LYON TWP. — Amid a growing debate over a series of proposals for massive data centers, township planning commissioners quietly approved in September a site plan for a large data center that would take over 172 acres in the South Hill Business Park.
The site plan for “Project Flex” includes six buildings totaling about 1.8 million square feet, as well as a DTE utility substation, south of Grand River Avenue, between South Hill and Milford roads.
Unanimously approved by planning commissioners, the project is a permitted use within the area that is zoned general industrial and light industrial. The matter is not required to go before the township board for approval, nor was a public hearing needed.
Lingering questions regarding the date center’s site plan prompted officials to put out a Dec. 11 statement about Project Flex, but township officials could not be reached Friday, Dec. 12. The township offices are closed on Fridays.
The six buildings, each of which total about 306,000 square feet, will have the capabilities to “support cloud computing, artificial intelligence computing, and enterprise services for clients,” and will be designed and operated by end users, according to consultant Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.Township documents show representatives for Kimley-Horn, data center builder Verrus and Detroit-based construction company Walbridge are involved in the township data center project.
Each of the buildings will have “leading-edge power and cooling systems” and adjacent equipment yards which will consist of “medium voltage switchgear and primary backup power for outages lasting les than four hours by a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) which produces no emissions,” according to Kimley-Horn and an industrial statement from Walbridge Assistant Vice President Adorno Piccinini.
For outages longer than four hours, “secondary backup power systems will be provided by packaged diesel generators in acoustic enclosures. All generators will comply EGLE and EPA Tier 4 Final standards and used only in an emergency or for periodic testing.”
Concerns over data centers include their potential for strain on water and electrical resources as well as increased noise levels.
Township documents did not include information on the energy that will be required. Hometown Life has reached out to DTE for comment.
A Verrus presentation given to the township indicates a traditional 6-building data center campus with evaporative cooling can use over 5.25 million gallons of water per day and Verrus would use about 15,000 gallons daily.
In the township’s release, it is noted that one condition of approval for the data center project is the submission of a sound study to ensure the project complies with noise limits.
The applicant must also submit hard copies of updated plans and supporting information that had not yet been received as of Dec. 11 by the township. Once the completed information is received, officials said in the release that “the plans will be stamped approved.” The approval will be valid until September 8, 2027. All applicable agencies, including EGLE and the Drain Commission, must also sign off on the project prior to construction.
Proposals for data centers are happening in Michigan and across the Midwest because of the need for computing capacity, particularly artificial intelligence.
Related Digital has proposed to build a data center on 250 acres of a 575-acre parcel in Washtenaw County’s Saline Township. The facility would feature more than 1 gigawatt in computing capacity, or the amount of electricity it could potentially draw from the power grid, which Wall Street analysts have previously compared to the output of a nuclear reactor.
Also, a major technology company wants more than 1,000 acres rezoned in Livingston County for a data center but recently withdrew its application.
A United Kingdom company, Deep Green, is seeking approval in Lansing to build a smaller-scale data center of two stories, 25,000 square feet expected to require 24 megawatts a year.
Residents in the communities have criticized the projects.
Susan Vela of the Lansing State Journal contributed to this report. Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: 1.8 million square foot data center approved for 172 acres in Lyon Township
Reporting by Susan Bromley, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
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