Moratorium on data center applications set

By Dana Casadei

The Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees on Monday, January 26, approved a temporary moratorium on consideration of any data centers that may want to locate in the community.

The moratorium was projected to last about one year or until such time that the township has considered or developed regulations relative to data centers in the community. As approved by the board, the moratorium applies to the establishment, permitting, consideration, approval, location, construction, and/or installation of any data centers in the township.

“You’ll see a lot of communities – Northville Township, Livingston County, and Howell are doing this right now,” Andrea Bibby, Bloomfield Township Director of Planning, Building, & Ordinance, told the boare. “We’re following suit in the sense that data centers are still very much an unknown entity, including what the impact is on local infrastructure, safety, security and the long-term impacts that they could have on land use.”

This specific moratorium was based on the recommendation from Bloomfield Township attorney Anthony Chubb, who has experience with data centers in other Michigan communities, an issue that is gaining a lot of media attention across the state. 

Bibby told trustees that it would be a good practice to place a moratorium on any potential data centers until they are able to explore requirements for someone to be able to do so, and also consider where there would even be an opportunity within Bloomfield Township to put a data center. 

“I think this is really important and I appreciate Anthony bringing this to our attention. It’s something that I’ve been watching with all the media attention around the state,” said treasurer  Michael Schostak. “These data centers are really impactful to the surrounding community… not only affecting the electricity and the grid infrastructure but also the water infrastructure, and the use of water that it takes to cool the machines inside the data center, how that could impact our water system. I think it’s very important that we move forward with this.”

The only way an application will be able to receive a wavier of the moratorium will be if they can prove to the board that their data center would not impact the health, safety, and welfare of Bloomfield Township, officials said. It would also have to be deemed reasonable by the board of trustees in exercising its legislative authority over land use regulation to remain consistent with the township zoning ordinance.

“We don’t have anything currently on the books with our ordinance that we feel would satisfactorily address some of the potential land use concerns that we have,” Bibby said.