KALKASKA COUNTY — A proposal to build a data center complex in rural Kalkaska County drew a packed crowd Monday night as residents confronted the project’s developer with questions about environmental impacts, long-term benefits, and the future of local land.
The meeting was held at the Garfield Township Hall and marked the first in a series of public sessions hosted by Rocklocker, a company pushing to build a gigawatt-scale data center and private power plant on more than 1,400 acres of state land near Island Lake.
Project developer Matt Rine told attendees that community input is now central to the project’s next steps, especially after the Michigan Department of Natural Resources denied Rocklocker’s initial request to purchase the state-managed property earlier this year.
Rine said the project could bring jobs and tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue to the county. He also argues that Kalkaska’s geology makes it an excellent location for developing a cutting-edge data center that would use carbon-capture technology to achieve net-zero emissions.
Many community members continued to oppose the project, saying the region has already seen what happens when large companies make big promises but disappear once the boom fades, leaving scars on the landscape and people unemployed.
Residents also raised serious concerns about how those systems would interact with groundwater, rivers, and surrounding ecosystems, questioning whether the proposed geothermal and closed-loop systems could alter temperatures underground.
Rine said he will continue gathering community feedback this week at the Kalkaska County Commission on Aging at 12:15 p.m. and 5:30 on Thursday at the Coldsprings Township Hall.