Richland Township leaders have pressed pause on two of the hottest development trends in Michigan right now, approving a 12-month moratorium on new data centers and a separate nine-month moratorium on battery energy storage systems. The temporary bans give officials breathing room to figure out how these facilities might affect the community before any new projects can move forward.
According to FOX 17 West Michigan News, the moratoriums are meant to give township officials additional time to study how these facilities could affect the community before determining what regulations should be put in place. Township documents point specifically to studying potential impacts on infrastructure, public health, safety and natural resources, the station reports. Officials have stressed that the pauses are temporary and do not amount to permanent bans on either type of development.
Solar Farm Hearing Adds to the Backdrop
The moratoriums come as Richland Township has also been fielding proposals tied to large-scale energy infrastructure. Leaders there recently heard from Consumers about a proposed solar farm during a public hearing, the same station’s reporting notes, underscoring how quickly the township’s rural landscape has become a target for energy and tech development.
Richland Township is far from alone in reaching for a timeout button. Just north in Saginaw County, the Saginaw Township Board of Trustees voted on November 9 to approve an ordinance regulating data-center development, according to Michigan Public. That ordinance caps noise from data centers at 40 decibels at the property line and requires buildings and equipment to sit at least 500 feet from residential property. The same night, the Romulus City Council unanimously approved an immediate 180-day moratorium on data centers that took effect right away, the outlet reported.
Dozens of Michigan Communities Have Hit the Brakes
The scramble to regulate data centers has become a statewide phenomenon. A Michigan Public analysis from July found that as many as 52 local township and city governments across Michigan had passed data-center moratoriums, the station reported. In Jackson County alone, 13 of 19 townships had passed moratoriums against data centers in the past year as of early November, per reporting from MLive…