- The small farming community of Saline Township is set to host Michigan’s first hyperscale data center, a hulking facility made up of three buildings the size of 28 football fields.
- The deal shocked residents with its speed, dividing a community where life has long revolved around corn and soybeans
- It’s a debate set to play out in towns across Michigan as the tech industry makes rapid inroads
SALINE TOWNSHIP — Long defined by corn and soybeans, this farming community south of Ann Arbor could soon be transformed by Big Tech.
High-voltage power lines have attracted OpenAI, Oracle and Related Digital to a plot of farmland just off the highway, where, if all goes according to plan, Michigan’s first hyperscale data center will open in 2027.
Three buildings with a combined size of 28 football fields will occupy 250 acres, drawing more electricity than a million homes to power computer servers that train artificial intelligence models used in everything from online banking to internet search engines.
“It does change the dynamics,” said Raffaele Recchia, whose modest boat and car storage warehouse is currently one of the bigger buildings in town. “It’s a sleepy little farm community out here, which has always been nice.”
Now, a handful of farmers stand to become multimillionaires overnight and the township’s property tax revenue stands to quadruple while neighbors debate whether Big Tech’s arrival will bring prosperity for all or runaway development rife with traffic, noise and pollution.
The deal, which shocked residents with its speed, is unlikely to be Michigan’s last.
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Tech firms are descending upon the state in search of land and electricity to compete in the global AI arms race, sparking a high-stakes debate about whether the benefits outweigh the costs.
Across the country, data center developments have tended to appear in clusters, with one facility attracting others. The boom has produced windfalls for local governments and businesses that feed and house construction workers or supply materials for the build-out. But it has also brought headaches for neighbors of the droning computer warehouses and sometimes trouble meeting the facilities’ water and electricity demand.
In some data center-heavy regions, utilities have been forced to delay the closure of fossil fuel power plants to serve the energy-hungry facilities, while residents have seen electricity rate increases to pay for utility upgrades that benefit data centers. Similar concerns have emerged around water use in cases where data centers use water-intensive evaporative cooling (the Saline Township facility will not).
In Saline Township, residents now wonder what life will be like for them once the $7 billion Stargate data center is built.
Worries and windfall
Dueling lawn signs separate data center supporters and opponents.
Dennis Wilkin, one of three farmers who agreed to sell his land to the developers for an “astronomical” sum, has noticed his neighbors no longer wave when they pass on the road.
But the way he sees it, “progress is going to happen, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or whether it’s a plus or a negative for any individual … It has for our whole history in America.”
Advocates of the data center proposal tout its potential to bring in millions in annual tax revenue and 450 onsite jobs to the community of about 2,300 people, while opponents fear environmental impacts and question whether the money is worth it.
The developers plan to take advantage of Michigan’s newly created sales and use tax exemption for large data centers, at a likely annual savings of millions. They’re set to receive a 50% discount on local property taxes worth millions more.
Even so, Related Digital has estimated the facility will singlehandedly quadruple Saline Township’s annual property tax revenue, from about $754,000 today to nearly $3 million by 2028. Asked what the local government will do with all the money, township Clerk Kelly Marion said leaders have yet to decide.
“None of the board members wanted the data center,” she said. “We’re just trying to process. “
The data center owners will pay another roughly $8.1 million annually in school taxes and $2.2 million to the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. As part of a legal settlement that allowed the development to proceed, they’ll also pay $14 million to establish a farmland preservation trust fund, improve township facilities and boost local fire departments.
They also agreed to use a closed-loop cooling system that uses far less water than the average data center, monitor the underlying aquifer for signs of decline and keep noise levels at the property line no louder than the hum of a household refrigerator.
“I really think when it’s in there, you won’t even know what’s there,” said Ronald Kohler, a township planning commissioner who voted against the proposal but has since warmed up to it.
The companies’ promises bring no comfort to Jeff Rechten, who lives about two miles from the proposed development. Rechten questions whether the companies will follow through and remains concerned about other impacts, such as light pollution from the 24/7 operation.
“They do just enough to make it look like they’re addressing the citizens’ concerns,” he said, calling it “part of a well-thought plan to shape the narrative.”
Rechten wonders how much more of the area’s farmland could one day be transformed into sprawling computer warehouses.
The companies involved in the Stargate project have vowed not to expand. And so far, no additional developments are being publicly discussed in the Saline area.
A done deal?
The Saline Township facility’s rapid approval has also been a source of tension.
Wilkin, the farmer who ultimately chose to sell his land, was planting soybeans last spring when company representatives pulled up in a pickup truck and offered big money for his 287-acre farm.
