Howell Township officials decided to pursue drafting a local ordinance on data centers following a controversial proposal for a hyperscale data center campus — reportedly backed by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta. In November, the township board put a “moratorium” in place to pause for six months any consideration or approval of data centers.
Following the moratorium, packed township meetings and resident opposition, the data center development team withdrew a request for the township to rezone more than 1,000 acres of mostly agricultural land on both sides of Grand River Avenue for a $1 billion data center campus to power artificial intelligence and other computing technologies.
Township planners are now collecting information and suggestions from the township’s Residents Research Committee on what could be put into a local ordinance.
While nothing is final, some of the township planners’ priorities are beginning to emerge.
Township planning consultant Brady Heath explained at a Tuesday, Jan. 27 meeting that he will take the residents committee and planning commission’s suggestions and eventually draft a potential ordinance. It would be reviewed by a subcommittee. There would be a public hearing, and the township board would have the final vote.
The township could opt to create a data center overlay zoning district, which would specify an area deemed appropriate for data centers.
The residents committee suggested locating the overlay district along an approximately 1.4-mile stretch north of Interstate 96, south of Grand River Avenue and east of M-59 near the I-96 interchange.
“That’s really where the majority of the township’s industrial flex and industrial zoning is located, and that area feels appropriate,” Kristen Dennison, a member of the residents committee, said.
“It’s near the interstate, the train tracks, M-59 and up to Grand River,” she said.
“Our intention wasn’t to make it impossible to fit these things, just to ensure that they are confined to an appropriate location,” she said.
If data centers are too densely packed in an area, she said, impacts such as noise “starts to compound, and the effects will spill beyond the borders that they were intended to be confined to.”
Wayne Williams, the planning commission’s chair, said an industrial property is “a proper place.”
“Because, it ideally has some of that infrastructure already in place,” like access to electricity and water, Williams said.
Resident committee member Jodi Fulton identified keeping data centers away from as much residential as possible as a goal.
“We looked at residential concentration around our existing industrial zone, and that’s what we feel the most comfortable about proposing,” Fulton said. “We do have a pretty low residential concentration.
Small data centers that are ancillary to a business, such as a health care institution with its own data center, could be exempt from a requirement they be in an overlay district or on industrial land.
Township planners will likely recommend setting rules for data centers of different sizes.
The residents committee also suggested limiting how close data centers of different sizes could be from homes and other data centers.
Most of the concern in the township is the potential for the largest of data center projects, some of which are more than a million square feet.
Limiting large data center campuses to 750,000 square feet could help limit how many large projects could fit in the township.
Planners and the residents committee also discussed whether to put a cap on the total square footage and amount of energy use for data centers.
The township’s financial risk is another concern. While large data center projects promise to generate millions in local tax revenue, collecting so much from a single company can be a risk if that company folds or leaves town.
“At approximately 750,000 square feet, that would comprise approximately, I think it was 17% of the township’s revenue,” based on estimates, Dennison said. “That’s already in that high financial risk threshold, which is ideally less than 10%.”
She said the numbers reflect a balance between what a large company would need and the township’s financial risk.
Township planners and the resident committee will continue discussing different aspects of a potential ordinance at future meetings. They are planning to discuss setbacks and building heights next. Other topics for future discussion are expected to include water and power usage, noise and application requirements.
© 2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
