The University of Michigan is continuing to plan a large-scale supercomputing facility in Ypsilanti Township, despite three denouncement resolutions from the city and township, consistent opposition from local residents and a recent moratorium on Ypsilanti’s water and sewer services that restricts their use for data centers and similar facilities.
Before the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority voted to approve the moratorium April 22, 2026, its board of commissioners, along with several other Ypsilanti officials, was sent a legal notice by the Barnes & Thornburg law firm representing U-M asserting that the resolution “would be legally invalid because, among other defects, it would be unrelated to any documented utility or public health needs.”
The notice, a copy of which was obtained by The Eastern Echo, also says that the moratorium is discriminatory in its singling out of data centers. While the document concludes by reserving the University’s right to pursue additional legal action, the firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it or U-M would be pursuing such measures in wake of the moratorium being passed…