that there will be “hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs.” For its size, the data center project won’t generate a lot of traffic; it will, however, demand a lot of water and electricity.
***
The Howell Township pitch is part of the flurry of data center activity set in motion in January when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a use tax exemption for such facilities to attract what it hopes to be a who’s who of tech giants like Google and Microsoft.
The Howell Township site has been identified as one of the prime locations in the U.S. for a data center. It checks all the boxes for size, location, distance from homes, and the availability of water and proximity to high-voltage transmission power lines.
Ryan Van Gilder, whose family owns the lion’s share of the Howell Township land up for rezoning, said the project involves a “Fortune 100 technology firm that develops, owns and operates technology campuses globally as an end user and owner/operator,” and is well-received wherever it goes.
While some data centers are owned by big tech corporations that in turn lease space to smaller entities, this site would be owned and operated by the unnamed corporation.
“We actually chose this specific developer because of this reason,” Van Gilder said. “We had our choice.”
The Howell Township project represents a possible $1 billion capital investment that would “generate tens of millions of dollars in local tax revenue every single year to fund schools, road, police and fire services and other local amenities,” said Van Gilder, who has been busy meeting with people in the community to build enthusiasm for the project.
“When someone takes the time to sit down and listen to what the project is, they are very receptive to it and understand the many positive impacts it will have within the community,” he said.
Van Gilder says the Howell Township data center, if constructed, would be a campus of single-story buildings about the site of a Meijer super store, with additional office space, parking, and on-site electrical equipment.
“Significant landscaping and open space preserve the local character,” Van Gilder said. This will buffer it from public view to “marry the community’s natural environment.”
The project would produce over a thousand temporary local construction jobs, as well as “hundreds of high-paying, permanent” ones, while creating minimal daily traffic.
He’s painting the project as crucial to helping the U.S. lead in artificial intelligence innovation.
But Breanne Green, who lives in the neighboring city of Howell, is frustrated by what she says is a lack of information being communicated to the community about the project.
“The public hearing is Tuesday,” Green said, “and only a handful of people know it’s happening. One woman told me she received notice because her property is within 300 feet, but several others nearby did not get a letter.
“If transparency was the goal, this information should have been shared with the community months ago. Right now, residents are being asked to comment with almost no details: no site plan, no water use numbers, no traffic studies. Ryan (Van Gilder) assures me this will be good for the community, but we cannot know that without facts.”
At a minimum, Green said, residents need to know that the rezoning is happening and what it could allow.
“(Tuesday) might be their only chance to weigh in before it becomes a done deal,” she said.
The Howell Planning Commission meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, at the township hall, 3525 Byron Road.
***
There is a need for data centers, one that continues to grow with the rise of artificial intelligence and the race to control it. Our lives are dependent on technology in ways we never dreamed possible just a decade or two ago: we consume huge quantities of digital data; we store information in the “cloud”; we spend hours connecting online; we shop, and buy and sell on the web; we run small businesses and use accounting apps; we stream media whenever and wherever we choose; and the demand for digital “space” continues to increase.
You are reading this story on The Livingston Post, an independent community publication that exists on a server in a data center in Livonia, but will soon be moving to a larger server in Lansing because it has grown so much (yay!). If it weren’t for a server in a data center, I don’t know how this story would ever reach you.
While we demand all the information our hearts desire at a quick click, we need to realize this power doesn’t come free.
Data centers are basically specialized buildings with the power and cooling infrastructure necessary to house and run servers and networks without them overheating. The U.S. is home to some of the largest and most advanced data centers on the planet.
Amazon, which doesn’t disclose details of its infrastructure, is estimated to use over 450,000 servers in seven data center hubs around the world. One of the largest data centers in the U.S. is the META Platforms (Facebook) in Prineville, Ore., which spans 4.6 million square feet.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM
SUBSCRIBE TO THE LIVINGSTON POST
CLICK HERE
Dgtl Infra, which provides information on digital infrastructure to industry professionals and consumers, spotlighted META as “one of the data center giants”:
“Consider Facebook, which owns and operates 18 data center campuses globally, encompassing 40 million square feet and investment in excess of $20 billion. In the United States, Facebook owns and operates 14 data center campuses spanning 34.2 million square feet at a cost of more than $16 billion, while in Europe and Asia Pacific, the company owns and operates four data center campuses covering 5.4 million square feet at an investment of more than $4 billion.”
Environmentalists and residents of communities in which projects have been pitched have voiced concerns about the energy that will be demanded, and they worry that these demands could hike utility rates and keep Michigan relying on fossil fuel. The state’s 2023 clean energy plan — under which it set the goal to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040 — includes a provision that will allow fossil fuel plants to remain online if there is not enough renewable capacity to meet demand.
There have been complaints about the constant hum of electrical generators from people living near data centers sited next to residential developments in other parts of the country. And data centers sited in desert areas are struggling for water.
While a call to DTE has not been returned as of press time, part of the project is said to include construction of a power station by the unknown corporation at no cost to the community. It’s a move that some say could reduce rates.
Greg Tatara, director of the MHOG (Marion Howell Oceola Genoa) water plant, said he doesn’t have enough information to say whether the current water facility — which produces a peak of about 4.5 million gallons a day, and has a capacity for 12 million gallons a day — would need to expand to meet the demand of a data center.
Tatara stressed that MHOG is in no way involved in the project, though there have been preliminary questions asked about MHOG’s capacity, wells in the area, and the quality of its water, which is softened and “good for equipment,” he said.
***
Arguments on both sides of data center projects seem to be similar.
Proponents tout significant tax revenue for local municipalities and schools. They paint the projects as an opportunity to fund and improve local infrastructure, including roads and water services.
Opponents are concerned about noise, light and air pollution. They worry about high water and energy demands, and how the data center will affect utility rates. And they find data centers incompatible with the character of rural areas.
Several data center proposals in neighboring Washtenaw County are running into opposition and other roadblocks:
• A proposal for a data center in Saline is heading to court. The developer of that data center filed suit Friday in Washtenaw County Circuit by Saline Township landowners and an LLC affiliated with the project’s developer alleges the township’s refusal to approve its rezone request constitutes exclusionary zoning barred by the Michigan Constitution.
• The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners is urging municipalities exercise caution when it comes to data centers.
• Though Augusta Charter Township approved rezoning 522 acres for a data center, a citizen petition drive collected 957 signatures when it needed just 561 to force a vote on the zoning change. The signatures are currently under review by the Washtenaw County Clerk, and if approved, the issue will be put to a vote in the spring of 2026 or during the 2026 general election.
• The University of Michigan’s plan for a new data center in Ypsilanti Township has run into such strong opposition that officials are looking for a new location.
