GAINES TWP, Mich. — A Gaines Township planning commission meeting was postponed Thursday after more than 300 residents packed into a boardroom designed for 250 people, all wanting to learn about Microsoft's proposal to rezone 40 acres for a potential data center.
The tech giant is seeking to rezone the land to light industrial, matching the zoning of 130 acres it already owns in the township. The overwhelming turnout reflects growing public interest in data centers as they become more common across West Michigan.
"Microsoft was here back in February and held their initial meeting about the rezoning, which was a public hearing. Nobody showed up. So clearly, this has become a really hot topic of interest for a lot of people," said Dan Wells, community development director for Gaines Township.
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Microsoft could technically submit a site plan immediately since it already owns adjacent property zoned as light industrial, though Wells said the company has indicated it's not ready to move forward yet.
After a 10-minute recess Thursday, commissioners resumed the remaining part of the meeting that did not address the rezoning proposal. They will likely meet in February, possibly at South Christian High School to accommodate the large crowd, but commissioners will have confirm the plan.
Afterwards, many attendees still expressed strong opposition to the proposed data center, citing concerns about resource consumption and utility costs.
"I don't know that I would ever change my stance on this. I think that I'm a hard no," said Diani Maldonado of Grand Rapids.
Maldonado worries about the impact on water and electricity for existing residents.
"Our bills keep going up and up every year. So what's to say that this won't cause our bills to go up even more?" Maldonado posed.
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Dan Goubert of Grand Rapids shared similar concerns about the broader community impact.
"It wastes our water, it scares our wildlife, it removes our ability to think. It raises our energy costs, and they're just loud as hell too," Goubert said.
Despite the apparent opposition from most attendees, some residents noted that among potential light industrial uses for the property, a data center would have relatively low impact.
It sits next to an Amazon fulfillment center that neighbors say has more of an impact than a data center would.
Randy Thelen, president and CEO of The Right Place economic development organization, said Kent County currently has nine data centers, most of which are smaller facilities. Amway and Corewell Health both operate company-specific centers, with Corewell's being the largest in the state.
Thelen pointed to markets like Omaha, Nebraska, which he says has around 30 data centers in the region, as examples of successful integration.
"Water needs have been dramatically reduced, and the new designs of these data centers — so some of the stories about millions of gallons — those are old models that are no longer deployed," Thelen said. "We think we're in a good position, given our climate, given the power capability, given some degree of large tracts of land, that it's of interest. There's three that are sort of considering the market today, and we'd like to see one or two of them like it."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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