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Mason City Council members voted to approve a new zoning framework for data centers during a contentious meeting Monday night.
The ordinance introduces a new zoning district to be used for data centers that regulates things like noise emissions, building screening and setback.
City Council members heard an hour and 45 minutes of public comment Monday, with nearly all speakers opposing the ordinance.
Mason resident Megan Short said the ordinance would serve as “the welcome mat” for data centers in the city, arguing that projects should require a special use permit.
Ann Stewart, another Mason resident, predicted “irreversible and catastrophic, short-lived gain” as a result of the ordinance.
“Your years of service, Mr. Mayor, will collapse into one ruinous legacy,” Stewart said. “A once quiet farming community recast as an industrial utility drain.”
Tensions rose throughout the meeting, with outbursts from audience members during and after public comments.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Anthony Hudson accused City Council members of treason, which he said is punishable by public hanging.
“So I suggest you start listening,” Hudson said.
Public commenters grew frustrated with a rule requiring them to give their address before speaking.
Hudson told Mayor Russell Whipple that he would soon be moving to 120 Capitol Ave., the address of the Michigan Capitol, which is located about three miles away from the governor’s residence.
Others gave fake addresses like “123 Sesame Lane” and “1776 Boulevard, Freedom City” and threatened to sue the city if they were removed.
“There’s no exception in our rules,” Whipple told a 16-year-old who said she was uncomfortable sharing her address in front of a crowd of strangers, leading to several outbursts from audience members. “If you’re going to speak to the Council, you have to give the address.”
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The city previously received written comments about the ordinance from more than 100 people, about half of whom are residents in the city of Mason.
City staff implemented suggestions from those public comments in amendments passed Monday night, including limits to the size of signs and a requirement that data centers would not be charged less than the residential rate for water use.
Another amendment approved by City Council members requires data center developers to submit documents estimating water usage, verifying that sufficient electrical capacity is available and evaluating potential impacts on water resources, air quality and area wildlife.
The report also explains why some suggestions were not implemented.
Many of the requests to impose more stringent limits on noise emissions were found to not be feasible because suburban environments naturally have higher ambient noise levels than rural areas. But an amendment adopted by City Council members limits the average noise level over any 24-hour period to 55 A-weighted decibels at the property boundary shared with a residential area.
While some feedback questioned why all screening trees would not be evergreen or planted at a uniform height, city staff explained that relying on a single type of tree would increase vulnerability to disease and widespread loss.
Several public comments call for a moratorium on data center development lasting up to a year or prohibiting data centers altogether.
But city staff said state law does not allow zoning in a way that is “exclusionary or arbitrary.” The city’s job is to “regulate development responsibly, not to pre-determine outcomes,” according to a report by city staff. No data centers are currently being proposed in Mason.
The report said some suggestions from the public would amount to “de facto exclusionary zoning,” including large setbacks or separation requirements from residential neighborhoods and schools that would effectively eliminate all locations within the city.
According to the report, failing to adopt the ordinance would not stop data centers from setting up shop in Mason, but would only serve to leave them regulated under an “outdated framework that treats data centers the same as conventional industrial uses, despite their significantly different scale and operational impacts.”
City Councilmember Jerry Schaffer spent nearly an hour proposing more than two dozen additional amendments to the ordinance. All but one, increasing the required height of a berm, failed.
“We need to slow this down, take our time and get this right,” Schaffer said. “I have tried to make amendments. Every one, except one, was shot down. But by God, we have a better berm.”
The ordinance passed, as amended, in a 5-2 vote, with Schaffer and Councilmember Tom Husby voting against it.
Shawn Sodman, who owns the Mason ice cream shop The Daily Scoop and ran for City Council in 2024, said residents are “far too polarized to see anything in the middle that might resemble a compromise.”
He compared the debate to an optical illusion where one person might see a dog while another might see a cat, saying that residents and City Council members have different perspectives on what issues with data centers the ordinance is meant to address.
“A sculpture can be a cat and a dog, and a data center can be something we don’t want and something that, legally, we might not be able to stop,” Sodman said.
“Just because people do not agree on the solution to the problem, it doesn’t mean that they were ill informed or don’t know what other side is trying to say,” Sodman said. “It only means that there’s more than one way to look at every situation, and it’s important to remember that before speaking ill of those we disagree with.”
