Porter Township passes one-year data center moratorium

CASS COUNTY, Mich. (WSBT) — Another township in Cass County has put a pause on data center developments. Porter Township Board members voted unanimously to approve an ordinance on a one-year data center moratorium. The ordinance allows that pause to be extended another year if necessary. This comes as multiple townships throughout Cass County rushed to instill moratoriums to give them time to adjust their zoning rules if a developer were to be interested. "We've had people at the last several meetings and during public comment expressing concern, so we decided to proceed with the moratorium," said Richard Drews, (R) Porter Township Board supervisor. While this action isn't unique to Porter Township. Drews said writing this ordinance won't necessarily be "easy." Right now, Michigan's Zoning Enabling Act does not allow local governments to enact exclusionary zoning that totally bans legitimate land uses, like a data center, if they meet existing zoning requirements. "It's a very slippery slope in which they have to write this law, so I was happy to hear that they are going to take their time to make sure all the eyes are dotted, the T's are crossed. I am extremely proud of our township for doing what they did and a lot of the comments that they have made," said Laura Sherman, a Porter Township resident. But for now, the moratorium is in place, allowing time to properly write an ordinance that follows Michigan law. All board members made it a point to say they have not signed any non-disclosure agreements with any developers or have been approached. "I don't, I'm not opposed, but I'm not super pro either. You know that it needs to have certain restrictions," said Drews. According to the Porter Township Clerk, the moratorium will officially take effect within the next week as their attorney processes the request. https://wsbt.com/news/local/porter-township-passes-one-year-moratorium-pause-data-center-pause-ordinance-town-residents-developer-law-michigan-board-members-zoning-comment-public-meetings-approval-extension-cass-county-michigan _________________ Stay up to date by following our social media: WSBT 22 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WSBTNews WSBT 22 on X: https://twitter.com/WSBT WSBT 22 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wsbt/ For more information, visit https://wsbt.com/ Have a news tip? Send it directly to our newsroom: wsbtnews@wsbt.com WSBT is an IN based station and a CBS Television affiliate owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today. Sinclair owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 163 television stations in 77 markets, after pending transactions. Sinclair's television group reaches approximately 38.7% of US television households and includes FOX, ABC, MyTV, CW, CBS, NBC, Univision and Azteca affiliates.