Michigan Residents Rejected a $16 Billion AI Data Center, But the Construction Started Anyway

A small farming township in Michigan voted against one of the most expensive construction projects in American history, and lost anyway. When Saline Township’s board rejected a $16 billion AI data center by a 4-to-1 margin in September 2025, residents thought they had won. Two days later, the developer sued. Within weeks, the township settled. Today, major construction is underway.

A Quiet Farm Town in the Middle of an AI Gold Rush

Saline Township, in Washtenaw County, Michigan, is home to just a few thousand people. Its roads are lined with cornfields, not data cables. But developers at Related Digital identified the area as a prime target: flat land, fresh water access, and existing power lines with enough spare capacity to attract a data-hungry tech giant. The quiet farmland was about to become the center of a national debate.

The Project Behind ChatGPT’s Future

The facility is tied to Stargate, the $500 billion plan announced by OpenAI and Oracle to build the computing backbone for next-generation AI services, including ChatGPT. Related Digital is the developer, Oracle is the primary tenant, and the project was announced in October 2025. It was originally priced at $7 billion before the price tag more than doubled, with no public explanation for the increase.

What Residents Were Actually Afraid Of

Residents’ concerns are not something they only imagine. They worried about the transformation of farmland into a sprawling industrial campus, a massive spike in truck traffic, and the strain the facility would put on the regional power grid. Water usage was another fear, since large data centers can consume millions of gallons daily for cooling. “I feel like people don’t understand what’s coming,” Saline resident Kathryn Haushalter told Broadband Breakfast.

A Vote, a Lawsuit, and a Settlement

After the township board voted 4-to-1 to reject the rezoning request, Related Digital and the landowners sued just two days later. Their legal argument: because Saline Township had no land zoned for industrial use, the rejection constituted unlawful “exclusionary zoning” under Michigan law. The township’s own lawyers warned that fighting back was risky. Within weeks, the township settled, without another public vote or hearing.

What the Community Got in Return

The settlement delivered roughly $14 million in community benefits, including funding for the local fire department, farmland preservation, and environmental restrictions on the site. Related Digital also committed to a closed-loop cooling system, which uses far less water than the evaporative cooling methods residents feared. The campus, nicknamed “The Barn” in honor of a preserved red barn at the entrance, will create around 2,500 union construction jobs.

The Power Problem Nobody Has Fully Solved

The facility will draw roughly 1.4 gigawatts of electricity from DTE Energy, comparable to the output of a nuclear power plant and about 25% of DTE’s peak capacity. Related Digital says Oracle will fund the necessary grid infrastructure and that existing ratepayers could actually save money. But Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has appealed the state’s approval of DTE’s power contracts, arguing the deals were fast-tracked in secret.

The Secrecy That Fueled the Backlash

Large portions of DTE’s contracts with Related Digital remain heavily redacted, meaning the public cannot verify whether ordinary customers will face higher bills. Nessel filed her appeal in April 2026, stating it was impossible to confirm ratepayer protections without seeing the full contract terms. More than 5,500 public comments opposing the power deal were submitted to Michigan regulators before their December 2025 vote. The commission approved the contracts anyway, without a contested case hearing.

Michigan Towns Are Fighting Back Statewide

The Saline case has triggered a wave of resistance across Michigan. At least 19 municipalities have enacted moratoriums on new data center development. The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority voted to block water service to new data centers. A bipartisan state bill calling for a one-year pause has been introduced, though Governor Gretchen Whitmer and House Speaker Matt Hall both oppose it. Meanwhile, other AI data centers from Google and Anthropic are already being evaluated at sites across Michigan.

A Blueprint for What Comes Next

What happened in Saline Township may be a preview of how AI infrastructure expands across rural America: site selection done in private, local opposition legally outmaneuvered, and construction begun before the public can mount a real challenge. “The plan was to move as fast as possible,” one resident told Forbes, “so by the time anyone challenged it, they could say it was too far along to stop.” The question now is whether any community can say no and make it stick.