Muskegon residents voiced fierce opposition at a city commission work session Monday to potential data center development, raising fears about noise, environmental harm and strained resources as officials weighed how far local rules can actually go to keep the industry in check.
The Muskegon City Commission discussed Monday, Nov. 9, the range of ways to regulate potential data center developments in the city, and residents overwhelmingly spoke against the facilities during the session, according to MLive. Noise pollution, environmental degradation and resource depletion were among the top concerns raised during public comment, the outlet reported. Ethan Keating, a resident of the Angell neighborhood, said he supported the strongest possible restrictions and obstacles to data center construction within the city's jurisdiction.
Industrial Park Already Drawing Interest
Jake Eckholm, the city's director of development services, told commissioners there's been industrial interest in small format data centers at the city's industrial park. He said the city can propose regulations that put restrictions on how many data center uses are allowed, where they are located, and to what degree, giving local officials several levers short of a ban.
That ceiling on local power came up directly during the meeting. Commissioner Rebecca St. Clair said there is a law in place that does not allow the city to ban data centers, though she noted state law does permit protective regulatory boundaries and frameworks. The same report notes a city commission member had suggested an outright ban at a recent policy meeting, underscoring the tension between what some officials want and what state law appears to allow.
County Eyes Wastewater Site for Data Centers
The city discussion follows a separate push at the county level. Muskegon County wants to lease or sell 650 acres of its 11,000-acre wastewater management site for data center use, according to Data Center Dynamics. Muskegon County economic development coordinator Jonathan Wilson said the county is reaching out to data center operators in Michigan and surrounding Midwest areas to see if they are at capacity or interested in expanding into West Michigan.
More than 100 residents turned out for a Muskegon County work session on data centers in September, with many speaking against the proposals, per the MLive report. That earlier turnout suggests the opposition on display Monday night has been building for months rather than emerging overnight.
A Statewide Reckoning Over Noise and Water
Muskegon's debate is playing out against a broader Michigan backlash. At least 52 Michigan communities had enacted data center moratoriums as of late June, even as at least 30 AI-related data center projects have been built or are in development statewide, according to Michigan Public. A June 2026 report from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan concluded that data center proposals should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, while identifying noise pollution as the most concerning negative impact and estimating the state may have hundreds of operating facilities when enterprise sites are included.
Other Michigan communities have already written specific limits into law. The research council's report described a consent judgment in Saline Township that sets a data center noise limit that shall at all times not exceed 55 decibels at the property boundary, an example of the kind of operating constraint Muskegon officials could eventually consider. In Macomb County's Lenox Township, a proposed rezoning covering 1,402 acres and a conceptual plan for 10 buildings totaling 2 million square feet has fueled similar resident worries that the project could become a data center, and township leaders voted to table a first reading of a proposed ordinance to gather feedback from the planning commission, per a separate MLive report. That draft ordinance would require neighborhood meetings, limit cooling-equipment noise, set generator-emissions standards and mandate community-benefits plans. Elsewhere, Lyon Township enacted a 180-day moratorium on new data center applications in May, though it does not apply to the already-approved Project Flex campus.
Voters Elsewhere Push Back at the Ballot Box
The Muskegon fight also lands just days after separate local ballot measures on data center development across the country. Roughly 40 cities and towns across the country weighed measures to restrict data center development in the Nov. 3 elections, and at least 33 voted in favor, according to USA Today. NBC News exit polls cited in that report found about 76% of voters said they would oppose new data centers in their own communities. In Ohio, voters in at least 18 communities considered restrictions and approved every one of them, while voters in Edgewater, Florida, added a total ban on data centers to their city charter.
For now, Muskegon's path remains undetermined. City staff presented regulatory frameworks ranging from least to most restrictive during Monday's session.
