Real Estate Scam Prompts Data Center Moratorium Talks In Kasson Township
The Kasson Township Board will consider adopting a temporary ban on data centers at their regular June meeting, scheduled for this evening (Wednesday). The potential moratorium comes at the request of the township’s planning commission, which has been fielding questions and concerns about data centers from residents ever since a bogus real estate ad popped up online this spring. That ad, which purported to offer 200 acres of land for sale near Cedar, specifically framed the listing as “a strategic location for data center development.”
“What started us looking into data centers and doing some possible ordinance work on the subject was that someone put up a large parcel of property in the township for sale, and they tagged it as ‘Hey, this would be great for a data center,’” explains Mike Lanham, chair of the Kasson Township Planning Commission. “That ended up to be a scam.”
The listing, which has since been pulled down, touted a “200 +/- acre” site off Kasben Road as a “prime investment opportunity in northern Michigan…in the heart of Cedar” and “a strategic location for data center development.”
Data centers have become one of the hottest-button topics in American life over the past year. These properties – typically expansive warehouses filled with computer servers – process and store the ever-growing amounts of data necessary for the digital footprint of humankind. While data centers have long existed to keep the internet running and allow for cloud computing, the need for them has skyrocketed in the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
While Kasson Township’s first brush with potential data center development proved to be a false alarm, Lanham says the fake listing caused a stir.
“It definitely brought the citizens – especially in that area [of the township] – out to one of our planning commission meetings,” Lanham tells The Ticker. “Rather than being behind the ball, we want to get ahead of it. So, the planning commission is requesting that the township board implement a moratorium – I believe it’s either a 12 or 18-month moratorium – so we can do our homework on a potential ordinance.”
Tonight’s township board meeting is scheduled for 7pm at the Kasson Township Hall, located at 10988 South Newman Road.
Armed with a data center moratorium, Lanham says the planning commission would be able to take its time in researching and developing a longer-term strategy for handling proposed data center developments in the township. The eventual data center ordinance, he says, could either be written as an amendment to the existing Kasson Township zoning code or “as a separate policing ordinance.”
Planning commissioners intend to move forward with that ordinance work in the coming months. The draft will then go to a public hearing, then to the Leelanau County Planning Commission for review, then back to the Kasson planning commission for another review, and finally to the township board for final approval.
Many Michigan communities have adopted some type of moratorium. In northern Michigan, both East Bay Township and Garfield Township are working on data center regulations.
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives called for a one-year statewide moratorium on data center approvals.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has indicated she would not sign a bill to pause data center development even if it were passed by the legislature. Whitmer has been broadly supportive of data centers – including a $7 billion, 575-acre development in Saline that she hailed as “the largest economic project in Michigan history.” That data center, a collaboration between AI giants OpenAI and Oracle and data center development company Related Digital, broke ground last week.