Residents packed Saline Township Hall to protest a Related digital data center, despite the township already voting against the rezoning.
The project is moving forward anyway via a legal consent agreement, which swapped a prior lawsuit for approval of the rezoning, effectively blocking a referendum challenge.
Core resident concerns hit standard AI data center fault lines: heavy water use, wetlands and runoff disruption, plus construction noise and traffic.
The crowd questioned whether the board and its legal and planning consultants pushed hard enough against the project, signaling deep distrust in how land-use deals around large compute builds get done.
From an AI infra lens, this shows how siting and zoning risk can override local political opposition when a well-lawyered data center operator is involved.
Expect longer timelines and higher friction for hyperscale or GPU-heavy builds in similar communities as residents learn from cases like this.
The article is worth a read to understand the local governance and legal mechanics behind getting AI-capable data centers approved over community resistance.
