YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Ypsilanti Township officials and residents say they were blindsided by the University of Michigan’s announcement that a site along Textile Road near the Huron River is the preferred location for a proposed data and research center the university has in conjunction to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The university on Tuesday named a 144-acre parcel in the township as its top choice for an academic computing center that would support U-M researchers and students, including work on medical breakthroughs. The same site would also include a federal research center supporting Los Alamos, where modeling and calculations related to the safety of the nation’s nuclear weapons would take place.
No nuclear materials would be stored at the facility, according to the university.
Still, the announcement set off concern and frustration among nearby residents and township leaders, who say they learned of the decision from news reports rather than from university officials.
“I don’t want it here. I don’t want it anywhere,” said Martha, a township resident who was fishing along the Huron River with her great-grandson directly behind the proposed site.
Another neighbor, Richard Dau, who lives near the river, said he worries about the impact on daily life.
“I feel it could be some noise,” Dau said.
Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo said she was disappointed by both the decision and how it was communicated.
“They’re making this decision regardless of what our residents want,” Stumbo said. “I feel like we don’t matter to them.”
Stumbo said the township is exploring legal strategies in response to the proposal but declined to give specifics.
Township General Counsel Doug Winters raised two major concerns: that the facility’s ties to the nation’s nuclear weapons program could make the community a potential target, and that the choice of location reflects what he called environmental racism.
“They would not put this in Ann Arbor,” Winters said. “They put it in areas where there are more brown and Black people, they put it here where people don’t have the same kind of generational wealth that they have in Ann Arbor.”
Local 4 reached out to the university for comment on what Winters’ said, the university pointed Local 4 to a recent article in their University Record quoting U-M President Domenico Grasso.
“As we move this project forward, we are equally committed to listening to our neighbors, answering their questions and working with the community to ensure we develop this site responsibly,” Grasso said.
The same article noted that while the center would support nuclear-related research, no nuclear products would be held on site and that local residents would not face any imminent danger from its operations.
Township leaders said they plan to keep pressing for answers while they evaluate their options and gather input from residents.
Local 4 also asked the university is their a tentative groundbreaking date. They replied: “We are still in the planning and design phase, which will now accelerate with a chosen site, but it is still too early to confirm a groundbreaking date. “
The university also plans to hold a community town hall on Sept. 9 at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest.