LANSING — Downtown Lansing will not be home to a 24-megawatt data center following a company’s decision to pull its rezoning request and sale agreement hours before City Council had planned to vote on the project.
However, Councilmember Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, who represents Ward 2 in southeast Lansing, said she doesn’t believe United Kingdom-based Deep Green will be the last company looking to build a data center in the city so she introduced legislation prohibiting the facilities in certain areas.
Nevarez Martinez was elected to her seat in November and is an assistant professor in Michigan State University’s School of Planning, Design and Construction. It was her questions earlier this year about the conditional rezoning application that prompted Deep Green to resubmit its application in February, a step that pushed back the expected vote to Monday, April 6, before the company withdrew the project from consideration.
While the data center items were removed from the council’s agenda, Nevarez Martinez took time during the meeting to explain why she had planned to vote against the project, and that it wasn’t because she’s against economic development or innovation in Lansing.
“As (urban) planners and elected officials, we have an obligation to think not just about immediate gains, but about long-term impacts, cumulative burdens and the precedents that we set for the future,” she said. “Earlier today, I shared a draft ordinance with the office of city attorney that would prohibit data centers in commercial and downtown commercial districts, and require discretionary review in industrial districts,” she said.
The ordinance is intended “to ensure the proposals of this scale and impact” get the appropriate review and public input while maintaining strong standards, Nevarez Martinez said.
“I believe Lansing deserves development that aligns with our values, supports our residents and strengthens our city without compromising public health, trust or our long-term vision,” she said.
Deep Green went public in November with its plan to build a two-story, 25,000-square-foot data center on four lots on Kalamazoo Street between Cedar and Larch streets, about two blocks south of the city’s minor league baseball stadium. The project had been pitched by the company, the Lansing Board of Water & Light, Mayor Andy Schor’s administration and some in the business community as a positive and necessary step for the city.
However, many residents have pushed back for months, including during City Council meetings that included hours of public comment. The majority who voiced opposition told council they were concerned about the environmental impacts, a lack of transparency from BWL about power for the data center and Deep Green’s financial interests, and questioned whether a data center was a good fit for the downtown area.
Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at mjmencarini@lsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing councilmember to pursue new limits for new data centers
Reporting by Matt Mencarini, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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