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If there is one thing a community should not do when it is faced with a potentially significant development, it is wait until the decisions have already been made before asking questions.
That is why Marquette County residents should make an effort to attend tonight's community informational session on data centers, hosted by the Lake Superior Community Partnership from 6-7:30 p.m. at Peter White Public Library. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
The subject may seem highly technical. Data centers are facilities built to house the computer systems and infrastructure that power an increasingly digital economy. But the questions surrounding them are anything but technical for the communities where they are proposed. They can involve land use, electricity and water consumption, infrastructure, taxes, economic development, jobs, environmental considerations and the relationship between developers and local governments.
Those are questions worth understanding before -- rather than after -- a proposal arrives.
Tonight’s event is particularly useful because it is designed as an informational session, not a rally for or against data centers. The partnership says its goal is to help residents and municipal leaders understand the potential opportunities, considerations and impacts associated with this type of development and to give community members an opportunity to ask questions.
That approach is appropriate. A complicated issue deserves more than slogans or assumptions.
The speakers also bring perspectives that should make for a worthwhile discussion. Ron Akers of Van Buren Township in Macomb County will speak about his community’s experience with a Google data center project. Dakota Baker, director of the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance, will provide a business and economic-development perspective.
Van Buren’s experience illustrates why communities should educate themselves early. Akers has described the Google project as the most extensively researched and evaluated site he has worked on. At the same time, reporting by MLive has documented continuing concerns among some Van Buren residents, including questions surrounding a nondisclosure agreement signed by township officials while the project was in its early stages.
Those facts do not, by themselves, tell Marquette County residents what they should or should not think about data centers. They do demonstrate why transparency, careful evaluation and meaningful public discussion matter.
What we should do is learn enough to recognize the right questions when they arise. For example, what would a proposed facility mean for local utilities and roads? How much land would be required? What would the tax implications be? How many permanent jobs might be created? What public infrastructure would be needed? What environmental considerations would have to be examined? What information would be available to residents during negotiations? And, perhaps most importantly, what authority would local governments and residents have at each stage of the process?
LSCP CEO Natalie Chmiko put it well when she noited the organization’s role at Thursday’s event is not to advocate for or against data centers, but to give community members and municipal leaders an opportunity to learn and ask questions. So, if you live in Marquette County, consider spending 90 minutes tonight learning about an issue that could become increasingly relevant to communities throughout the Upper Peninsula.
Attend. Listen. Ask questions. Take notes.
There is no obligation to leave tonight’s meeting with a particular opinion. The point is to make sure that, if the conversation about data centers comes to our community, residents are already part of it.