It would be mid-July before Related Digital shared their plans with the township Board of Trustees, kicking off a public debate that lasted all of three months.
At hearings about the proposal, residents turned out in droves to pepper local officials and developers with questions.
Attendees were overwhelmingly opposed, although a few expressed excitement about the chance for new tax revenue. One of the landowners who’d agreed to sell warned that, with or without the data center, their farm would be developed “one way or another.”
The project hit a brief roadblock when the township board voted 4-1 against rezoning the farms for industrial use. But the developers and landowners sued, claiming exclusionary zoning. The township quickly settled at the advice of attorneys who viewed the case as unwinnable.
Marion, the township clerk and the lone yes vote for rezoning, said it seemed like the developers had planned it all out in advance.
“Our options were not pretty,” she said. “We tried to put as much as we could in this settlement … to try to protect the people, versus them going around us and doing whatever.”The project’s opponents were left stunned at how quickly it all went down. Most had only learned about the proposed data center in August or September. Now, construction equipment was parked in the harvested fields.
“I think it’s a done deal at this point, unfortunately,” said Rechten.
DTE Energy has agreed to provide power to the Stargate project through a 19-year contract, relying on the utility’s existing power generation fleet, purchased power and battery storage to deliver 1.4 gigawatts of electricity. But the contract can’t be finalized without approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates the state’s power sector.
DTE officials have irked ratepayer advocates, environmental groups and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel by requesting a fast-tracked review that would not allow for public input.
“We can’t allow these things to happen behind closed doors at a rushed pace,” said Bryan Smigielski, a Michigan organizer with the Sierra Club. “If OpenAI says they need just to be rubber-stamped or they’re going to go elsewhere, I think go elsewhere.”
Energy regulators have not yet indicated whether they’ll agree to the expedited review.
The developers also need permits from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy: one to install diesel generators that can keep computers online during a power outage and another for construction activities that would impact wetlands and the Saline River, such as property grading and building stormwater retention ponds.
A spokesperson for the state environmental regulatory agency gave no firm estimate of when officials will rule on the requests. Depending on whether a public hearing is requested, whether the project requires a review from the US Environmental Protection Agency and whether any party contests the agency’s eventual decision, the process could take several months.
Responding to a question about the construction equipment that has already been hauled onsite, Related Digital spokesperson Natalie Ravitz said the company has “begun to mobilize our planning teams on site to ensure we can commence full construction at the start of 2026.”
A wave of interest
Elsewhere in Michigan, data center developers have purchased land or pitched projects in at least nine communities, from the Howell area to the rural townships outside Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Monroe and Kalamazoo.
The state’s two largest utilities, DTE and Consumers Energy, are in advanced talks to provide a combined 5 gigawatts of power for multiple proposed data centers. That’s enough to spike their combined energy demand by 25% above today’s peak load, likely requiring billions of dollars of investment in poles, wires, substations and possibly power plants and solar farms to deliver all that energy.
State regulators have vowed to closely scrutinize utilities’ data center contracts to ensure that everyday Michiganders don’t wind up subsidizing the build-out.
Smigielski, of the Sierra club, said he still worries Michigan’s predicted data center boom could have “catastrophic land use implications, catastrophic emissions and pollution implications, and catastrophic water implications,” particularly if it relies on fossil fuels.
As more data centers come online, both DTE and Consumers plan to build more natural gas plants.
State law requires utilities to adopt 100% “clean” energy by 2040, using a broad definition that includes natural gas plants equipped with carbon capture technology. It also allows utilities to win extensions by convincing regulators they have a good reason for failing to meet deadlines.
Both DTE and Consumers have said they can cater to data center demand while complying with Michigan’s clean energy law and keeping residential customers’ rates in check.
But they’ve offered few additional details, stating that the particulars will be hashed out in long-term power plans due to be filed with the Michigan Public Service Commission next year.
Further complicating Michigan’s data center debate: It’s not clear how many of the proposed deals will materialize.
Data centers are a speculative industry. Developers tend to shop around in search of cheap land and electricity, low taxes and limited public resistance.
The last item on that list is already becoming tough to find in Michigan.
In Monroe County’s Dundee Township, a data center developer recently paused talks with the local government amid public outcry. In Washtenaw County’s Augusta Township, opponents of a proposed data center are pursuing a ballot initiative to prevent the local government from rezoning land for the facility. And in Livingston County’s Howell Township, the planning commission recently voted against rezoning for a data center, although the final decision rests with the township board.
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