VBT approves moratorium on possible ICE detention center

A last-minute agenda item – a six-month moratorium — was added to the end of the short Van Buren Township Board meeting on Feb. 17 with supervisor Kevin McNamara explaining that the federal government had just purchased a warehouse in the township.
It was the same unit that purchased the warehouse in Romulus with the intent of using it as an ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs) detention center for 500 people.
The Van Buren Township warehouse is at 41199 Van Born Rd., between Haggerty Road and I-275.
The Romulus detention center is confirmed planned for the warehouse at 7525 Cogswell Road, south of Ecorse and east of Hannan Road. The federal government also bought a building in Southfield for ICE offices.
The motion that was made by treasurer Sharry Budd and seconded by Clerk Leon Wright deferred any review of new applications pertaining to detention centers/private prisons, large industrial projects meeting certain criteria, and power generation facilities. The motion carried unanimously.
Trustee Donald Boynton was absent from the meeting.
Ron Akers, director of municipal services, gave a report on the situation before the vote.
He said the same group that bought the Romulus warehouse bought the Van Buren Township warehouse, but it is not clear if there is any intent to establish a facility in the township. He said, however, after a review of township development regulations it is clear that the township needs to take some additional considerations with regards to private prisons and detention centers.
“There is a significant difference between the amount of water and sewer demand between a warehouse and a detention center and in certain areas of the township we have capacity issues which need to be considered for these types of facilities,” director Akers said.
The moratorium would give the planning commission time to address size and scale in review of these issues, he said.
McNamara said the planning commission wants such uses to be specified as needing special land use approvals.
He said this does not apply to Cannolli, the data center seeking to build in the township, since it complies with the requirements for its zoning and was filed before this resolution was passed. He said you can’t deny to hear a request after it is in the pipeline.
McNamara said the board is trying to get ahead of a problem.
Clerk Wright agreed, saying, “This is one of the things we have been asked to do and we can do it.”
Under public comment, John Delaney chastised the board for just adding this item to the agenda at the last minute. He said they need to put this before the public for consideration before they vote on it.
“I’m going to fight like hell to keep a detention center out,” McNamara said.
In other business at the Feb. 17 meeting, the board:
• Heard clerk Wright memorialize the late Jessie Jackson and then the board held a moment of silence to mark his passing. Wright also introduced three members of the Belleville High School student council who put on a presentation honoring important personalities for Black History Month. Students were Braylon Hubbard, ’26; Morgan Liggins, ’27; and Kassidy Taylor, ’27;
• Adopted the IAFF Medical Expense Retirement Plan (MERP) to replace the Healthcare Savings Plan with MERS. It was explained the full-time fire fighters needed a different kind of coverage;
• Approved the supervisor’s reappointments of Kimberly Nofz, Charles Coleman, Stacy English, Tommy Wall, and Mark Woodson to the Recreation Committee with terms to expire Feb. 1, 2027;
• Approved the appointment of Brian Cullin as the Planning Commission liaison and Bernard Grant as the alternate Planning Commission liaison to the Board of Zoning Appeals;
• Approved the union contracts for the IAFF (full-time fire fighters), MAFF (paid-per-call fire fighters), POLC command officers, POLC patrol officers, and dispatch employees;
• Approved the Hydro Corp 5-year renewal service agreement costing $520,137.69 to be paid from the Water and Sewer contracted services account. The current agreement expires in March. The company inspects 180 non-residential water connections and 3,700 residential water connections. “It’s the law,” said Kevin Lawrence, director of Water and Sewer. McNamara said if the connections aren’t secure, contaminants could get back into the water system and “poison us”;
• Approved Fishbeck Engineers to provide Professional Construction Engineering Services for the Belleville Road Reconstruction Water Main Replacement project in the amount of $113,496 to be paid from Capital Outlay – System Improvement Appropriations. Construction of the water main will begin this spring;
• Heard Ron Akers, director of municipal services, read an update on the Belleville Road widening project that was prepared by Merrie Coburn, director of the Downtown Development Authority. She said the township is still waiting on NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) approval, but will not be able to do tree and vegetation clearing during the bat-breeding season, which is April-August, so work will probably get under way in late fall;
• Heard Delaney comment that he has been calling in complaints for six months about fixing the Ecorse/Haggerty Gateway sign that has the “n” light off, making the sign call the township “Van Bure.” He pointed out those Gateway signs were very expensive. He said he also wants updates on the legal action on the drift race track on Robson Road, which is near his home. He said he helped get the co-gen project planned for Visteon in Van Buren to move to Canton instead. Delaney said the “dog and pony show” put on last week before the data center vote “doesn’t cut it”;
• Heard Tracy Osborne of Hannan Road say he thought it was strange to see the board push the ICE detention center away so fast, while it welcomed the data center. He questioned the safety of the sound at the data center, especially the low-frequency noise that could affect his special-needs daughter. Osborne said he would like to see a sound study that is done in the summer, not the one they have that was done in cold weather. He said his water well is shallow, just 15’ down, and he fears that will be affected;
• Heard two residents who are students at Eastern Michigan University speak against the data center. One said she only learned about it last week and doesn’t have the information. McNamara directed them to the township website where the Frequency Asked Questions are answered and also to the Independent where these FAQs were also printed;
• Heard Delaney speak under Public Comment for a second time, this time questioning why the public can’t know the Fortune 50 company that will operate the data center. He said he will request the name under a Freedom of Information Act request. Clerk Wright said someone already did that and the name of the company is not on the confidentiality agreement signed on the project; and
• Heard McNamara tell Delaney that he did ask that the sign be fixed and it wasn’t fixed. In responding to a comment that the township doesn’t want to spend money on a law suit to stop the data center, McNamara said he spent $300,000 in legal fees to fight the radioactive waste at the landfill and $1 million in fighting Visteon.