A Lyon Township planning commission meeting scheduled for Monday night was canceled after a developer of a proposed data center pulled their application.
Walbridge, a Detroit-based construction and design company, and one of three developers involved in the proposed Project Flex data center project near Milford Road, south of Grand River Avenue, withdrew its application with plans to submit a new one.
Walbridge is collaborating on the project with Verrus, a California-based company that builds and operates data centers around the country, and Kimley-Horn, a North Carolina-based engineering and design company.
The company has submitted several site plans for the project. The third had been reviewed and was on the Monday agenda before being removed.
A Lyon Township official said the company plans to submit a fourth site plan for consideration, but has not yet done so.
“They do not have that site plan at the township as of today,” said Planning Coordinator Jenny Moule. “Once all the reviews are again completed by our departments, we will see what the next step is.”
The planning commission unanimously approved the project last September, but since then opposition by local residents has grown.
The 172-acre property is already zoned industrial and the three companies were not seeking any variances or zoning changes so the township board did not need to approve the plan for over 1.8 million square feet of building space. No public hearings were held.
Treasurer Patricia Carcone said the data center is a dream come true for the township at the Sept. 8 planning commission meeting where the project was approved.
“The applicant could have put this anywhere, and they picked Lyon Township,” she said. “This amazing facility will not drain their (township) resources, and they will reap the tax benefits.”
Several people disagreed with her assessment.
“It is no dream,” New Hudson resident Kelly Sullivan said at a January township meeting. “It is a public health and resource nightmare and should be paused for further public input and study.”
“Walbridge and Verrus are attempting to evade the requirements to provide accurate, transparent information to the township,” township resident Mike Larson said at a June township meeting. “Incomplete, misleading, or no information at all was provided on noise levels, water usage, energy usage, pollution discharges, fire mitigation, and the effects on wildlife is what we have received from them, and they say we’re the ones that are not playing fair.”
A letter submitted along with the third site plan, warned that if approval is further delayed, Verrus will pursue legal action, including injunctions and damages under state and federal law.
No legal action has yet been taken.
But a new proposal has been offered to the township
Verrus representative Maria Poyer addressed the board and the public at a township meeting on July 6 with added incentives involving Project Flex.
photo courtesy Project Flex
Verrus representative Maria Poyer addressed the board and the public at a township meeting on July 6 with added incentives involving Project Flex.
She said the township board was presented with the proposal in person on June 4 and a formal letter was submitted to board members on June 7.
“The framework includes approximately $10 million in voluntary, township-administered community investments: a $5 million community infrastructure and resiliency fund, a $2 million public safety fund, and a $3 million education and workforce training fund, with priorities set by this board and its residents,” Poyer said. “It also commits Verrus to local hiring, a community job fair, and ongoing township coordination, and enforceable neighborhood protections on noise, lighting, landscaping, water use, and environmental stewardship.”
The full proposal submitted to the board is at: www.projectflexmi.com
The Lyon Township project will use a closed loop water system, which uses less water and does not return the water to the source, according to the companies.
The proposed six buildings on the site will have “leading-edge power and cooling systems” and adjacent equipment yards, which will consist of “medium voltage switchgear and primary backup power for outages lasting less than four hours by a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) which produces no emissions,” according to Kimley-Horn.
As part of their latest proposal, they claim their water cooling systems will use less than nine million gallons of water annually across all six buildings, equal to about 84 U.S. households and will build their own dedicated DTE Energy substation to provide electricity to the site.
Craig Kreutzberg, a spokesperson for the No Data Center Lyon Township group, said their efforts opposing the project have been getting results.
“I think that the recent turns of events are an indication that Verrus and Wallbridge together were content to try to throw their weight around and bully the township into getting exactly what they wanted,” said Kreutzberg. “The township, to their credit, said No. Not only are you not answering all the questions that we have asked based on that third round of plans, but these still do not meet the requisite criteria for passing noise ordinances and other things. So, yes, I absolutely think it’s working.”
The next regular planning committee meeting is at 6 p.m. Aug. 10.