By Hon. Scott Benson, Detroit City Councilmember
A May 30 editorial in the Washington Post (“Data centers could rev Detroit’s new engine”) suggested that Detroit is missing out on the economic impact of building data centers because of what the Post perceived as the city’s opposition to data centers. As the city councilmember who led the effort to hit pause on data center development until we can have a stronger regulatory framework in place, I took the opportunity to respond by the editorial with a letter to the editor.
In that letter, I pointed out our city’s long and storied history of being home to creators, innovators, and inventors. We are not opposed to economic development. Our city does need to be competitive when it comes to the artificial intelligence’s (AI) explosive growth, but we also must be smart and informed about the impact of data centers on our city and state.
That is why I asked the city to slow down on siting data centers. The city council approved, on a 6-2 vote, my resolution requesting the mayor implement a moratorium on data centers. I have since gathered a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including organized labor, elected and city officials, business representatives, utility company leaders and sustainability advocates, with the goal of implementing a zoning ordinance that regulates data centers by the end of 2026. I’ve made it clear to the stakeholder group that utility bills cannot increase for our residents. I’ve also made it clear that we must lean into health and sustainability issues, particularly around water usage, and find a way to ensure we aren’t damaging our natural resources or harming our residents.
Of course, I expected the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post to try and make the case for supporting data centers. However, I want to strongly emphasize that the work we are doing now with the stakeholder group is centered on local control. Bezos’ main business interests, including Amazon and Blue Origin, are relying on AI to generate revenue. But no one, other than Detroiters, is going to decide what is best for our city.
I do think that data centers in Detroit are inevitable. Every sector of our modern economy relies on data centers. It’s not just “big tech” that benefits from data centers. Banks, mortgage companies, and municipalities all need data centers to process transactions and manage information, and manufacturing plants need them to operate complex, smart production equipment. It is because they are inevitable that we must be smart about regulating them in a way that works for Detroiters.
The economic benefits of data centers are not in doubt. Besides the construction and trades jobs created when a data center is built, the facilities are also a new source of tax revenue. As an example, in Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers generate about 38 percent of the county’s general fund revenue. For every $1 in public services data centers there consume, they pay approximately $26 in taxes.
I am also interested in how data centers can be beneficial beyond job creation and property tax revenue. For instance, could coupling data centers with larger industrial bases create new economic hubs that super-charge American manufacturing? Could data centers actually help improve our aging power grid?
I am not blind to the concerns of data centers. I have emphasized the need to protect our water resources, ensure our residents’ electric bills do not increase, and demand that public health concerns, such as air, noise, and light pollution, be addressed. Our stakeholder group is working to balance the good and the bad to come up with a regulatory framework that makes sense for the public and the data centers.
The stakeholder group I have convened is working diligently, meeting regularly in smaller working groups to study different aspects of data centers, ranging from the economics of them to the environmental impacts. We are working toward a comprehensive, community-centered regulatory framework that invites data center development to Detroit with sensible regulations that will be designed to protect our residents, our businesses, and our natural resources.
Data centers are not the enemy. Due diligence is key to creating a community-driven regulatory framework that is crucial to any economic development’s public acceptance and success. Our stakeholder group strives for a balanced approach to data centers based on local control. Data centers may or may not be welcomed to Detroit. But to be clear, that decision is up to the residents of Detroit and it will be on our terms.
Hon. Scott Benson is a Detroit City Councilman who represents the 3rd District on Detroit’s north eastside. Scott also serves his community by sitting on numerous boards, is an avid cyclist, and a proud husband and father.
