Clinton Village Council ‘may pursue’ concessions from Saline Twp. data center developer

This image rendering shows what a potential data center would look like, constructed on mostly agricultural land in Saline Township.

By BRAD HEINEMAN

For a second time is just as many months, the village of Clinton has released a statement regarding the ongoing talks about construction of a data center in nearby Saline Township.

Such mentioning of a data center coming to Saline Township was kept brief during the Clinton Village Council’s Oct. 6 regular meeting. In fact, the only public statement from the village was mentioned near the conclusion of last week’s meeting by village President Doris Kemner, who issued the following:

“Saline Township is working with Related Digital, the data center developer, on a consent agreement with hopes of avoiding a lawsuit. The data center and its construction will pose some challenges for the village so it may behoove Clinton to pursue some concessions from the developer. On behalf of the village, we have started discussions with the township attorney.”

Saline Township has faced its fair share of criticism — and support — over the past couple of months for its consideration of a proposed large-scale data center, which would be built on mostly agriculturally zoned farmland.

The project, which was presented to the township’s planning commission and its board of trustees throughout the summer months, drew several concerns from residents and neighboring communities — including the village of Clinton — for the data center’s potential impact on construction traffic, water usage, local energy resources, noise, light pollution and emergency response. The developer, meanwhile, has shared information with the township about traffic, sound, lighting and other studies demonstrating the minimal impact of the project on the road system and neighboring properties.

Proponents of the project have highlighted possible tax revenue and an increase in community funding because of the data center’s construction.

During a Sept. 10 Saline Township meeting, the board rejected a rezoning proposal in a 4-1 vote that would make way for the data center in terms of rezoning the agricultural land for industrial use. Since that time, a 17-page lawsuit was filed against Saline Township in Washtenaw County Circuit Court by a handful of township landowners and an LLC affiliated with the developer, Related Digital, alleging the township’s refusal of approving the rezoning of 575 acres of land on the north side of Michigan Avenue, “constitutes an arbitrary refusal to permit a legitimate and economically feasible land use, and an unreasonable exercise of the township’s public power.”

“The property is an ideal location for the project,” language in the lawsuit reads. “There is sufficient contiguous flat land available adjacent to a state highway with convenient access to urban areas and air transportation networks. Indeed, it is a short commute from the University of Michigan, a leading research institution with respect to information technology.”

Including Related Digital’s stake in the lawsuit, four township individuals and two Michigan limited liability companies are among the plaintiffs in the case.

The data center project primarily consists of three large, single-story buildings (approximately 550,000 square feet each), a core building (approximately 80,000 square feet) and two electrical substations, according to language in the lawsuit document. Support infrastructure is listed to include a warehouse, an administration building and a guard shack.

The total developed area proposed for the project, including the utility infrastructure, roads and parking will be approximately 250 acres. The remaining acreage would be preserved for agricultural uses, the developer has stated, with at least 40 acres of wetlands and woodlands being protected by a conservation easement.

According to its website, salinetownship.org, the township is described as a small, agricultural township located within Washtenaw County that has continued strong agricultural roots today and continues to promote and preserve the environment through its vast woodlands, streams and wetlands.

Probably most important for the data center property is that multiple 345kV (kilovolts) electrical transmission lines that have unused electrical capacity sufficient to serve the project run through the property. DTE Energy, the project’s electric utility supplier, has expressed its support of the data center.

Described as a physical facility/location that stores any company’s digital data, data centers store computing machines and their related hardware equipment. The centers contain computing infrastructure that information technology (IT) systems require including computers, data storage drives and network equipment.

The lawsuit states data centers are “instrumental to functioning in this age of information.”

“The demand for data centers has exploded, including in Saline Township and surrounding areas in Washtenaw County,” the lawsuit says. “To meet this demand and encourage the large investment needed for such projects, the State of Michigan has adopted tax incentives for data centers to encourage their location in the state to serve local, regional and national businesses as well as to provide employment (both permanent and temporary construction jobs) and tax revenues to the local community, the county and the state.”

There are three counts the lawsuit seeks to prove against Saline Township: Count one, exclusionary zoning; Count two, declaratory relief, violation of law; Count three, violation of due process of law.

Saline Township, during a special joint meeting between the township board and planning commission on Oct. 1, voted to pursue a settlement strategy with Related Digital and the property owners, which would allow the project to move forward if certain terms are agreed upon. Some concessions and conditions of the project’s scope have been proposed by all parties including limiting the size of the development, restricting the uses on the remainder of the property, increasing setbacks and buffering requirements, limiting the project to the use of technologies that minimize water consumption, providing financial resources for police and fire safety improvements, and providing for decommissioning and restoration of the property if the project should end in the future.

The township’s regular meeting for October was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 15. Listed among the talking points of the supervisor’s report was Related Digital’s data center proposal.