HOWELL TWP., MI — When multiple developers of hyperscale data centers to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing approached Ryan Van Gilder and his family, he said, they had not been planning to sell farmland for development.
Now the longtime, multigenerational Howell area farming family is looking to sell a chunk of the many thousands of acres of farmland they own to a hyperscale data center project reportedly backed by Facebook and Instagram owner Meta.
“We didn’t seek out a sale or a data center. They came to us,” he said.
Van Gilder said “financially, it is good for us,” but he would not offer specifics.
A proposal to rezone more than 1,000 acres on both sides of W. Grand River Avenue in Howell Township for the data center is facing pushback from locals concerned about power and water resources, potential impacts on the environment and community, and the loss of agricultural lands.
The Howell Township Board of Trustees is expected to consider whether to approve rezoning land for research and technology uses at an upcoming meeting Monday, Dec. 8.
The pushback and public scrutiny “does not feel great,” Van Gilder said.
Recently passed tax breaks for data centers in Michigan created a “competitive landscape” for Big Tech companies looking to expand computing infrastructure, he said.
“We started thinking what it would mean for the community,” in terms of potential benefits, Van Gilder said.
“It provides the most economic benefit,” including tax revenue compared to other types of developments, he said. “It also benefits the community by not bringing in a lot of traffic congestion from a lot of employees.”
“What the community says is they don’t want development at all. They love farmland. They love farmers, and they want to preserve land,” he said. “We thought, this is a development that could actually do that over a long period of time, because anything else that would ever come here ... it would be worse for the community’s goals.”
While people who are against the data center have been the most vocal, others have expressed their support for the project, he said.
“There are many people who are silent and have told us they are rooting for us behind the curtain,” he said.
When the Howell Township data center project got rolling, Van Gilder did not anticipate the strong reactions that would come. Similar data center proposals in Saline Township and Augusta Township in neighboring Washtenaw County have faced comparable pushback.
In the end, Van Gilder has concluded the data center would offer “more pros than cons,” he said.
He spoke with MLive at a data center information fair at Cleary University in Howell on Thursday, Dec. 4, when an attorney representing the data center development team revealed they will offer up three new, additional promises to the township.
Those new conditions include a vow to limit water consumption by committing to use a closed loop water cooling system that would only require about 300,000 gallons for about 10 years. The data center project team also is offering property value protections and a $100,000 investment in an escrow account for the township to enforce local rules and all the conditions the data center is promising. Further, officials say the project will maintain minimum 400-foot setbacks of data center buildings from property lines and a landscaped berm around the site. They would conserve about 121 acres on the northern side and donate it to a public or nonprofit group for parkland or agricultural preservation.
In addition, they would not develop the south side, where the Van Gilder family’s farm operations are located, for four years, among other promised conditions.
Van Gilder said his family plans to continue farming and the four-year pause on developing the south side will give them time to relocate operations.
While Howell Township officials recently voted to put a “moratorium” in place to pause for six months any consideration or approval of data center proposals, the pause does not stop the township board from voting on whether it’s appropriate to rezone the land for research and technology uses.
However, if the township board decides to approve rezoning that land, no site plans can be approved for the data center itself until the moratorium expires or is lifted. The township and Livingston County planning commissions both recommended the board deny the rezoning.
The Howell Township land in question is north and south of Grand River Avenue. It is south of Marr Road and north of Warner Road, and east of Owosso Road and west of Fleming Road. The firm is also eyeing adjacent land in neighboring Handy Township.
Developer Randee LLC requested the rezoning through its consulting firm Stantec Consulting Michigan.
While the developers have not publicly identified Meta, township Trustee Bob Wilson confirmed in November that Meta is backing the project.
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Washtenaw County reporter Jennifer Eberbach covers local government and community news for MLive/The Ann Arbor News. She covers issues that impact residents in townships and smaller cities outside of Ann Arbor....