Delhi Township board votes 6-0 against any data center, as hundreds are turned away and the developer warns of a “black mark”

HOLT — Delhi Township’s board of trustees voted unanimously Friday night to oppose any data center in the township, three days after a regional economic development group and a Colorado developer went public with plans for a $10 billion project there.

The 6-0 vote came at a special meeting at the Sam Corey Senior Center that ran about two hours. The room hit capacity minutes after the doors opened, WILX reported, and more than 200 people were turned away, according to Lansing City Pulse.

The resolution asks the Lansing Economic Area Partnership and Lighthouse Sustainability to “keep its promise and stop its proposal due to local opposition,” City Pulse reported. A Lighthouse representative had said the company would not keep pursuing the project if the community did not support it, according to the resolution as described by WILX.

LEAP and Lighthouse announced on Tuesday that they would explore a data center of up to 700 megawatts on a 423-acre site, the plan The Mitten Daily laid out before Friday’s vote. Township officials said they learned of it at the same time as the public. The next day, the township quit LEAP.

“It was overwhelmingly in support of the resolution we passed this evening,” Township Manager Tracy Miller told WILX. “Which was to let LEAP and Lighthouse know that our community does not support what they are proposing.” Miller said she does not see a day right now when the township and LEAP would work together again.

Lighthouse CEO Gary Dorris spoke for the project. Before the meeting he told WILX the data center would use less water than the farming now on the property and would not add demand to the grid during peak hours. He warned that turning it down could hurt the township’s reputation. “And it black marks the community for future generations,” he said. “This is not an area welcome to economic development.”

Asked whether the company might take further action, including a lawsuit, Dorris said, “We’ll have to see what happens.”

The resolution itself does not change zoning; it puts the board on record. The township approved a 12-month moratorium on data center development in April, and Miller said it can be extended if state and federal rules have not changed by then.

Sources:
WILX News 10, “‘It was overwhelmingly in support:’ Delhi Township board unanimously passes resolution opposing data centers,” Oct. 30, 2026 (vote, meeting, Miller and Dorris quotes, moratorium), https://www.wilx.com/2026/10/30/delhi-township-board-meets-friday-resolution-opposing-data-centers/
Lansing City Pulse, “Newly-floated data center rejected by Delhi Township board,” Oct. 2026 (200 turned away, resolution language, LEAP withdrawal timeline), https://lansingcitypulse.com/newly-floated-data-center-rejected-by-delhi-township-board/
Lansing State Journal, “Delhi Township officials OK resolution rejecting all data centers,” Oct. 30, 2026 (6-0 vote), https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2026/10/30/delhi-township-officials-ok-resolution-rejecting-all-data-centers/92518193007/
Photo: Dj1997, “Delhi Charter Township Holt Michigan Library Sign,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delhi_Charter_Township_Holt_Michigan_Library_Sign.jpg

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Tags: Delhi Township · Holt · Data centers · LEAP · Lighthouse Sustainability · Local control