The Microsoft Corporation is presenting so-called commitments to the residents of Gaines Township to gain approval for a new data center

Two weeks ago I wrote a piece about all of the proposed data centers in Kent County in an article entitled, More data center coverage dominated by a corporate perspectives in West Michigan.

In that article I wrote:

For instance, Microsoft purchased 340 acres in Gaines Township for a proposed data center, 272 acres in nearby Dorr Township and is pursuing a 237-acre property in Lowell Township. Those three combined would mean that Microsoft will own and control 849 acres in Kent County, all land that is either currently unused or farmland.

In this article I want to talk about a recent Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article which has information on what the Microsoft Corporation is now proposing to Gaines Township and the data center they hope to build. The Crain’s article headline reads, Microsoft’s data center faces a key vote. What is the company committing to in Gaines Township?

The headline is accurate, since they article only cited a spokesperson for the Microsoft Corporation, along with a memo from the corporation and what they are “committing” to in the Gaines Township proposal.

Here are the 14 points that Microsoft is committing to:

• Not seek local property tax abatements from Gaines Township
• Use setbacks of at least 150 feet from property lines;
• Improve and donate approximately 9.5 acres of land for open space and trail connections
• Limit site use to a data center, and that construction must commence within 10 years, which could be extended with township board approval
• Pay for any needed power grid upgrades to avoid shifting costs to residential customers
• Use backup generators only during power grid emergencies
• Pay to upgrade water and sewer infrastructure as necessary
• Draw water from the Byron-Gaines water system instead of pump groundwater for operations, such as cooling
• Use water-efficient design, which could include a closed-loop system, air cooling that avoids water use, or a combination of those systems, or any other emerging technology
• Comply with environmental laws and stay in compliance with local, state and federal standards for air emissions and water quality
• Take responsibility for safely shutting down the facility and any on-site cleanup if the data center is decommissioned
• Limit noise on site, up to 65 dBA at property lines next to residentially zoned parcels during normal operations, and up to 85 dBA during emergency generator use
• Visually screen the site from nearby homes with at least 8-foot-high landscaped berms or other visual screening where allowed
• Eliminate light shining directly onto residential lots, or screening lights from residential properties

These bullet points, or what Microsoft is calling their commitments, are often what developers refer to as community benefit agreements (CBA). These agreements are not necessarily legally binding, unless that is demanded by the community or whichever entity has reached an agreement with said developer.

As community benefits agreements go, these so-called commitments are pretty weak. I say weak, since many of these commitments are already either 1) obligatory  – such as following local or state environmental standards, site and noise ordinances; or 2) low hanging fruit, like paying for any power grid upgrades or donating land or connecting trails. The low hanging fruit commitments are small, but they are meant to demonstrate Microsoft’s benevolence.

The national group Power Shift Action refers to community benefit agreements as:

Community Benefits campaigns help strengthen the muscles and institutions we need for healthy democracy. These campaigns bring together stakeholders from across the community, including (and especially) those who are most impacted but often least listened to, to build a shared platform and negotiate directly on behalf of the community with the real decision makers. They enable community members to practice democratic co-governance, as they oversee the delivery of community benefits and hold developers and other key actors accountable to their promises. They broaden the scope of who gets to be at the table when big decisions get made about our communities’ futures.

The notion of CBAs, as presented by Power Shift Action, is fundamentally different than the “commitments” that the Microsoft Corporation is offering to Gaines Township. Now, the Crain’s article doesn’t elaborate on whether the Gaines Township government, the residents of Gains Township or the Microsoft Corporation initiated these “commitments”, but my money would be on the Microsoft Corporation, or at best a collaboration between Gaines Township and the global tech company.

The Microsoft Corporation “commitments” do not include hiring local contracts for the project, paying livable wages for the construction and operating of a future data center, providing significant money investments in affordable housing and environmental projects that would benefit the residents of Gaines Township or other long-term investments in that community.

This is what I mean when I say that the Microsoft Corporation “commitments” are weak, since they are primarily intended to pacify the people of Gaines Township as well as to make sure that the company does not disrupt its ability to continue to controlling more of the data center market and expand their profits.

Lastly, it is worth noting that the Microsoft Corporation has created their own Community-First AI Infrastructure, which removes the public from the equation, but dictating the terms of community benefit agreements and hoping that communities who are confronted with data center proposals will gave to whatever companies like Microsoft present.

A community benefits agreement is an important and necessary strategy for communities who are confronted by future data center proposals. However, the other important strategy would be to tell Microsoft or whatever tech giant is proposing a data center near you that your community will fight like hell to prevent any such projects to happen……period! In recent years it would seem that communities across the US are choosing the fight like hell strategy, since $64 billion in data center projects have been blocked or delayed.