Livonia's Economic Development & Strategic Planning Committee convened Wednesday evening at City Hall, taking significant steps toward regulating large-scale data centers while also revisiting — and stalling on — efforts to limit the growing number of automated car washes operating in the city. The session, chaired by Councilmember Carrie Budzinski, ran just over an hour and drew public comment on both agenda items.
All three committee members were present: Chair Budzinski, Vice Chair Patrick Brockway and Councilmember Eileen McDonnell. Council President Kayleigh Reid and Councilmember Robin Persiconi were also in attendance, along with Interim City Attorney Eric Goldstein, Planning and Economic Development Director Mark Taormina, and Director of Government Affairs Aarica Smith.
Data Centers: A Months-Long Effort Reaches a Critical Stage
The data center question has been building since January, when the Council unanimously referred the issue to committee. A February 25 session featured a deep-dive presentation by Schoolcraft College student Naz Cimsit, whose research warned that data center energy consumption had surged from 4% of total U.S. energy use in 2024 to 12% in 2025. Cimsit's report also highlighted that individual facilities can consume electricity equivalent to 2,000 households per day, while posing risks of water contamination, drought, and noise pollution severe enough to cause hearing loss.
Cimsit had also spoken with Dr. Patrick Brody at the University of Dublin, who documented how data center proliferation in Ireland has driven up electricity costs for ordinary citizens and contributed to power blackouts. The committee had pointed to Germany's Energy Efficiency Act as a potential model — it requires all data centers to operate closed-loop heat and water systems, conduct frequent energy audits, and publish their energy use data publicly.
In March, the full Council responded by unanimously directing the Law Department to draft a proposed one-year moratorium on data centers, with the German standards as a benchmark. Wednesday's meeting was the next step in that process — and it brought a more nuanced legal framework to the table.
Interim City Attorney Eric Goldstein presented research on how moratoriums have fared in court, warning the committee that poorly defined moratoriums have been overturned by judges, exposing municipalities to costly litigation and ultimately forcing them to permit the very projects they sought to block. He distributed proposed language for a new Section 13.16 — "Moratoria" — to be incorporated into the city's zoning code, designed to create a legally defensible framework.
"Moratoriums need to be put in place to evaluate the threat to health, safety and wellness of the public — not to 'buy time' to develop ordinances."— Interim City Attorney Eric Goldstein, summarizing legal standards for valid moratorium use
Goldstein was emphatic that moratoriums cannot merely serve as a delay tactic while the city develops new rules. They must be grounded in documented public health, safety, or welfare concerns. Without that foundation, he cautioned, the city could be left holding the legal bill — and a data center.
In addition to the moratorium ordinance, Goldstein proposed a second and parallel track: updating Livonia's existing zoning code to reclassify large-scale data centers as a "special land use" rather than a permitted-by-right use. Under current code, data centers are allowed in both industrial and commercial zones without special review. Reclassifying them would give the Council and Planning Commission greater discretion to impose conditions, require environmental studies, and deny applications that don't meet community standards. He recommended working with Cimsit and Taormina to finalize the language.
Councilmembers asked pointed questions about timing — specifically, whether these two measures could move quickly enough to prevent a data center application from slipping through before new rules are in place. The answer: both items would be referred to the Planning Commission for review and a public hearing before returning to the full City Council for final action.
It's worth noting that data centers are not entirely foreign to Livonia. The city and numerous businesses already operate server infrastructure for their own internal operations. Officials were careful to clarify that the proposed regulations are aimed at large, commercial-scale facilities with major utility footprints — not the kind of modest tech infrastructure that keeps local businesses running.
Dan West, President of the Livonia Chamber of Commerce, submitted an email referenced by Chair Budzinski and included in the meeting packet, directing interested parties to an article related to the discussion. Residents who spoke at the meeting raised the example of a failed moratorium in the city of Saline as a cautionary tale, and one resident challenged the premise of closed-loop water systems, arguing they still consume significant quantities of water.
Car Washes: Council Hits a Procedural Wall
The second agenda item — limiting the number of gas stations and car washes — had a more frustrating arc. The issue was first referred to committee in January by Vice President Brockway, who was motivated in part by observing how neighboring communities had moved to restrict such uses through moratoriums.
At the February meeting, the then-City Attorney cautioned that pursuing simultaneous moratoriums on multiple land uses — data centers and car washes — risked undermining the credibility of each, and that any moratorium must be fact-grounded to survive legal challenge.
At Wednesday's meeting, Brockway shifted his line of inquiry, asking what tools beyond a moratorium might be available to the Council to restrict car wash proliferation. Goldstein acknowledged he had prepared for a conversation about moratoriums specifically and was not positioned to advise on alternative mechanisms on the spot.
Taormina offered some grounding context: Livonia currently has 11 automated car washes operating within city limits. Three more are in the pipeline, though only two of those are expected to be completed. Importantly, car washes already require a "special waiver use" under existing code — meaning the Council already has substantial discretion to approve or deny new applications, provided members can articulate a legitimate reason for denial.
Two residents addressed the committee on this item. One raised concerns about road damage caused by the car wash located at the intersection of Farmington Road and 8 Mile Road. A second resident spoke about the already-approved car wash project at 6 Mile and Fox Drive. Neither comment changed the outcome: the item remains in committee with no new action taken, though the door was left open for Planning and Law to collaborate on specific legislative language if and when the Council identifies a concrete concern to address.
What Comes Next
Both items are scheduled to be reported at the Regular City Council Meeting on June 15, 2026. On data centers, the Law Department will draft two resolutions: one referring the proposed moratorium language to the Planning Commission, and another referring the special land use reclassification. On car washes, the item simply returns to the regular agenda without a concrete recommendation — a holding pattern the committee appears willing to maintain until a clearer legislative path emerges.