GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The hotly debated topic of data centers will come to the forefront again this week when the Gaines Township Planning Commission considers a rezoning request from Microsoft.

It has requested that a 40.5-acre parcel at 7147 Patterson Ave. SE in Dutton be rezoned from a large-scale planned unit development to a light industrial designation. It is just south of the Amazon Fulfillment Center and north of a 316-acre site Microsoft owns on Patterson at 76th Street.

A special meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the South Christian High School auditorium. A public hearing that was scheduled December 18, 2025, was postponed when the township's fire marshal and attorney estimated that more than 250 people were trying to pack into the township hall's board room, 8561 Kalamazoo Ave. SE. They said that was overcapacity and would violate regulations.

Even though the public hearing was postponed, some residents spoke out against the proposed data center during the public comment period of the Dec. 18 planning commission meeting. They mentioned potential increases in utility rates, water usage and other worries.

Consumers Energy told WOOD Radio that utility rates will likely be lower in the long term because of the infrastructure that is built for data centers and its improvement to the local electrical grid.

At a March 26 Gaines Township Planning Commission meeting, some residents voiced concern about potential long-term health effects they said medical research indicates may result from chronic exposure to the long-term hum from data centers. Specifically, hypertension, sleep fragmentation and cardiovascular stress.

Microsoft has said it uses sound-mitigation strategies, including noise walls and buffers.

A subsequent meeting that was tentatively scheduled for February 12 at the high school auditorium was postponed at Microsoft's request. It told township staff in an email that it needed more time to solidify its plans and meet with residents, which it did at a community gathering it hosted at the Kindred Events Center, 3449 76th St. SE, in Caledonia.

Last year, Microsoft proposed building a major data center campus in Lowell Charter Township on a 237-acre section of the Covenant Business Park at I-96 and Alden Nash Avenue. Microsoft does not own any property there. After developer Franklin Partners requested a pause on its rezoning application there, Lowell Township suspended its consideration of it.

Randy Thelen is president and CEO of The Right Place Inc., which hired St. Johns-based DZ Strategy Management (an independent consulting firm near Lansing) to survey officials in communities that already have Microsoft data centers. He said 13 sites where Microsoft is operating data centers across the country right now, with more being built.

"So, we hired a third-party consultant to survey those communities, ask sort of their city officials, if you will, how have they performed," Thelen said in a phone interview with WOOD Radio News.

"And overwhelmingly, communities that have Microsoft data centers today enjoy having (them). They gave it an 8.5 out of 10 overall-experience score. The survey also looked at some of the concerns that are being raised: noise, light, water (usage), wastewater. And those scored a 2 out of 10."

Other than municipal officials, there was no mention of residents being surveyed, specifically. But Thelen said the survey of municipal leaders indicates that those communities are reporting no significant issue with the data center operations. However, he said they have been experiencing the benefits of the specialized facilities, which house computing resources, including storage systems, servers, cloud storage and artificial intelligence workloads.

Thelen said those benefits include "incredible tech-job creation at great wages; construction projects that employ hundreds and hundreds of people for many, many years."

He mentioned the boost data centers give local communities significantly boost local tax bases. That is because of property taxes on high-value buildings and servers, although some of that can be offset in some communities if substantial tax breaks or exemptions are given. If communities where they are fully taxed, data centers can generate large revenue for local governments.

"That helps fund schools and funds parks and public safety, roads and infrastructure, and all those things," Thelen said.

Gaines Community Development Director Dan Wells confirmed recently that Microsoft has entered into a tentative contract with Steelcase to purchase 57.7 acres at 4100 68th St. SE, formerly part of the Steelcase wood plant site. He said Microsoft was looking to buy the southern half of that parcel, which is adjacent to the northwest corner of the 40.5-acre parcel on Patterson Avenue.

Gaines Township officials have said this week's special meeting will be only the second public meeting the township has ever held off township property. The other was in Oct. 2021, when the planning commission met at the high school to discuss the Prairie Wolf Station town center development.

Thelen said The Right Place will have some representatives at Wednesday's meeting. He noted that township officials have a lot of pressure at big meetings to do their due diligence, and the survey results are being distributed to them to help inform their decision-making process.

Gaines Charter Township is home to Michigan's largest data center, which is operated by Switch Inc. on its pyramid campus at 6100 East Paris Ave. That is 2.4 miles from the proposed Microsoft data center site on Patterson Avenue.

Thelen said The Right Place Inc. could have conducted the survey of municipal leaders in communities where data centers are in active operation, but it decided to hire a third-party "arms-length" organization to do it.

"So, we found a consulting firm that has that kind of experience to do it for us," he said. "We did pay them a little bit of money to do it. Obviously, they're a consulting firm. But they did it; it's their report they delivered to us. So, it's completely independent."

Thelen said one negative in the survey pertains to construction.

"So, maybe truck deliveries. They sometimes drag mud into the street that needs to be power washed off, or construction noise that extends beyond maybe what people expected," he said. "Those are manageable. And I know that township officials are looking at how do they work with companies if they were to proceed. How do they work on those kinds of issues?"

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West Michigan's Morning News