This week in mid-Michigan, Lansing City Council members will hold a public hearing on a proposed data center moratorium, a dispute over a funding in Aurelius is putting a local library at risk and national progressives are stopping by the region to boost support for two Democratic congressional candidates ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.
These are some of the biggest stories WKAR’s Andrew Roth is following as part of his column What Roth’s Watching on our weekly newsletter The Signal.
From Andrew:
1. Lansing data center moratorium
Lansing City Council members plan to hold a public hearing Monday on a proposed six-month data center moratorium. The city would use the time to study and recommend zoning amendments tailored to data centers. The moratorium proposal was introduced in April, the same month developers pulled out of a proposed $120 million data center development in the city that garnered mixed reactions from residents.
2. Aurelius library funding fight
Aurelius Township is seeking an updated agreement with the Capital Area District Libraries that would see CADL take on additional expenses, including utilities and trash collection. The township’s proposal would also prohibit the library from using a water cooler in the township breakroom and would assess a fee to use the Township Hall space for events. The library has countered with a proposal that would allow library employees to use the breakroom water cooler for $12 a month and would maintain free access to use the Township Hall for library programming104 days per year. The Aurelius Township Board will meet Tuesday after filing a 90-day notice to terminate the library’s contract and subsequently receiving CATDL’s counter proposal.
3. National progressives to boost El-Sayed, Lawrence
Progressive firebrands U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will lend their support to U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and U.S. House candidate William Lawrence during a rally in Lansing next weekend ahead of Michigan’s Aug. 4 Democratic primary.
Interview Transcript:
Melorie Begay: This week in mid-Michigan, Lansing City Council members will hold a public hearing on a proposed data center moratorium. In Aurelius, a dispute over a funding agreement is putting a local library at risk. And national progressives are stopping by the region to boost two Democratic congressional candidates ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.
These are some of the biggest stories WKAR's Andrew Roth is following as part of his column "What Roth's Watching" on our weekly newsletter, The Signal. He joins me now. Thanks for being here, Andrew.
Andrew Roth: Always happy to join.
Begay: So let's jump in, shall we? Lansing City Council members will meet to hear about a proposal that would temporarily freeze data center development for about six months. What else do we know about this proposal?
Roth: Yeah, so we've been seeing these moratoriums pop up more and more in different communities throughout the state, and these are meant to give the local governments time to kind of assess their zoning rules and make sure that they're up to date for these modern, sort of, uses that maybe they weren't as concerned about when they were writing some of the zoning rules. So this one in particular came up the same month that Lansing actually lost a data center proposal. The developers pulled out of the proposal after it faced some backlash from community members.
Begay: You know, there's also a statewide moratorium proposal in the Legislature, but that one would place a one-year pause on data centers. Do we know why this one is six months?
Roth: Well, I think we've seen these moratoriums last different amounts of time in different communities. It really isn't meant to be an indefinite stop to all data centers forever. It's really meant to be a targeted approach to allow the local governments time to assess their rules. And so, I think it really just comes down to how much time they think they're going to need to be able to do that and come up with a system that provides some of the protections that residents want to see.
Begay: All right, and next up, a library in Aurelius Township could be at risk of losing its space in a building it shares with the township. There appears to be a disagreement between the Capital Area District Libraries, which operates the library, and the municipality. What's the discrepancy here?
Roth : Yeah, so the township sent a notice to the library saying that they would cancel the agreement that sets up the shared space with the library if the Capital Area District Libraries doesn't agree to take on some additional expenses, and the library seems open to finding an agreement. It just might not be exactly what the township is looking for.
So the township, for example, says that the library would not be allowed to dispose of trash on township premises at all. The library is saying, we can keep doing that, but we'll pay you $50 a month to add it to your trash collection. Basically, you know, they want to pay some of the utilities. So the township says 35%, the library is a little bit lower at 33% and then some of it is more. The township says that library staff wouldn't be able to use a water cooler in the break room, and the library says you know our employees can continue to do that. We'll pay you $12 a month for it.
Begay: I'm also curious because CADL is proposing a millage this election. Do we know how that might affect this dispute?
Roth: Yeah. If the millage were to fail, CADL would probably have to reassess some of the services that they offer. You know, look at some of the branches, whether all of them remain open and fully operational at their current levels. And so, if they did lose some of the funding that they currently rely on, it would make it a lot harder for them to take on some of these additional expenses that the township wants them to.
Begay: Speaking of elections, two national progressives, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will make a stop in Lansing to stump for congressional candidates Abdul El-Sayed and William Lawrence. Now, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, of course, are big names in the progressive movement. What else do we know about this rally that they're hosting,
Roth: So for the Senate race in particular, this recently became a head-to-head matchup between Abdul El-Sayed and Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and so El-Sayed's campaign is really hoping to capitalize on winning over some of the voters that were previously supporting state Senator Mallory McMorrow before she dropped out of the race. So they're hoping that having these major political figures in town will help convince some voters who might be on the fence and really capitalize on it becoming a head-to-head race.
What's interesting is that Bernie Sanders endorsed really kind of at the outset of Abdul El-Sayed's campaign and AOC has endorsed only much more recently, around the time that Senator McMorrow dropped out. So it's kind of a dual level approach there, where one of them endorsed at the start, and then another one endorsed as early voting is starting.
Begay: All right. Well, thanks for the preview, Andrew, and thanks for being here.
Roth: Always happy to join.
Begay : Andrew Roth is a reporter with WKAR. You can find his column "What Roth's Watching" in our weekly newsletter, The Signal. You can sign up at wkar.org.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
