Saline Township Residents Appeal Permit for Saline Data Center to Zoning Board of Appeals

For Immediate Release

DATE: December 19, 2025

CONTACT: info@ruralmidefense.org

FOR ZBA APPEAL DOCUMENTS, CONTACT info@ruralmidefense.org or click this link.

Saline Township residents appeal permit for Saline Data Center to Zoning Board of Appeals

A stay on the construction work permitted is automatic

Saline Township, Mich. – Saline Township residents opened a second front in the battle to protect their agricultural community and stop the proposed hyperscale data center by Related Digital, appealing a zoning permit Saline Township granted on December 4, which permitted fencing and temporary construction structures. 

The appeal was filed this week with the Saline Township Zoning Board of Appeals and the official who issued the permit, and called on the Township to enforce the provision in Michigan law that automatically stays the permit while the ZBA appeal case is pending. Construction has begun at the site, but must now halt.

The Zoning Board of Appeals is required to hold a public hearing within 90 days to hear and decide the appeal. Page 2 of one appellant, Preston Dyer Jr., lives next door to the site’s entrance. Another appellant, Kathryn Haushalter sued last weekend to overturn the consent judgment filed in Washtenaw County Circuit Court. The third appellant is Joshua Day LeBaron. The grounds for the appeal are described in a 16-page Notice of Appeal, available on https://ruralmidefense.org/.

The permit, the residents say, violated the zoning ordinance and should be revoked by the ZBA, because the Township planner erroneously relied on the Zoning Map that has not been changed, as the property still shows the land is agricultural, not industrial. The Township Board never amended the zoning ordinance to effectuate the change. The Consent Judgement did not, and could not, rezone the property because only the Township Board has the power to legislate and amend the ordinance. A provision in Saline Township’s zoning ordinance requires it “shall” conform to a court decree.

The Consent Judgement is silent on the Zoning Map, and the terms direct that anything the agreement is silent on, the Saline Township Zoning Ordinance controls. The Zoning Map is “the final authority” in determining which land parcels are within each zone.  Without adopting an amendment to change the zoning district boundaries on the Zoning Map at a public meeting, and publishing it, the rezoning legislation never happened. 

Community supporters have rallied behind the residents, forming two organizations, Stop the Saline Data Center and nonprofit Rural Michigan Defense Fund. Learn more at: www.stopsalinedatacenter.org and https://ruralmidefense.org/