With photos, video and reporting support from Sue Kelch
Saline Township officials delayed a vote July 8 on a 12-year tax break for Oracle America Cloud Services LLC after speakers in a packed room challenged whether the board must approve it under a court-approved consent judgment.
The Township Board voted 5-0 to postpone action until a 7 p.m. July 14 special meeting. The vote followed more than an hour of public comment on an Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate, or IFEC, tied to the Related Digital data center project under construction off West Michigan Avenue.
The request would reduce eligible real and personal property taxes by 50% for 12 years following completion of construction.
Township attorney Fred Lucas told the board the township agreed to support the exemption through its consent judgment with the developer. He said denying it could put the township in violation of a court order.
The consent judgment, entered in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, says the township “shall approve” the IFEC application in open session and provide the maximum exemption and term allowed under state law, up to 12 years.
Legal Questions Over Consent Judgment
But several speakers urged the board to seek more legal review before voting.
Among them was Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo, whose township has faced its own data center debate. Stumbo questioned whether a settlement agreement could require a township board to approve a tax abatement before the public hearing process.
“I don’t understand how you could put that in an agreement and it be legally binding,” Stumbo said.
She said Ypsilanti Township has handled several industrial facilities tax agreements, but those were tied to jobs. She urged Saline Township to consider additional protections if it approves the certificate, including clawback provisions, stronger financial guarantees, generator limits and decommissioning safeguards.
“This is a tax abatement, and the people have a right to be heard,” Stumbo said. “You as elected officials, I think, have a right to not approve it if you don’t want to.”
That question shaped much of the meeting. Township officials said the board had already committed to the abatement through the consent judgment. Speakers from Saline Township and other communities argued the board should delay, seek another legal opinion, add stronger protections or approve no more than it is required to grant.
The consent judgment settled a lawsuit filed after the Township Board denied the data center rezoning request in September 2025. In the complaint, RD Michigan Property Owner I LLC and the landowners alleged the denial amounted to exclusionary zoning, violated state law and due process, and improperly blocked a legitimate land use.
Project Cost Estimate Draws Scrutiny
Lucas said the tax abatement application attached to the consent judgment originally listed about $4.8 billion in real and personal property costs. The application filed in May lists total project costs at about $43.1 billion, including about $9.9 billion in real property costs and $33.2 billion in personal property costs.
Lucas told the board the township would receive about $10 million per year after the abatement, separate from other payments promised through the consent judgment.
Alan Greene, an attorney for Related Digital, said the project itself has not expanded. He said the higher estimate reflects construction and equipment costs, and tax figures presented to the township from the beginning were based on the expectation that the abatement would be requested.
“It’s the same project,” Greene said. “It’s the same plan that we presented.”
Greene also said the application is in Oracle’s name because Oracle is the tenant and taxpayer responsible for paying the taxes.
Speakers Push for Delay
Many public comments returned to the same request: delay the vote. Some speakers questioned whether the jump from about $4.8 billion to about $43.1 billion should give the township room to reconsider or renegotiate the exemption. Others focused on water, noise, generator use, property values and the power grid. Several questioned whether the township had enough independent legal review, and whether financial benefits to the township, schools, library and other taxing units would outweigh risks to nearby homeowners and farms.
Another speaker said her family moved to Saline from Indiana a few years ago and urged the board not to treat the projected tax revenue as an uncomplicated benefit. She also criticized Lucas, saying he appeared to be on his phone while she was speaking.
“Don’t present this to us like we’re supposed to be thrilled,” she said. “What are we sacrificing for that $10 million?”
She urged the board to take more time before voting, saying the township should not simply accept that its “hands are tied.”
James Laramie, a township resident and member of the Zoning Board of Appeals who said he was speaking as a citizen, asked why the township would approve an abatement for a project it previously rejected.
“My original thinking was, why do we want to give a tax abatement to somebody we didn’t want here?” Laramie said.
Board Sets July 14 Meeting
After repeated calls to delay, the board discussed whether it had enough time to postpone the vote. Lucas said state law requires the local government to approve or disapprove an IFEC application within 60 days of receiving it, and officials said the application was received May 19.
Clerk Kelly Marion said the deadline would fall before the board’s next regular meeting. Trustee Dean Marion said the township had already agreed to the abatement, but Supervisor Tom Hammond said a separate meeting was needed.
“I hate to have a separate meeting, but I think it’s called for,” Hammond said.
The board then voted unanimously to schedule the July 14 meeting.
Earlier in the meeting, the board appointed Gary Luckhardt to fill the trustee seat left vacant when Hammond moved into the supervisor role.
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