Focus Locally

Spectator

We now have an undeclared and potentially illegal war ongoing against Iran, and we claim to be running Venezuela after having kidnapped and imprisoned their president. Not to mention we are a long way from being done with the Jeffrey Epstein horrors, unless you believe nobody but Epstein and his girlfriend ever abused those very, very young women. Not exactly the best of times.

Things are better locally. Actually, things are almost always better locally, because the folks we elect locally can't hide like our pals in Washington do. We see our local politicians, who are our neighbors, shopping at the same stores we do. Their children attend our local schools, and they might even attend the same church. There is a certain level of accountability every time they step into the public.

The Traverse City City Commission recently undertook one of their many consultant-led meetings and came to the conclusion that once a decision is made, the commission should speak with one voice. Uh-huh. This sounds like advice being given to people about to undertake a ballot campaign who would prefer no negativity.

But the problem is TC Commissioners represent specific constituencies expecting their concerns to be addressed. It’s easy to envision a scenario in which most commissioners and voters think something is a good idea, but those in one or two districts think otherwise, and they rightfully expect their commissioner to represent those concerns even after a majority has voted. The go-along to get-along plan is not really the job as their constituents will likely remind them at the next election.

Civility, listening, consideration, and an absence of rank partisanship are all worthy goals. Unanimous support for everything is not.

There will be a ballot campaign concerning the extension of TIF 97, the tax program that “captures” certain property taxes from within the district to be used only in that downtown district. It amounts to millions annually that do not go into the city’s general fund and also takes money otherwise dedicated to Grand Traverse County, Northwestern Michigan College, and the Traverse Area District Library.

The argument we’ve started to hear from some is that failure to approve an extension of the TIF would result in a tax increase in the city. No it won’t, unless members of the city commission have lost their common sense. While it is true there will be less money specifically dedicated to downtown, Traverse City’s general fund will actually receive more property tax revenue without the TIF. And if commissioners wish to dedicate money to downtown, nothing will prevent them from doing that. Additionally, they can create a TIF in the future if one is needed.

We’re also spending a lot of money on a pretty fancy farmer’s market. The infrastructure being developed—power hook-ups and water availability—make perfect sense and will be welcomed by all vendors. The permanent structures are a little more puzzling, as we’ve not heard how they intend to deal with snow removal.

Garfield Township recently wrestled with their own issue concerning data centers feeding various artificial intelligence (AI) needs. AI is about to be omnipresent, and that means more and more companies will need data centers or the even bigger “hyperscale” data centers. According to MLive.com, there are already about 70 of these data centers in Michigan, around 30 in the southeastern corner and another 11 in the Grand Rapids area. Nationally, according to Axios, there are already about 5,000 of these power- and water-guzzling centers nationally accumulating answers to every question you could ever ask

Some townships have made decisions. According to the Tribune News Service, the Van Buren Township Planning Commission has already approved, by a 5-2 vote, a large data center in their area that will consume up to 3.6 million gallons of water every day. Saline Township has approved—under some duress and a lawsuit—a $7 billion hyperscale center in their area for Oracle/OpenAI.

The developers of these behemoths promise more jobs and a dramatically increased tax base while understating the noise and enormous power and water usage demands.

If Garfield Township wants to prevent, or at least discourage, the development of a data center in their neck of the woods, now is the time to act. The laissez faire build-by-right zoning always sounds good but invites projects we might not want. Going from build-by-right to requiring a special-use-permit (SUP), which is now the plan, should slow things down. If they don’t, and a developer’s plan is submitted, it might be too late to make changes after the fact. At a minimum, the township would find itself in court, so acting now, one way or the other, would be prudent.

Things are a mess nationally but better locally, and that’s where our attention should focus.

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