Hagar Township trustees voted unanimously this week to impose a one-year moratorium on data centers, pressing pause on any new proposals or construction so officials can figure out how to handle the industry before it shows up at their doorstep. No company has filed plans to build one in the township, but officials say the land is there, and they want rules in place before anyone comes asking.
Supervisor Izzy DiMaggio said the township board approved the moratorium this week after the Hagar Township Planning Commission recommended it and the Berrien County Planning Commission signed off, according to Moody on the Market. As WNDU reports, the board voted unanimously Monday night for the one-year pause, giving planners time to study the issue and draft an ordinance that could strictly limit or even ban data centers outright.
DiMaggio said he is not aware of any specific data center proposal targeting Hagar Township and does not expect one in the near term. But he acknowledged there is plenty of land in the township that could draw interest from a developer down the road, and he said no one has reached out yet. The supervisor framed the moratorium as a chance to get ahead of a problem rather than react to one already on the table.
Power, Water and Noise Top the List of Concerns
The worries driving the vote are familiar ones in township halls across Michigan: electricity demand, water consumption, and noise from industrial-scale server farms. DiMaggio said the township is concerned about those impacts, and per the station's report, he argued that whatever tax revenue a data center might generate isn't worth the disruption it could bring to residents. He also said Hagar Township simply lacks the resources to accommodate a large facility, and that residents themselves have voiced concerns about the prospect.
The moratorium gives the planning commission a full year to study data centers in depth and craft a likely restrictive ordinance before any applications can move forward. DiMaggio said the goal is to closely examine the situation rather than rush a decision, and the pause is meant to let the township prepare for the possibility of future construction on its own terms.
Part of a Statewide Pattern
Hagar Township is far from alone. The move puts it in the same camp as other Berrien County communities that have adopted similar moratoriums this year, the station notes. Statewide, the numbers are striking: a Michigan Public analysis in July found that as many as 52 Michigan township and city governments had already passed data-center moratoriums, and Michigan Public reports more have followed since.
Jackson County offers a vivid snapshot of that trend. According to MLive, 13 of the county's 19 townships have passed data-center moratoriums in the past year, three more have started public discussions, and one, Henrietta Township, has already adopted an ordinance requiring a 300-foot setback from non-participating buildings along with impact studies and water-conservation plans. Waterloo Township passed its 12-month moratorium in January, Blackman Township followed in July, and Pulaski Township did the same in October, per the same outlet. Napoleon Township joined the list this week too, unanimously passing a temporary moratorium that runs for one year or until new township rules take effect, whichever comes first, MLive reported.
Cities Moving From Pause to Permanent Rules
Some communities are already past the pause stage. Saginaw Township's Board of Trustees voted Monday to approve a full ordinance regulating data-center development, capping noise at 40 decibels at the property line and requiring buildings and equipment to sit at least 500 feet from residential property, Michigan Public reported. Romulus city council, meanwhile, unanimously approved a 180-day moratorium that took effect immediately, with officials there planning to use the six-month window to craft permanent regulations for the city.
Elsewhere in the state, Clinton Township's Board of Trustees voted 6-0, with one trustee absent, to approve its own 180-day moratorium, according to The Detroit News. Kalamazoo's City Commission approved a one-year moratorium resolution back in August, per datacenterbans.com.
State Lawmakers Weigh In
The local moratorium wave has echoes at the state level. Governor-elect Jocelyn Benson has proposed a statewide pause on new data-center construction until regulators can establish rules governing water use, energy demand and tax breaks, ClickOnDetroit reported. Separately, Michigan lawmakers introduced House bills HB 5594-5596 and companion Senate bills SB 1018-1020 back in June aiming to halt data-center development statewide until April 1, 2027, though none of those measures has been enacted, according to datacenterbans.com.
For now, Hagar Township's move leaves it in a holding pattern alongside dozens of other Michigan communities trying to get ahead of an industry that has not yet knocked on the door. Whether the township's eventual ordinance ends up restricting data centers tightly or barring them altogether remains to be settled once the planning commission's yearlong study wraps up.
