KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Artificial intelligence needs data centers, but people don’t want them in their backyards.
Last night, that debate came to Kalamazoo City Hall.
Just the suggestion that a data center could be built in a southeast Kalamazoo industrial park has the neighbors worried, and threatening city commissioners with recall if they don’t stop it.
A marijuana operation, Harbor Farmz, is putting its grow center on Full Circle Drive up for sale, saying it’s perfectly suited to become a data center if anyone is interested.
That triggered homeowners from Milwood to head for city hall last night to express their strong opposition to data centers.
Local programmer David Knewtson says he doesn’t like the idea of A.I. in general, but says the facility likely to go there, would not be as big a drain on the community as the big data centers.
The city issued a statement on the situation.
Vice Mayor Drew Duncan says they haven’t received any proposals yet but are aware of the concerns.
City spokesman Mike Smith tells us the property owner reached out to city planning officials in March, who confirmed the site is properly zoned for a data center.
Kalamazoo County has scheduled a panel discussion on data centers and battery storage facilities for later this month. They plan to have representatives with several points of view involved in the discussion.
It will begin at 5 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Valley Community College campus in Texas Township on Thursday, June 25th. Anyone who wants questions answered should submit them to organizers before the 19th of this month. Learn more and submit questions.
Oshtemo and Pavillion townships and the city of Portage have already called a time-out to study the issue before they move forward on any permits.
The local debate comes at a time when the state of Michigan is in court, defending their plan to strip local communities of their permitting power for such facilities, and hand it over the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. At the same time, bipartisan legislation has been proposed in Lansing to slow things down.
The future is coming hard and fast and governments of all sizes are scrambling to catch up.
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