ALLEN PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) — Tonight, residents in Allen Park will get a chance to make their voices heard over a proposed data center development.
Watch Faraz's report below
It is one of over a dozen facilities that are being proposed throughout Southeast Michigan. In January, the Allen Park planning commission postponed a vote on preliminary site plans, following community feedback. We were there as people lined up inside and outside of the meeting.
Watch our previous coverage
The proposed site is on Enterprise Drive, just south of I-94. The company Solstice Data wants to build a 26-megawatt, 45,000 square foot data center. While it's being welcomed by some, it's facing criticism from others.
The City’s planning commission could decide tonight whether to move ahead with the development. Developers say it’s smaller than most in the region and vital for future technology. But that's not reassuring to many people in this city speaking out against the plan.
Chris Darczynski is a former Lincoln Park City Councilmember with engineering training. He’s joined residents in submitting forty detailed questions to city leaders ahead of tonight’s vote, citing infrastructure strain and security concerns.
"The power usage will be equivalent to 20,705 houses. Allen Park total has 12,200 residential houses. So this will use more power than all the houses in Allen Park," Darczynski said. "My hope is that the project is just denied."
The proposed site sits directly behind Melvindale High School, Maple Heights Retirement Community and a church.
An Allen Park resident and nurse practitioner, Nicole Hopkins, who is against the data center proposal, says that uncertainty is dangerous — especially for residents already living with chronic illnesses so close to the proposed site.
"They actually admitted to us that Solstice had never opened an AI data center on their own," she said. "They started to kind of say that, you know, we don't know the outcomes it's going to have on citizens' health-wise or the environment.
"It is constant noise, which actually, because it's low frequency, it causes a vibration in the human body, which increases cortisol, anxiety, depression," Hopkins continued. "It increases irritability and restlessness in kids with ADHD, as well as autism, impaired focus, sleep disruption, tinnitus, ear pressure, headaches, fatigue, increased blood pressure, and cardiovascular stress."
Solstice Data — the developer behind the project — says its smaller footprint, about two percent the size of a project planned in Saline Township, and proximity to automakers like Ford and GM makes it essential for real-time technology from self-driving cars to robotics.
During the January meeting, a Solstice Data Representative also added that "If my kid jumps out in the road, we don’t have one second for the sensor on the car to go to a data center 1,000 miles away and come back — it has to be instantaneous. That’s what an edge data center is."
"When you've got a commercial high-tech facility that directly impacts the environment, and a tremendous amount of power usage that's going to cause DTE rates to go up, then there's really no community benefit here,” Chris said.
Residents opposing the data center have also collected hundreds of signatures calling for a pause or outright rejection. Meanwhile, the planning commission meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall. If approved tonight, the project would still need final site plan approval.
We’ll bring you the decision and reaction on air and online.
If you would like to share your thoughts on a data center in your area, you can fill out the form on our website
