#lenoxtownship — Public Fediverse posts

#Secrecy leaves small towns to take heat for #datacenters : ‘Not what we signed up for’

By Lucas Smolcic Larson | Oct. 06, 2026, 7:00 a.m.

"Residents packed the sunlit meeting hall surrounded by soccer fields to argue over a project that officially did not exist.

"Amid cheers and applause, they blamed their township board for cozying up to a faceless developer.

" 'You work for the residents of this community. We elected you. We trusted you,' one resident said. 'Your duty is not to ... roll out the red carpet for them.'

"As union workers in ballcaps and boots looked on from the back wall, the crowd in #LenoxTownship, north of #Detroit, hummed in unison, drowning out anyone with a good word to say about the sprawling server warehouses.

"The outbursts captured a community increasingly fractured over an elusive data center proposal promoted by a dark money campaign. The hush-hush project has fueled paranoia and sparked recall campaigns without ever being formally proposed or announced.

"The community feels something big is coming, and it might just sneak in through the back door.

"Across the country, a team of reporters in five states examined the tactics being used by developers to win the day against the rising local opposition to massive #HyperscaleDatacenters. In #Michigan, the extreme secrecy around these proposals has left small town officials to take the heat, battered by friends and neighbors.

" 'There were many times I would cry all day long at work,' said Lenox Township Clerk Michelle Gurley. 'Like, what am I doing? This is not what we signed up for.'

"In the absence of a public face for the behemoth project, they’re left isolated and unable to answer residents’ questions.

" 'I’m out there (at home) cutting the grass or pulling the weeds,' added Lenox Treasurer Jennifer Sutherland, 'thinking that ‘Oh God, somebody hates me driving by now.’ It’s just horrible.'

"In #WestMichigan and elsewhere in the state, local officials have even been required to sign #NondisclosureAgreements, gagging them from sharing details with voters.

Read more:
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/business/2026/10/secrecy-leaves-small-towns-to-take-heat-for-data-centers-not-what-we-signed-up-for.html

#AIDatacenters #NoDatacenters
#NoDatacentres #Secrecy #NoAI
#NoisePollution #WaterIsLife
#AirPollution #LightPollution #Hyperscale #NDAs

Excerpt: "When small American communities say no to big data centers, they often find tech companies won’t take no for an answer.

"That’s what happened in the tiny #Michigan #farming community of #SalineTownship last year, when the township board chose not to make 575 acres of #farmland available for industrial use. The developer responded with a lawsuit.

"Faced with an expensive legal battle and uncertain odds in court, civic leaders in the community of fewer than 3,000 residents felt they had little choice but to settle the lawsuit and make way for a $43 billion project by Oracle and OpenAI.

" 'None of us up here wanted this thing,' township Trustee Dean Marion said at the time. 'We still hate it.'

"Many residents were furious, concerned the project would change Saline’s rural character and distressed about the loss of the township’s control over its own future. But their elected representatives said they saw little recourse.

“ 'We were read the facts of what could happen. This township does not have the money to fight these big companies,' Marion said. 'We were dealt the cards we were dealt, and we felt our hands were tied.'

"Similar battles have played out in various ways across the country as #datacenters have proliferated and #ArtificialIntelligence has boomed. Because data centers need lots of land and electricity, and the new hyperscale AI data centers need much more of each, they often target #rural communities. Local officials are often overwhelmed and outmatched.

"Reporters in newsrooms across five states teamed up to examine the tactics developers are using to overcome growing local opposition in small-town America.

"We found:

• Soft targets. Increasingly, data centers find themselves unwelcome in small communities. But they have found ways to capitalize on zoning rules that date back decades or move into places like rural #Alabama, where there are no zoning rules at all and no mechanism for local residents to constrain the industry.

• Tempting payouts. Developers are experimenting with new and bolder tactics to win support in small towns. One developer offered $10,000 to every household in a #Pennsylvania township to overcome local opposition.

• Legal pressure. When blocked, developers will use #LegalThreats and lawsuits to try to force the door open. That’s what happened in at least four communities in #NewJersey, where developers are suing after local governments moved to exclude them.

• Unusual secrecy. Data center developers rely on #secrecy to hide their intention, leaving local officials in places like rural Michigan’s #LenoxTownship to bear the brunt of public outrage and anger. Elsewhere in Michigan, officials say nondisclosure agreements are preventing them from telling their own citizens what data centers have planned in their communities. In another case, a small city sued The Oregonian newspaper in an unsuccessful effort to keep details of #Google ’s water use secret.

" 'It doesn’t have to be this way. The companies could come in a very straightforward way, build in as much as they can to alleviate the public concerns,' said Janet McCabe, an Indiana University professor and former environmental regulator at state and federal agencies.

"Unlike traditional development deals, which residents often embrace, she said tech companies seem to prioritize their own interests over those of the places where they operate.

" 'It’s often not the case that business comes in,' McCabe said, 'and wants to approach communities that way.' "

Read more:
https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/business/2026/10/outmaneuvered-outmatched-and-outspent-how-data-centers-are-overwhelming-small-town-america.html

#SmallTowns #AISucks #AIDatacenters #Farmland #AIDatacenters #NoDatacentres #NoAI #NoisePollution #WaterIsLife #AirPollution #LightPollution #Hyperscale #LandIsLife #EnergyWaste #TechBros #Lies