VBT planners consider data center issue for 3.5 hours, postpone decision

There was one item on the agenda of the three-and-a-half hour, April 22 meeting of the Van Buren Township Planning Commission.
The request was for preliminary site plan approval of a DTE/ITC substation to power the huge data center planned for 282 acres in the township.
DTE, in collaboration with ITC, plans to construct a high-voltage substation / switching station on nine acres on the east side of Haggerty Road within the boundaries of the Project Cannoli Data Center.
Commissioners considered the issue at length, listened to 11 people speak for up to three-minutes each from the audience, and four who came back to the microphone for more comments against the project.
Then, after more discussion, the commission voted unanimously to postpone a decision until a future meeting.
Commissioner Jeff Jahr, who made the motion, added the questions he wanted to be answered before bringing it back to the commission for a decision. He asked for:
• A unified site plan to consider. The site plan for the substation/switch station was brought separately from the data center site plan, which was approved Feb. 11 on a 5-2 vote. Now, it is considered one site plan and so the new construction being requested should be considered as an amended data center site plan, Jahr said. Developers said they waited to do the substation plans until after they were assured the data center plan was approved. There were different owners of the properties at first and now there is one owner.
• How the power is delivered to the site. ITC said the electrical power will be brought to the substation from the ITC lines that run north and south through the township. It will be delivered on underground lines and the commission wants to know what route it will take. ITC said this has yet to be determined, since it waited until approval of the project before working on a route.
• Diagram of the power poles on the site and the overhead clearance of the lines, along with an aerial drawing of the site to show where everything will be at both the data center and the substation.
Commissioner Bernard Grant asked for Jahr to add to his motion requirement of a new acoustic report, since Grant didn’t trust the one submitted. He wanted information on how the aging of the equipment would affect the noise. He also wanted additional information on the PCUs (power conditioning units) and battery fires that could bring harmful fumes to the residential area nearby.
Jahr amended his motion but he didn’t add a requirement for a new sound study.
Grant insisted a third party should do a sound study and the township should get its own consultant, other than its Fishbeck engineering consultant, to study it.
Commission chairman Brian Cullin pointed out, since nothing was built, any study has to start with the information provided by the developer on what precise equipment will be in the project, its size, and other measurements.
“I don’t have authority to ask the township board to hire a third party, but the staff could request it,” Jahr said.
Commissioner Peter Creal seconded the motion
The vote to postpone action on the request until they get answers was unanimous, without the new study proposed by Grant.
He said the amended preliminary site plan could be considered on the same day as the final site plan.
Commissioner Grant lives in Haggerty subdivision, across Haggerty Road from the development. Many times throughout the meeting he said subdivision homes will lose value if the data center project is built.
At the beginning of the meeting, representatives from the township planning consultant and engineering consultant described the project and recommended preliminary site plan approval because it complied with ordinances. The fire marshal also gave information.
Panattoni attorney Trey Brice said the preliminary site plan being considered is in accordance with the ordinance, without variances, and is allowed by right.
Then representatives from DTE Energy, ITC power lines, and Panattoni developer explained the project and answered many, many questions throughout the meeting.
Most of the questions came from Grant, who said he would vote against approval if there were a vote. Sitting next to him at the commission table was commissioner Jackson Pahle who at an earlier meeting said he was against all data centers. Commissioner Pahle asked a few questions when Grant paused to take a breath during his hour-long marathon of questions.
The switching station, which is a type of substation with no humming, was described by Jeremy Barrett of ITC as 80’ tall at the highest with the majority being equipment below 24’. It is an unmanned site surrounded by a Palisades-style fence with a sign carrying emergency numbers that are answered 24/7. There are lights that will be focused downward, but are not on unless someone is on the site doing maintenance.
Panattoni said it listened to concerns of the community and reduced the number of generators by 80%, from 156 to 24. At the request of the township, a second noise study was conducted without snow on the ground and shows the project is in compliance with the township noise ordinance.
With the shrinking of the substation, the berm now will be 135’ back from Haggerty Road with trees on top. There will be two 80’ tall H-frames in the project and transmission poles 150’ tall.