Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A group against a data center project in Lyon Township has had petition language approved to recall the Board of Trustees.

No Data Center Lyon Township, a community organization, provided support for the recall language. It said on Monday, the Board of the Oakland County Election Commission approved language that allows Lyon Township residents to begin collecting signatures to recall all seven Board of Trustees members following the conditional approval of a hyperscale data center known as Project Flex, a proposed data center by developer Walbridge and operator Verrus on behalf of Anthropic, an AI firm.

No Data Center Lyon Township is a grassroots organization comprised of over 2000 local residents who seek to stop the proposed data center. The group says it will not be involved in collecting signatures for the recall.

A release states the approved petition language stated that all seven trustees voted to give themselves a raise during the January 5th, 2026 board meeting.

Group spokesperson and Lyon Township resident Craig Kreutzberg commented "Our ultimate goal is to have a board that understands and accepts that residents overwhelmingly oppose a 1.8-million-square-foot hyperscale data center in our community, and very close to a nearby elementary school. Residents have protested that the board knew about Project Flex but did nothing to inform the community until it was almost too late. As conditional approval for Project Flex has already been granted, it now becomes a matter of proactively uncovering and calling out the ways the submitted plans fail to adequately address the many and varied environmental, infrastructure, and safety concerns at play—and, more importantly, are grounds for retracting that approval. If the threat of being recalled is enough to get our current Board members to do that without going through this messy, lengthy process, then that would be a win."

The project site includes several parcels of land between Milford Road and South Hill Road, known as a portion of the South Hill Business Park West. The roughly 172-acre size is zoned I-1 Light Industrial and I-2 General Industrial. The proposed data center will include six buildings totaling approximately 1.8-million-square-feet of floor area, and a utility substation.

Data processing and computer centers have long been permitted uses under current zoning ordinance. Since it is a permitted use, it was approved by the Planning Commission and not the Township Board. No formal public hearing was required and it was asserted that all proper approval processes were followed.

Walbridge has owned the site since the mid-1980’s, and it’s been long zoned for industrial development since the 1950’s. Verrus has said it “wants to build a better data center” that fits in with the community. Representatives previously stated they didn’t seek any variances, everything has been publicly filed, and it was considered a planned use for the site and followed all township processes.

Complete project information is available in the top provided link.


WHMI reached out to all board members for comment. Below are the received responses:


-Trustee Lise Blades:
The Township was very transparent in identifying Project Flex as a data center on the September 8, 2025 Planning Commission agenda. It is unfortunate that some residents are attempting a recall against the Board members for doing what we took an oath to do, which includes voting on salaries. Many of us in the community are upset that Verrus chose Lyon Township for their data center location. But my elected position does not permit me to vote on projects that do not come before the Board. This issue never came to the Board for a review or vote. But let’s be honest: the recall language has nothing to do with the data center, but the recall effort has everything to do with it. I am just as worried about public health and safety in regards to a data center as those who are trying to recall me. The perpetual worry of health, safety, and energy consumption of data centers seems to be a David and Goliath story across the state of Michigan. To put it simply, legally speaking, my hands are tied. The Board has no legal authority to overturn the Planning Commission's approval of this project. Attempting to do so would more than likely cost the Township residents millions of dollars, and we would still end up with a data center.


-Trustee Kristofer Enlow:
This press release is misleading as it is combining two separate issues: the recall petition and Project Flex. The Township Board did NOT vote on Project Flex. The language in their press release implies that the Township Board conditionally approved the project, which is untrue. The recall language concerns a cost-of-living wage bump that was in the approved budget and extended to all Lyon Township employees.