Overview
- After a packed meeting, the Howell Township Board enacted a six-month moratorium on considering or approving data centers, though it can still vote on the rezoning on Dec. 8.
- The Livingston County Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend denial of rezoning for the more than 1,000-acre hyperscale campus, citing conflicts with the township master plan.
- Township Trustee Bob Wilson said Meta is behind the roughly $1 billion proposal, a detail developers have not publicly confirmed.
- Developers, led by Randee LLC with Stantec, offered conditions including reimbursing all local infrastructure costs, studying dry-cooling to limit water use, capping building coverage at 50%, 400-foot setbacks, and donating about 125 acres for open space, while DTE has indicated it could supply power without specifying the load.
- Resident opposition remains organized with thousands of petition signatures, and nearby Pittsfield Township separately approved its own six-month moratorium to finalize a data center ordinance expected to return in early 2026.