Developer Sues City of Wixom Over Data Center Moratorium
Wixom Industrial One is suing the City of Wixom after the city council rejected a waiver from its data center moratorium. The developer alleges the city created the moratorium and restrictive ordinances due to public opposition, despite the property being zoned for a data center. The lawsuit claims the city violated state zoning laws.
Wixom Industrial One, a Pleasant Ridge developer operated by Dennis Griffin, has filed a lawsuit against the City of Wixom, Michigan, following the city council's rejection of a proposed waiver from its data center moratorium. The lawsuit, filed on August 7 in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accuses the city of violating the state's zoning act.
The developer had acquired 54 acres on South Wixom Road, initially for an industrial park, and later considered it for a data center campus after being approached by Missouri-based Sansone Group. Wixom Industrial One alleges that the Oakland County city enacted a six-month moratorium on data center development, driven by a shift in public sentiment. The lawsuit claims the city then used the developer's preliminary site plan for a three-building, 519,400-square-foot data center campus to draft restrictive ordinances designed to effectively prevent any data center development, despite the property's existing data center zoning.
Wixom Industrial One contends it is a victim of a city council prioritizing public opinion over legal adherence, as first reported by Crain's Detroit.