Ypsilanti Township imposes 180-day pause on power work for controversial data center

Ypsilanti Township in Michigan approved a unanimous 180-day moratorium on "major electric utility infrastructure" required for a proposed $1.2 billion hyperscale data center that the University of Michigan is developing with Los Alamos National Laboratory. The pause is intended to give local authorities time to study the scale of power upgrades, potential noise, and impacts on current electricity customers. The university selected a 144-acre parcel on Textile Road for the 220,000-square-foot facility, which will need new substations due to its high energy demand.

Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo called the site selection a "travesty of justice" and highlighted resident worries, while Clerk Debbie Swanson pointed to a lack of clear communication from the university. The moratorium covers infrastructure for hyper-scale data centers, AI computing facilities and other intensive electrical users, but does not prohibit the data center itself. It follows an earlier water-delivery ban that the university threatened to challenge as discriminatory. Los Alamos has confirmed the center will support nuclear weapons research, though the university says the site will not store hazardous nuclear material or be a war target.