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Residents and local organizers urge caution on data centers; one speaker backs Community Action Michigan ballot proposal
Summary
Public commenters urged the commission to study data centers carefully and consider moratoria tied to ordinance changes; Shogway Pitchford voiced support for the Community Action Michigan ballot proposal and offered administrative support if the city places it on the ballot.
During the public-comment period several speakers addressed data centers and local policy. Shogway Pitchford, who identified himself as executive director of Berrien Forward and as working with a new Kalamazoo Forward chapter, urged support for the Community Action Michigan ballot proposal and offered his organization's administrative help if the city places the measure on the ballot.
On data centers, multiple residents urged careful study or a pause. One resident urged a two-year moratorium, citing environmental and rate concerns. Katie, representing Michigan for Responsible Data Centers, said her coalition brings fact-based information to communities and invited commissioners to a webinar; she emphasized that a moratorium should be paired with local ordinance changes and a clear plan for what the pause would accomplish.
Speakers asked the commission to avoid conflating small, site-specific proposals with hyperscale campuses and to study infrastructure impacts such as water and noise. Several invited staff and commissioners to tour local sites and to rely on specific, locally relevant analysis rather than national headlines.
