Ypsilanti Township officials and residents are raising concerns about the proposed University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory data center project for the area.
On Jan. 12, 2026, the Ypsilanti Township Board hosted a community meeting to discuss the project.
This meeting required pre-registration, and seats filled up within 12 hours. By the time of the meeting, over 300 people were on the waiting list. Because of the extensive number of requests, the meeting was professionally recorded and later posted online. The Ypsilanti Township Board plans on holding a second meeting for those who were unable to attend Jan. 12.
“The common denominator across all township boards is to do what is in the best interest of town residents … The purpose of tonight's meeting, number one, is to speak truthfully and clearly as to what this board has gone through and this township has done to prevent the National Laboratory building and constructing two data centers in Ypsilanti,” Attorney Doug Winters said during the meeting. “Second purpose: this meeting is also to set the record straight. By that, I mean the township has been going through this effort to get information [from U-M] for the last seven or eight months.”
Project background
U-M has described the project as a high-performance computing facility meant for scientific research and innovation. The university's posted webpage about the project reported that the facility will be used to aid advances in medicine, climate science, energy and national security. U-M clarified on its website that the project is not for commercial use.
The project will include two facilities at the same site, a federal facility for classified research, and a smaller academic facility for unclassified research conducted by U-M faculty, staff and students.
Some have raised concerns about Los Alamos National Laboratory's involvement in the project. LANL is one of 16 research and development laboratories of the United States Energy Department. It is responsible for the creation of the first atomic bomb.
The U-M webpage said the federal facility will not be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
"The federal facility is for research and high-performance computing. It will focus on scientific computation to address various national challenges, including cybersecurity, nuclear and other emerging threats, biohazards, and clean energy solutions," the webpage said.
Location concerns
U-M is assessing the north side of Textile Road in Ypsilanti Township to build the facility.
“This area is zoned for light industrial and commercial use, and is characterized by wide roads, minimal residential density, and existing utility infrastructure,” information published on a U-M webpage said about the project. “The surrounding corridor’s manufacturing operations, distribution centers and open buffer zones make it well-suited for a research and technology facility.”
Ypsilanti Township Board members have brought up concerns about this location. In a previous interview with The Eastern Echo, Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo said that in the first Zoom meeting she was included in about the project, held November 2024, she was told that the data center project would be on 20 acres of land, create 200 jobs on site and pay $200,000 salaries.
In June 2025, U-M regents announced their intention to purchase an additional 124.68 acres of land next to the original Textile plot. The federal facility will be 220,000 to 240,000 square feet, according to the U-M webpage. The adjacent academic facility will be about 50,000 square feet.
Stumbo said she found out from Michael Rein, director of community relations for U-M’s government relations department, that the university intended to purchase more land and that the original 20 acres would be used for a substation.
Stumbo said she was concerned about the use of land for a substation and said the township planning director did not think it was appropriate for zoning. U-M is exempt from local zoning laws.
Stumbo said she went to Ohio to visit a data center site.
“When I saw the data center, it became clear that it was heavy industrial use, and that is not the appropriate location,” she said.
At the township meeting, Winters explained that the American Center for Mobility, or ACM, is on a large piece of property that used to be a hydro-medic plant owned by General Motors. The ACM currently uses less than half of the large property it sits on, Winters said. This property is zoned ideally for a data center, would have fewer environmental impacts, and would be farther away from residents, he said.
Ypsilanti offered U-M and Los Alamos this property as an alternative solution, but to no avail, Winters said.
In December 2025, The Eastern Echo sent a request for an interview to U-M’s Public Affairs office, and the request was declined.
“Thank you for your interest in the collaboration between the University of Michigan and the Los Alamos National Laboratory,” Jody Berger, a public relations representative for U-M, said in an email. “We are passing on interviews at this time.”
Transparency, communication concerns
In a Dec. 12, 2025 letter, U-M Interim President Grasso said, “Beginning in November 2024, and over the past year, representatives from U-M have held numerous meetings and briefings with the Township supervisor, trustees and counsel. These discussions have included project updates, environmental considerations and the Township’s stated preference for the American Center for Mobility (ACM) site.”
Winters pushed back on claims that numerous meetings were held between U-M and the township board.
“We have only had one face-to-face meeting, and that took place on July 24 of last year," Winters said. "That only came about because by that time we found out they had acquired 120 acres of our land. It took us until July 24 to be face-to-face. That one and only face-to-face meeting lasted about 90 minutes. The second meeting — took longer to set up the Zoom than the meeting itself.”
“U-M continues to say you're not welcome to sit down and be involved in these negotiations … if you don't have a seat at the table, you probably are on the menu,” Winters said.
Stumbo said she wants to see more transparency and respect for the township from U-M.
“A lot of stress and anxiety has been put on our community,” Stumbo said. “Data centers are new … [there's] really not a lot of good information on them, right? Especially if they are large, but we really don’t even know how large it’s going to be [or]what their future plans are. We have no information.”
