Kalamazoo puts a one-year hold on data centers while it writes zoning rules

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Kalamazoo city commissioners gave final approval Monday night to a one-year moratorium on data centers, battery energy storage systems and other large digital operations, WKZO reported. The city now has until Oct. 5, 2027, to write zoning rules for them.

The vote followed a final public hearing, according to WKZO and NowKalamazoo. Assistant City Planner Bobby Durkee said the one-year clock started with the commission’s approval. During the pause, the city will not take new proposals for those projects, MLive reported when an earlier version passed in August.

“The goal of the moratorium is to develop those zoning standards and appropriate land uses, and to study for a transparent public process,” Durkee said before the vote, according to WKZO. The time lets staff and the community research the issue and draft regulations, he said, “because you cannot outright ban a use.”

Commissioners first voted unanimously for a moratorium on Aug. 17. It covered data centers, battery storage, artificial intelligence data centers and cryptocurrency mining, and it cited possible noise, water use and fire risk, MLive reported. The Planning Commission was to pursue a matching change to the city’s zoning ordinance, according to MLive.

City Attorney Aaron Leal said Kalamazoo can’t simply adopt another community’s rules and needs language written for its own conditions, such as its lack of large undeveloped sites, WKZO reported. “Our regulations would be different as opposed to Comstock Township, which has a lot of rural land where these could actually develop,” he said.

Local zoning must still follow state law, and rules have to be detailed and specific if a city wants to avoid legal challenges or loopholes, WKZO noted.

The first step is a working group, as the Planning Commission recommended. Durkee said it would draw on public and private utilities, residents, neighborhoods and the industry itself, according to WKZO. Several commissioners urged him not to make the group top-heavy with industry and utility experts. Commissioner Chris Praedel said it is “so critically important that there are people sitting in those seats that are just everyday people, you know, that care a lot about this issue.”

Durkee said staff would report on the group’s progress “at least monthly, or bi-monthly if there isn’t a Planning Commission update,” WKZO reported.

Sources:
John McNeill, WKZO, “Kalamazoo city commission enacts one-year moratorium for data centers,” Oct. 6, 2026, https://wkzo.com/2026/10/06/976985/
John McNeill, WKZO, “Kalamazoo city commission to hold final vote on data center moratorium tonight,” Oct. 5, 2026, https://wkzo.com/2026/10/05/976615/
John McNeill and Ben Jones, NowKalamazoo, “Kalamazoo city enacts data center moratorium,” Oct. 6, 2026, https://nowkalamazoo.org/newsletters/daily/10-6-26-lori-moore-celebration-set/
MLive, “Kalamazoo approves moratorium on data center, battery storage projects,” August 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2026/08/kalamazoo-approves-moratorium-on-data-center-battery-storage-projects.html
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, “The Art Deco-style city hall, completed in 1930 in Kalamazoo, Michigan,” February 2020, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Art_Deco-style_city_hall,_completed_in_1930_in_Kalamazoo,_Michigan.jpg

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