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Across the United States, the fight over data center construction has largely pitted stamp-happy municipal governments against their own residents. As these battles multiply, local officials are increasingly pressured<\/a> to approve projects their constituents oppose, while more and more voters take their struggles to the ballot box<\/a>.<\/p>\n Residents in Saline Township, Michigan, however, thought they had avoided the drama after their township board and planning commission both voted to decline a 21 million square foot data center in their backyard. It was exactly what Saline\u2019s 2,883-some residents wanted. Unfortunately for them, the data center developer soon sued the tiny township, Fortune reported<\/a>, which was ultimately bullied into accepting the $16 billion development.<\/p>\n Back in September, Saline\u2019s planning commission rejected the request to rezone 575 acres of farmland for the data center, proposed by the company Related Digital, a subsidiary of a real estate conglomerate owned by billionaire Steven Roth (who\u2019s been in the news lately for other reasons<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Two days later, Related Digital filed suit, alleging the township had practice \u201cexclusionary zoning.\u201d The local officials were up against the wall: a lengthy legal battle risked depleting the township\u2019s coffers, and even if they won in court \u2014 an unlikely proposition \u2014\u00a0Related Digital could have forced the data center anyway by partnering with the University of Michigan, which can bypass local zoning laws.<\/p>\n The township soon settled, signing an agreement allowing the project to proceed. Later in October, it was revealed<\/a> that the data center would be primarily leased to Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI and Larry Ellison\u2019s Oracle, as part of Donald Trump\u2019s $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative<\/a>, dubbed \u201cStargate.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure there were any good solutions,\u201d Fred Lucas, the township\u2019s attorney told Fortune. \u201cIf you polled everyone on the township board, they would have said the same thing: they didn\u2019t want a data center there. We didn\u2019t invite them, we didn\u2019t encourage them.\u201d<\/p>\n The legal strong-arming in Saline exposes a fundamental contradiction in America\u2019s AI infrastructure boom: it\u2019s being imposed from above by tech billionaires and their political allies, not chosen by the communities forced to live with it. Town after town has been compelled to absorb the environmental<\/a> and social costs<\/a> of an industry obsessed with expansion \u2014 making it clear that when capital and democracy collide, capital wins.<\/p>\n Kathryn Haushalter, a local mother who lives near the data center site told Fortune that \u201cit feels like I\u2019m playing by a different rule book. Like I\u2019m playing baseball and they\u2019re playing football.\u201d<\/p>\n