A group opposing a hyperscale data center in Lyon Township has had petition language approved to recall all seven members of the township’s board of trustees — even though the language doesn’t mention the data center at all.
The Oakland County Election Commission on April 27 approved the language, which states that “all seven trustees voted to give themselves a raise” at their Jan. 5 board meeting, according to a No Data Center Lyon Township news release. Michigan law requires election commissions to approve recall petition language if it is factual and clear.
Some have raised questions about why residents are trying to recall trustees over a pay raise, not the data center project, but Craig Kreutzberg of the No Data Center group said the recall petition language didn’t need to have anything to do with the data center.
“At the end of the day, we are holding them accountable for their decisions made with Project Flex, and this is our means to do so,” Kreutzberg said.
Kreutzberg said they chose the recall language about the pay raise at the advice of their attorney, who told them it would give them the greatest chance of the language getting approved.
Still, Township Supervisor John Dolan questioned the recall petition language. In a statement to The Detroit News, Dolan said the board has approved cost-of-living increases for township employees and board members since his first year as a trustee in 2008.
“The grounds for recall are puzzling to me,” Dolan said. “The residents of Lyon Township have a right to recall and I respect that right, however the Board has done nothing wrong and is in accordance with State Law.”
The Lyon Township planning commission approved Project Flex in September. The center, which will span 1.8 million square feet, will sit on 172 acres east of Milford Road and south of Grand River Avenue. The center’s parent company, Verrus, has ties to Google, Apple, Meta and X, according to its website.
The project did not go before the board of trustees for approval because it did not require variances or zoning changes.
In a news release, Kreutzberg said residents “have protested that the board knew about Project Flex but did nothing to inform the community until it was almost too late.”
But like the supervisor, Trustee Lise Blades also questioned the accuracy of the recall petition language.
“Let’s be honest: the recall language has nothing to do with the data center, but the recall effort has everything to do with it,” she said in a statement to The Detroit News.
Blades acknowledged that “many of us” in Lyon Township are upset about the data center.
Trustee Sean O’Neil said he and the residents who are recalling him “don’t have a differing opinion” on the data center.
“The group says we should have done a much better job of informing the residents, and they allege that we knew about it before it came about,” said O’Neil. “Well, that’s untrue.”
“I didn’t know about the data center until it was talked about at a board meeting after the planning commission approved it in September.”
While Lyon Township residents have expressed concerns about the data center’s impacts to water, land and noise, Verrus CEO Nelson Abramson claims Project Flex will have minimal negative impacts because it won’t use diesel generators, will use significantly less water than other centers and will strengthen the power grid.
The No Data Center group will have 60 days to collect signatures representative of 25% of votes cast throughout the township or in the trustees’ districts for all gubernatorial candidates in 2022. The trustees with enough verified signatures would then face recall elections in November.
The Board of Trustees in March unanimously enacted a 180-day moratorium for data centers to give the township planner, engineers and consultants to conduct a review of regulations for the centers.
mbryan@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Group looks to recall Lyon trustees over data center with unrelated language
Reporting by Max Bryan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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