Lyon Township ‘may be revisiting’ data center site plan: Residents pack meeting

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Around 125 people showed up at a Lyon Township Planning Commission Monday to voice their disapproval of a 1.8-million-square-foot data center planned for a site south of Grand River Avenue between South Hill and Milford Roads.

Many residents of the southwestern Oakland County community questioned the quality of a recently completed sound study and raised concerns about potential impacts to drinking water wells, air quality, and energy reliability.

The data center was not on Monday’s meeting agenda. The Lyon Township Planning Commission granted conditional approval for the site plan Sept. 8.

Final approval for the data center hinges on an independent review of the sound study and an energy audit, according to a Jan. 8 statement by the township. The township is taking questions about the data center through Feb. 8.

“The Planning Commission may be revisiting the site plan approval for Project Flex to ensure that the required conditions and concerns have been appropriately and thoroughly addressed,” the statement said.

The data center proposal is composed of six buildings on 172 acres, approaching the size of the pending 2.2-million-square foot Oracle and Open AI data center in Saline Township.

The development, Project Flex, will require a new DTE Energy electrical substation and be served with backup power from both batteries and diesel generators, according to an August site plan application.

The data center plans were submitted by Verrus, which is operated by the holding company Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners. 

Google parent company Alphabet, StepStone, and the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan are investors in Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners.

“Verrus is working to set a new industry benchmark for responsible development, specifically through cooling and power systems that outperform traditional centers with little to no water consumption or emissions, and game changing new capabilities to actively support power grid reliability with our backup batteries (not diesel generators),” Verrus spokesperson Emily Hebert said in response to a request for comment on this story. 

Lyon Township resident calls for data center moratorium

Many at Monday’s meeting said township officials fell short in notifying the public that a data center was being considered, and demanded commissioners do what they can to slow or stop the development.

Lyon Township resident Kelley Haynes said a lot has occurred since the data center site plan was approved, with environmental groups highlighting the facilities’ water and energy use.

“The red flags are going up all around us,” Haynes said. She called on commissioners to study the project’s long-term impacts and enact a 12-month moratorium on data center developments.  

Some residents questioned the Jan. 7 data center noise study in their remarks Monday.

The data center would produce operational noise levels below acceptable nighttime and daytime thresholds with an anticipated volume of 44 dB(A), a measurement of decibels that approximates the frequency response of the human ear, according to the study from the consulting firm Kimley-Horn.

The sound study does not include a measurement for the noise from diesel backup generators included in the data center plan. The data center’s primary backup power for outages of less than 4 hours would come from a zero-emission battery energy storage system, and for longer outages, packaged diesel generators in acoustic enclosures would be used as a secondary backup, the document said. 

Diesel backup generators can be as loud as 110 dB(A), the trade publication Data Center Knowledge reports.

Lyon Township resident Nancy Hopkins lives roughly 1 mile from the planned data center. She wants township officials to stop  development, she told Planet Detroit before Monday’s meeting.

The data center could lead to more power outages and increase her electric bills, Hopkins said. 

Hopkins said she’s concerned the data center’s cooling system and fuel for its backup generators could pollute her well water. Air pollution from generators could exacerbate her family’s health problems, she said.

“The pollution is going to affect people like my husband and sister. Both have asthma,” Hopkins said.

Community advocates who oppose the data center will host a moderated question-and-answer session with data center experts at 7 p.m.on Jan. 15 at the South Lyon East High School Auditorium.

Lyon Township will host an informational data center meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 at the South Lyon East High School Auditorium.

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