8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS DATA CENTERS SEPTEMBER 4, 2026 Left and right: Yard signs across urban Washtenaw County display opposition to the U-M Los Alamos Data Center planned for Ypsilanti Township. Center: August 11, 2026, the University of Michigan announced selection of a 144-acre site along Textile Road, near Bridge and Rawsonville Roads, in Ypsilanti Township as the preferred location for their data center. Update on proposed data centers MIKE JONES Groundcover vendor No. 113 Two years ago no one was talking about or had even heard about data centers. Now, it’s the talk of the town in many American states, cities and townships. Data centers are dedicated computing facilities housing infrastructure to store vast amounts of data — primarily for Artificial Intelligence applications and cloud storage — and are being built all over America. Southeast Michigan is now in the cross-hairs and the people of the affected local communities continue to oppose these data centers and the big tech companies behind them. Proposed data centers in Michigan are heavily concentrated in Southeast Michigan, particularly around the Ann Arbor area in Saline, Ypsilanti, York Township and Van Buren Township. The $1.25 billion high-performance computing and AI research facility planned by the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory in Ypsilanti Township was first announced in December 2024. U-M maintains that the facility is a high-performance scientific research tool intended for medicine, climate science and energy innovation rather than a commercial data storage center. The development of the Saline AI data center in Saline Township was officially announced on October 30 and 31, 2025, as a multi-billion dollar project backed by tech companies OpenAI and Oracle. The United States has thousands of data centers, with recent estimates from late 2025 and early 2026 placing the number around 5,400 facilities, according to power solutions provider C&C Wave-Tech. This represents roughly 38-45% of global capacity, leading the world by a large margin. This massive infrastructure supports the nation's tech sector, with a significant portion concentrated in states like Virginia, Texas and California, and continues to expand rapidly due to AI demand. Projects often face pushback from residents concerned about energy use, increased utility costs and environmental impact — specifically air and water damage — often leading to data center moratoriums in these communities. At least two projects have been officially withdrawn by local pushback in Michigan, while over 50 communities across the state have enacted temporary moratoriums to block new applications, premptively stalling futures projects. Tuesday, September 1, the City of Ypsilanti held a public hearing for an ordinance to impose an emergency moratorium on issuance of new zoning permits for data centers in the City of Ypsilanti for 60 days although there were no current requests for data center permits. Across multiple townships, rather than leading to outright cancellations, this local opposition has heavily delayed projects or forced developers to alter their plans. Stalled and withdrawn projects Ypsilanti Township — stalled: In July, the Board of Trustees passed resolutions formally pushing back against a $1.25-billion high-performance computing data center project tied to the University of Michigan. Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo and township attorney Doug Winters expressed frustration at being blindsided by the University’s final decision, stating that the community formally opposes the project due to transparency and infrastructure concerns. Doug Winters stated that the university wouldn't place such a facility in Ann Arbor, and chose Ypsilanti Township because it features lower generational wealth and a higher percentage of Black and Brown residents. The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority approved a 12-month moratorium blocking new water and sewer approvals for data centers to study capacity and environmental risks. Saline and Augusta Townships — stalled: The massive $7 billion "Stargate" data center project in Saline Township (initiated by Related Digital as part of Oracle and OpenAI) faced intense backlash over a wastewater treatment plant permit application. The permit would allow treated facility water to discharge into the Saline River, raising local concerns about concentrated chemical pollutants, wetland destruction and massive energy demands. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and environmental groups filed legal briefs in August 2026 urging the court to overturn DTE Energy's fasttracked 1.4-gigawatt energy contracts with this project. (That is enough energy to power one million houses.) Meanwhile, construction and local administrative steps are moving forward, as reported by Planet Detroit. Howell Township — withdrawn: Developers withdrew a proposed $1 billion data center application following intense resident outcry and a local moratorium. Washington Township — withdrawn: A planned data center project was completely withdrawn by developers after local residents mobilized in opposition. Roughly 1,500 square miles of the state of Michigan are temporarily off-limits to new data center construction. Take action The next major scheduled community meeting regarding the proposed University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory research computing and data center is a community town hall hosted by U-M on Wednesday, September 9 at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest (1275 S. Huron St. Ypsilanti) from 5-7 p.m. [Note: town hall egistration is full, but interested attendees can watch at umich. edu/watch/] The next regular Saline Township Board Meeting is scheduled for September 9 at 7 p.m. at the Saline Township Hall (5731 Braun Rd, Saline). The township board routinely discusses project updates, monitoring and administrative items regarding the planned data center development. Other actions to take include: • Read multiple resources including news, poetry, reports and public commentary about the Ypsi Township project: linktr.ee/stopthedata • Follow @stopthedata on Instagram to see upcoming Ypsi Township events • Read project updates from Saline at s alinet o w nship .or g/ data-center-update • Contact your local and state politicians Note: For more information on proposed data centers go to the Groundcover News website and read digital issues June 13 2025, volume 16, issue 13, “Ypsilanti residents are organizing to Stop the Data Center,” written by Lindsay Calka, Groundcover News publisher; and January 23, 2026, volume 17, issue 3 “Southeast Michiganders fight AI data centers” written by Mike Jones.
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