Howell Data Center, Howell Township, Michigan

The developers of a $1 billion data center campus in Howell Township, Livingston County, Michigan, withdrew their request to rezone more than 1,000 acres of mostly agricultural land on both sides of Grand River Avenue, pulling the application late on December 7, 2025, the night before the township board was to vote on it. The developers, Stantec Consulting Michigan Inc. and Randee LLC, said in a statement: "We believe the right thing to do now is to honor the current moratorium, which will give the township and its residents the time needed to develop thoughtful, well-considered regulations for any future data centers."

The township board had passed a six-month moratorium on data center development on November 20, 2025, after the Planning Commission voted unanimously against the rezoning in September following a seven-hour meeting, and more than 3,700 people signed a petition against the project. The Livingston County Planning Commission also recommended rejecting the rezoning in November, and Howell Township trustee Bob Wilson told the Michigan Advance that Meta was behind the project; Meta did not respond to the Advance.

Howell Township resident Cory Alchin called the withdrawal a victory: "We are setting a precedent for people to follow and have faith in, across the country. The key was that people kept showing up and kept showing up." Township Treasurer and Zoning Administrator Jonathan Hohenstein said the developers may return: "The communication from the applicant makes it sound like once the regulations are complete, they will resubmit their application; time will tell."

In January 2026 township planners began drafting a data center ordinance with a residents' research committee, which suggested confining data centers to an overlay district along about 1.4 miles north of I-96 and east of M-59, near existing industrial land. Committee member Kristen Dennison said the area "feels appropriate" because it is near the interstate, train tracks and Grand River Avenue, and that packing large data centers too densely elsewhere would let noise "spill beyond the borders that they were intended to be confined to." Planners said a draft ordinance will go to a public hearing, and the Howell Township board will have the final vote.