PONTIAC — The third time was the charm for an anti-data center group who succeeded in getting recall petition language approved against all seven Lyon Township board members.
The three-member Oakland County Election Commission on April 27 unanimously approved petition language submitted by township resident Nancy Hopkins and supported by the No Data Center in Lyon Township group.
The group said in a statement that the approved recall petition language states that “seven trustees voted to give themselves a raise during the Jan. 5, 2026 board meeting.”
Two previous attempts by the group had failed “the clear and factual” standard the election commission demands for recall petition language. None of the recall petition language submitted has ever cited the data center as a reason for the recall, although group members said that is the reason for the effort.
“Our ultimate goal is to have a board that understands and accepts that residents overwhelmingly oppose a 1.8-million-square-foot hyperscale data center in our community, and very close to a nearby elementary school,” said Craig Kreutzberg, group spokesperson and township resident. “Residents have protested that the board knew about Project Flex but did nothing to inform the community until it was almost too late.”
Project Flex is a six-building, 1.8 million square foot data center project planned for 172 acres in the South Hill Business Park West south of Grand River Avenue between South Hill and Milford roads. The project received conditional approval by the township Planning Commission in September. An uproar from the community ensued, with residents voicing numerous concerns over noise, environmental and health impacts, water and electricity usage, and others.
The project, backed by Verrus, never came before the township board for a vote because data centers are a permitted use in the business park, which is zoned industrial.
Trustee Lise Blades said she believes it is “unfortunate” that Verrus chose the township for a data center location, and also unfortunate that state officials gave tax breaks to data centers to encourage them to come to Michigan.But she pointed out that she cannot vote on something that never came before the board. “The board has no legal authority to overturn it,” Blades said. “(The anti-data center group) is asking us to overturn this decision and if we did that, we would likely get sued. Residents would have to pay for a massive lawsuit of millions of dollars and we would still have a data center, because the courts would not take the side of the township.”
As for the raise cited in the recall petition language, Blades said the board members are required by state law to vote on their salaries each year and a 4% raise is standard for cost of living and was given to most other township employees.
Supervisor John Dolan, Treasurer Patricia Carcone and Clerk Michele Cash did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The township board approved a six-month moratorium pausing any additional data center development in the township in March.
Roughly 3,000 valid signatures need to be gathered for each board member petition and submitted to the county clerk by July 31 for the recall effort to make the November ballot.
The group said petition signatures would not begin to be gathered until after a 10-day appeal period had passed.
“As conditional approval for Project Flex has already been granted, it now becomes a matter of proactively uncovering and calling out the ways the submitted plans fail to adequately address the many and varied environmental, infrastructure, and safety concerns at play — and, more importantly, are grounds for retracting that approval,” Kreutzberg said. “If the threat of being recalled is enough to get our current Board members to do that without going through this messy, lengthy process, then that would be a win.”
Blades said she had “zero desire” to appeal the election commission’s decision and added, “The residents have every right to attempt a recall if they are dissatisfied with what I have done.”
Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Recall petition language approved for all Lyon Township board members
Reporting by Susan Bromley, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
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