VBT planners vote 4-1 to OK preliminary plan for expansion of data center

U.S. Signal at 9275 Haggerty Rd. received preliminary site plan approval from the Van Buren Township Planning Commission to expand its present data center. This was at the commission’s Dec. 10 meeting.
The vote was 4-1, with commissioner Jackson Pahle voting no. Absent were commissioners Medina Atchinson and Peter Creal.
U.S. Signal has a data center of 25,000 square feet on the northeast corner of Tyler and Haggerty roads and future expansion was discussed when that was built in 2019. Three other phases were planned and phases two and three will add 35,000 square feet to the current center. A future phase four of about 27,000 square feet is yet to be planned.
The 7.91 acres is zoned OT (Office Technology) which allows a data center by right. It uses closed-loop cooling said Andrew Bajuszik of U.S. Signal.
Commissioner Pahle referred to a written list of questions that he asked the applicants one after another, including if this will result in a rise in price for electricity or water for residents. He asked if the polyethelene glycol it planned to use was environmentally safe and how long it would be before the process they use is obsolete. He said he was against increasing the burden on the community while bringing no new jobs.
Later in the discussion, Pahle said he was against all data centers. Then he cast a no vote on approving the planned expansion.
Vice-chairman Jeff Jahr noted the number of generators at the site is doubling and asked if that would make an issue with sound. He suggested they look at the specificiations that come with the machines.
Planning consultant Vidya Krishnan said if all the generators were turned on at once there might be a sound problem.
And, Jahr said, to consider the air conditioners and breaking up the façade of the long building planned with relief features. The developers were asked to bring a picture of what the building’s façade would look like.
Jahr said he has previous experience with data centers and, “I understand it’s a building for robots and their human minders.”
Jahr said it’s not a big data center and not heavily industrial. It is being built in phases and the generators are for backup.
He said there have been no complaints about it since it was built in 2019 and it has been a good neighbor.
Jahr pointed out it is across the street from the township’s only other data center (J.P. Morgan) which deals with finances. It is far back and hardly noticed.
“At this scale, I’m not concerned,” Jahr said of these two data centers. “We should be looking at our ordinances concerning mega data centers. This is one small data center that already has been approved.”
Commissioner Bernie Grant agreed and added that a member of the public brought out good questions about ordinances and data centers.
“This one is small,” Grant said. “It’s reasonable. The one across the street is set back and you hardly know it’s there. I have concerns on the hyperscale version.”
Jahr said this is expansion of an existing use, a reasonable expansion.
“Were a new one coming, I would look at it differently,” Jahr said.
A man who said he lives on Alden Drive said polyethelene glycol is a contaminant if it gets in the water. The applicant said it was non-toxic.
Another member of the public, Monique Kurdowski, said she is against data centers as a whole. She questioned them being allowed in Office-Tech zoning.
Krishnan said, “A lawful land-use cannot be excluded… The planning commission can look and plan for the future, but it cannot retroactively change anything once the applicant has applied.”
Kurdowski said you should be able to stop something once you know it hurts the public and commissioners said they had no desire to hurt the public.
Jahr made the motion to grant the preliminary site plan approval, which will have to come back for final approval before it can be built. He said Bajuszik can gather more information on environmental concerns, noise, the façade, where the water will be discharged and the impact on water or electrical bills.
Bajuszik said they have no control over electricity rates and Jahr said Bajuszik could go to DTE and have it state whether this is an undue burden on them. DTE could indicate it can provide the power at current rates.
The motion on the preliminary site plan passed.