Lawsuit accuses MSU of withholding information regarding Eagle Township mega site

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Michigan State University has been hit with a new lawsuit.

The university is accused of excessively redacting documents linked to a plot of farmland it owns in Eagle Township.

For months, people who live near the land have voiced their concerns regarding a proposed microchip plant.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed a lawsuit against MSU Monday, which owns the land. It claims that when it asked MSU for documents on the site, they received them with excessive redactions.

“Obviously, these mega sites are very important to the people of Michigan,” said Steve Delie, with the Mackinac Center. “Regardless of your opinion on them, everybody should be able to access the underlying information for these taxpayer-funded projects.”

The Eagle Township site is projected to be 1,400 acres, with 1,000 of those acres including farmland from Michigan State University, donated to the school by a private donor with the agreement that the land must remain farmland for 25 years, ending in 2031.

Along with MSU, 11 other private properties are under a three-year option agreement with the mega site.

“We heard some issues may surround it from a legal perspective, so we filed a (Freedom of Information Act) FOIA request, and when we got documents back, the key document - which is a trust amendment - was very heavily redacted,” Delie said. “We thought that was inappropriate.”

The Mackinac Center filed a FOIA request back in February for information about whether MSU is legally able to sell the donated farmland.

“It’s very common to see excessive redactions in FOIA but when you get a page that looks like this, it’s very difficult to know what’s being withheld and what isn’t,” Delie said. “So, we’re trying to get access to information that the University has claimed as private but that we don’t think qualifies under that exemption.”

In the lawsuit, the Mackinac Center said this information is likely to shed light on an area of important public debate.

“Michigan State University is a government entity. Its records are the people of Michigan’s records,” Delie said. “And so, unless a very specific exemption applies, the public should be able to access as much of that information as possible.”

The Mackinac Center said if they win the suit, they will be releasing all documents publicly.

You can read the full complaint filed below.

Prior coverage:

• Clinton County, Eagle Township moving forward with mega site study
• Clinton County residents push back against potential microchip factory
• Eagle Township prepping land for ‘mega’ factory
• Eagle Township residents voice concerns over proposed plant
• ‘Keep Eagle agricultural’ - Eagle Township manufacturing plan sparks controversy
• Open house on proposed Eagle Township ‘megaplant’ draws hundreds
• Eagle Township residents call for recall and pause on development plans
• Residents begin collecting signatures for recall of Eagle Township supervisor

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