MASON, Mich. (Mid Michigan Gazette) — The Sycamore Room at the Mason City Hall was packed with more than 100 people on Monday night as attendees were looking to make their voices heard at the Jan. 5, 2026, meeting of the city council.
Dozens of people took part in the public comment portion, who asked for more clarification and an increase in time for the temporary moratorium of 90 days that was passed at the Dec. 15, 2025, City Council meeting.
“What I’m hoping for is that tonight, you’ll vote for the citizens of this community and enact a 180-day moratorium to fully investigate the environmental impact of what this will do for the health and well-being of all of us and our families,” Pam Oliver said.
City Council approved the motion to defer the second reading and adoption of Ordinance 266 to the Feb. 2, 2026, Mason City Council Meeting.
Councilmembers also approved Ordinance 267, which establishes a 90-day moratorium on approving data centers as a land use in the City of Mason, set to expire on March 15, 2026.
Mayor Russell Whipple said the vote on Ordinance 267 needed at least five votes in favor, with the language that it was written, for the ordinance to take immediate effect. However, Ordinance 267 passed in a vote of 4-2, so Mayor Whipple added that Ordinance 267 takes effect 20 days from the passage.
Another large topic of discussion was Resolution 2026-01, with an effort to rescind the citizen advisory committee that was initially approved at the Dec. 15, 2025, meeting and instead implement a public comment period to be submitted through an online portal.
City officials said in the resolution language that “The formation, organization, and operation of such a committee would require significant time and staff resources, which would delay the collection of public input and recommendations to the City Council. The City Council did not provide specific direction regarding the composition, scope, authority, or operating procedures of such a committee. By its nature, a citizen advisory committee would be comprised of a limited number of people and may exclude the input of other interested people or affected members of the public.”
Resolution 2026-01 was approved in a vote of 4-2.
Attendees still made their voices heard even after public comment had ended, which started some back. and forth between officials and people who live in the area.
Mayor Whipple also took some time during the meeting to share his thoughts about public commenters over the past two meetings.
“I receive nothing, no money, no compensation, no benefits, no anything from anybody related to any development at all, let alone a data center. I have not signed an NDA. In fact, I’ve never signed one in my life. There are no back deals. The city manager has not signed an NDA and is also not receiving any benefits of any kind from anybody,” Whipple said. “Throughout this process, the other thing that I’ve made clear and I know the city manager has been clear is that we have been approached by people in the industry, there’s been no lack of transparency on that. I will just tell you that those conversations, when you’re talking to somebody at that level, those aren’t public and they’re not made public because those are usually the times when you’re dealing with a purchase between a buyer and a seller, and it’s not the place to get in the middle of. The city’s place is to deal with it when an application to rezone or an application for a site plan review is put forward. We don’t have either; there is no site plan request, there is no rezoning request.”
He added that his fear is that there would be a rezoning request and it faces the possibility of being done under the M2 ordinance instead of the M3 ordinance that is being proposed for strengthening regulations around data centers.
“I know everybody seems to think that this is some sort of invitation to a data center, but it’s not,” Whipple said.
According to meeting materials, the formal public comment portal will run beginning at noon on Jan. 6, 2026, and ending no later than 4:00 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2026.
