A data center proposal, which the developer has dubbed Project Cannoli, is under consideration in Wayne County's Van Buren Township in Michigan.
A company called Panattoni is developing the project, which local officials have said will use roughly 1 gigawatt of electricity and at least 2 million gallons of water a day.
A spokesperson from Panattoni said Project Cannoli was introduced to the local community in 2024 and is currently moving through the public review process. Construction timing and when the facility would become operational have not yet been finalized.
The data center would be located near I-94 and in an area the township has zoned for industrial use, according to Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara. He said local officials are working with the developer to ensure the project can meet environmental and noise standards.
But McNamara said negative public feedback gave them pause. “It caused us to really pump the brakes when all of a sudden we had 200 people screaming, 'no data centers, we're all going to die,'” McNamara said.
Some residents have opposed the data center proposal, citing concerns about its impact on the energy grid and environment, and the affordability of their utility bills.
People from Van Buren Township held a protest of the proposed project on last month. The planning commission meeting for the next step of the project is scheduled for February 11.
According to an FAQ published by Van Buren Township, the estimated water usage for the data center would be somewhere from 2 to 3.6 million gallons per day. The data center would be required to purchase the water from the township to cool its facility.
Township and Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) engineers have determined the state’s municipal water system has the capacity to handle the demand without affecting water service or water bills to customers.
DTE has confirmed it’s able to provide power to the site, the FAQ states. In a letter to McNamara, DTE said that “any costs associated with infrastructure unique to the data center will be paid for by the project and not passed on to DTE’s existing customers.”
“This is going to be life-changing for a lot of small businesses within our community if it goes through, and it's going to be huge for our schools, too,” McNamara said.
Panattoni said the project’s goal is to deliver modern digital infrastructure while making a long-term investment in the community. It said the data center would be designed to generate significant tax revenue and create thousands of construction jobs. It said part of the site will be preserved as open space to support wildlife habitat and movement.
Michigan, the host of abundant freshwater resources, has been targeted for the development of several other data centers, including one in Saline Township that has conditional approval to move ahead. There’s been a drumbeat of backlash against the rapid growth in the number of proposed AI data centers by groups of residents across Michigan, who said they don’t want them in their communities.
