Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

A Pleasant Ridge developer is suing the city of Wixom after its city council last month rejected a proposed waiver from its data center moratorium, according to Crain's Detroit.

Wixom Industrial One, operated by Dennis Griffin, filed the lawsuit Aug. 7 in U.S. District Court in Detroit, accusing the city of violating the state’s zoning act.

Wixom One had accumulated 54 acres of land on South Wixom Road north of Interstate 96 for an industrial park before pitching the property as a potential data center site after being approached by Missouri real estate firm Sansone Group.

The developer alleges the Oakland County city created a six-month moratorium on data center development after public sentiment changed, and used the developer’s rough site plan of a three-building, 519,400-square-foot data center campus to create restrictive ordinances that would effectively nullify any data center development, despite the property being zoned for a data center.

Wixom One claims it’s a victim of a city council more concerned with the sway of public opinion than following the law.

Crain's original report is linked below.