Allen Park residents meet with data center developer about proposed facility

A data center that could be coming to Allen Park, Michigan, is raising a lot of big questions.

The questions were asked at a Q and A on Saturday hosted by Solstice Data. Representatives with the company, which has locations worldwide, are aware of the concerns community members have.

While company officials said they presented answers at the meeting, some residents CBS News Detroit spoke with were not satisfied.

"There is too much at risk in our community for this data center to come here," said Barbara Kirby, a concerned resident.

Kirby is one of the several people who came with questions for Solstice Data. She says her community is so concerned about this project that a group was formed to stop the city from approving it.

"We have independent noise studies that show that noise in the neighborhoods will be below what is allowed by the city," said Tony Graham with Solstice Data.

Graham added that their cooling system would not be connected to municipal water.

"It's a closed loop, so we're basically recycling the water over and over again," he said.

The facility, according to Graham, would use an existing electricity substation so as not to impact the electricity used by residents nearby.

"I see artificial intelligence as a tremendous benefit, but something like this needs to be out in the middle of a superfund site or a brown field development," said Chris Darzynski, a concerned resident.

The company says the Allen Park location is perfect and would provide faster access to AI, something businesses like hospitals, factories and auto companies could utilize on a daily basis.

Solstice data will be presenting their additional research that was requested by the city at their upcoming meeting in March. Concerned residents plan to be there in hopes of stopping the project.