Solstice Data Center, Allen Park, Michigan

Allen Park's planning commission voted 7 to 2 on June 4, 2026 to reject the preliminary site plan for Solstice Data's 26 megawatt data center at 7500 Enterprise Drive, south of I-94 in this Wayne County city, near Melvindale High School, homes, Inter-City Baptist Church and Maple Heights Senior Living Facility. Five days later, on June 9, the city council adopted an emergency ordinance imposing a six-month moratorium on any data center in the city, through December 9, and tightened its noise control ordinance.

Commissioner Madison LaPalm, who moved to deny, cited the need for extensive revisions to comply with the zoning ordinance, missing information, a lack of adequate engineering studies, and a sound study that failed to show the noise would be mitigated. The 45,000-square-foot facility would have had a closed loop cooling system and 12 backup diesel generators.

David Gibson, Solstice Data's senior vice president for power and land, argued the data center could be built by right if it met the city's zoning rules, and left the meeting with a police escort after boos from the crowd. The city's planner said Solstice could take the denial to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and Solstice did not say whether it would challenge it.

The fight began in earnest at the planning commission on January 8, 2026, when more than 125 people came and about 40 spoke, almost all opposed; the meeting ran four hours and ended with the commission voting to postpone its decision, with commissioner Fred Frank the only vote against the delay.

Solstice Data had planned to open the data center in the first quarter of 2027 with 30 to 35 staff on site, with backup power from 12 generators and 12 above-ground fuel tanks and closed loop cooling, with municipal water used only for the offices. The site sits beside the Ecorse River with the Reeck Drain crossing its southern edge, and the developers said regulated wetlands may be present and were running a delineation study.

Abbas Alawieh, a candidate for the Michigan Senate, asked directly: "There is an elephant in the room: will this raise our rates?" Joanna Whaley, a candidate for the Michigan House, said "The corporations are doing really well right now, and all the rest of us are doing worse and having to make decisions about what bill we might pay."

Asked whether the plant would cause air pollution, Solstice Data chief executive Phil Harvey said it would not. Before the hearing, the group Indivisible: Downriver United 734 organized a protest outside.

The commission asked for more before it would decide: a further sound study, a fire department assessment, outreach to neighboring communities, and more detail on planning and water use, as recommended by its consultants at Carlisle Wortman.

The moratorium the council passed June 9 runs through December 9, 2026, when the city must decide whether to let it lapse, extend it, or adopt permanent rules.