KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kalamazoo Planning Commission held a public hearing Thursday to begin the process of formally adding a data center moratorium to the city's zoning code — a step toward creating permanent rules around where the facilities can be located.
The City Commission placed the moratorium on data centers on Aug. 17. The public hearing marks the next step in that process, as the city works to update its zoning ordinance to reflect rapidly changing technology.
Watch: Kalamazoo works to add data center moratorium to zoning code amid rapid growth of AI technology
A data center is essentially the physical infrastructure of the internet — large facilities housing powerful computer systems.
Residents who spoke to FOX 17 expressed skepticism about the facilities coming to their community.
"I don't like the idea of them being in the community," Andrew Secord said.
Travis Stolicker, who helped build data centers in the Lansing area more than a decade ago, said the rise of artificial intelligence is driving increased demand for the facilities — but he pushed back on some of the assumptions surrounding AI itself.
"I would say yes. But I think there is a bit of a misconception about what 'AI' really is. AI is just compute reasoning, or what used to be called machine learning, or machine intelligence. All it's really doing is the same thing. It's the next evolution of that capability," Stolicker said.
The city acknowledged its existing rules were not written with this kind of technology in mind.
"The current zoning ordinance did not foresee this type of technology or its anticipated land use, as the field and industry have rapidly evolved in recent years," the City's agenda report said.
While the moratorium is in place for the next year, the city will work on a more permanent solution. Neighbors I spoke with said they hope the city's focus remains elsewhere.
"Personally, I'm not very pro data center coming into Kalamazoo. I think there's other things the city should focus on," Jacob Semel said.
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