“I feel really bad for our community and our residents who are so passionate and deserve answers,” she said.
Winters said that after township officials made what he described as countless attempts to contact Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Ypsilanti has received no response or support from her office.
“Debbie Dingell is working with us, even though she couldn’t be here tonight. We have received tremendous support from Rep. Jimmie Wilson,” Winters said.
Environmental concerns
Winters raised concerns at the township meeting about the energy consumption of the project.
“This will also require the construction of a 110-200 megawatt substation … this one substation on its face is equal to the entire current energy consumption of the township,” he said.
In 2023, data centers accounted for 4.4% of all United States electricity usage, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute reported. In a previous interview with The Echo, Eastern Michigan University environmental science professor Chris Gellasch explained some of the environmental impacts of large-scale computing facilities.
This massive consumption of electricity is an issue, Gellasch explained, because it makes sustainability goals to have more renewable energy and fewer fossil fuels that much more difficult to achieve.
“Even if we’re adding more wind and solar, the overall amount of energy we’re producing sustainably increases, but if the overall demand for electricity far surpasses that, we will still need a lot of fossil fuels,” Gellasch said.
The proposed facility will not draw water from the Huron River or discharge into it, U-M reported. Cooling water will be purchased from local municipality utilities — in this case, the Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority, which will also manage sanitary discharge.
Gellasch, who is not involved in the proposed project and spoke generally about data centers, said similar facilities often use water from municipality supply to cool the facility, which can put a strain on the water supply.
“There’s a large demand on water, which, if it’s from a municipal system, may increase water rates, or there might be limits to the capacity that the municipality can provide,” Gellasch said.
Large data centers can use up to five million gallons of water per day, the EESI reported.
Beth Gibbons, the director of the Washtenaw County Resiliency Office, told The Echo in a previous interview that a data center in the area could threaten the county’s sustainability efforts.
“Our office passed the Resilient Washtenaw Plan to have emissions at a net zero by 2035 … Data centers make that goal very difficult. In all these cases, our concerns are first on the energy use, but also on the water use and the impact on energy reliability and energy costs,” Gibbons said.
Ben Illozer is a professor in the construction management program at EMU. His expertise is in how to incorporate sustainability into the building process. He said for large-scale data center projects, an environmental impact study should be conducted by a uninterested third party to assess the implications of a project.
“There needs to be a little more investigation,” Illozer said. “Let there be thorough environmental assessment.”
Illozer said everyone in the township community is a stakeholder in the project and should be aware of the benefits and disadvantages of the project.
“I think that people are right to be upset about the U-M project," Gibbons said. "People are in a really righteous position to ask U-M to explain clearly and with measurable metrics on how it is going to meet climate goals with this high-energy, high-water structure.”
Financial concerns
The total investment for the project is $1.25 billion, U-M reported. Los Alamos National Laboratory will contribute $300 million, while U-M will contribute $200 million and facilitate financing of $630 million. In December 2024, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation approved a grant of $100 million to support the project.
State Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr. attended the township meeting. Wilson represents the 32nd district of Michigan and is a member of the Democratic Party. He said he is currently working on calling back the $100 million. Wilson said the chair of the appropriations committee told Wilson that she hopes to get him a hearing on this.
State Rep. Jim DeSana also attended the township meeting. DeSana represents Michigan’s 29th district and is a member of the Republican Party. DeSana voted no on tax breaks for the data centers and announced that he and other representatives are in the process of writing a bill to repeal the tax breaks that passed.
“Hyperscale data centers are out of whack on the cost-benefit analysis," DeSana said. "They don't employ people, take up huge amounts of property and take up very large amounts of energy on the grid … the benefit is not to your residents."
Gibbons explained that the U-M and Los Alamos project is unique among data centers because the university is a tax-exempt entity, meaning it can bypass local land use regulations.
In a project like this, there should be a financial incentive for the host community, Illozer said, such as a percentage of the profit returned to benefit the township.
“The public interest should be the common ground amongst everyone, and I can’t find that common ground because they’re exempt from so many things,” Stumbo said. “Compromise is not a dirty word.”
Next steps
U-M is hosting an open house Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, about its partnership and project with Los Alamos National Laboratory. The event will take place 5-7 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest in the Roy Wilbanks Ballroom, at 1275 S. Huron St., Ypsilanti. This open house is available to the public but requires registration. The university previously held an open house on U-M's North Campus on Sept. 9, 2025, but received backlash from Ypsilanti residents for not having a local location.
Ypsilanti Township will host a second informational session at the township’s civic center. The session will include a historical update on the project, a legislative update from state representatives, and a question and answer period. The meeting will take place Wednesday, Jan. 28, 6-9 p.m. at the Ypsilanti Township Civic Center, at 7200 S. Huron Drive, Ypsilanti. Registration is required and opened Jan. 19.
