West Michigan township weighs one-year moratorium on data centers, solar farms
Posted By: mlive on May 28, 2026. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Allendale Township leaders are considering putting a one-year moratorium in place preventing the development of any data centers, battery storage facilities, large-scale solar farms and wind farms.
The moratorium would mean the township wouldn’t accept any applications from developers to build these kinds of projects for one year. The township’s board of trustees will vote on the proposed measure at its June 8 meeting.
No proposals have been submitted to develop any data centers, solar farms, battery storage and wind energy facilities in Allendale, township Supervisor Adam Elenbaas said.
The one-year pause is meant to give Allendale leaders more time to research the effects of data center developments amid fears over the potential negative impact on public health, infrastructure and the environment.
“One of the big concerns with data centers is the infrastructure, or more specifically, the natural resource of groundwater being used,” Elenbaas said.
“With solar and wind, there’s the conversation around impact on our agricultural land and the concern that, once that happens, once an agricultural farm is gone, that that doesn’t come back again. And so there are some very realistic concerns, especially with Ottawa County and Allendale being so traditionally agricultural.”
Elenbaas said leaders will use this time to craft new zoning ordinance language that can regulate those kinds of developments and make sure they are done properly, if a development were to be proposed in Allendale.
“When many ordinances across the state of Michigan and in different municipalities were written years ago, data centers were not a consideration,” he said. “It didn’t exist. And so we’re talking about how do we take our existing ordinances and look at them through the lens of new technology?”
Over 50 Michigan communities have passed similar moratoriums over the last year, temporarily pausing any consideration or construction of new data center projects within their boundaries.
In neighboring Kent County, Cascade Township passed a six-month moratorium on data centers earlier this year. Meanwhile, the Lowell Township board recently rejected a proposed six-month moratorium despite half a year of local opposition from residents over a proposed Microsoft data center project.
Elenbaas said there are residents in Allendale who have grown deeply concerned about how these types of large-scale developments could affect the township’s farmland.
“We think that this deserves the time to dig into it properly to better find those answers for our residents,” he said.
The township board will next meet at 6 p.m. Monday, June 8, at the township hall, 6676 Lake Michigan Drive.
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