Summary — HB 4085 (Land use: zoning and growth management; digital asset mining)
Status & procedural history
- Introduced in the Michigan House (sponsor: Rep. Bryan Posthumus). Filed/introduced early 2025 (documents show activity on Feb. 13 and March 7, 2025).
- Read and referred through committees: Communications & Technology; Ways & Means; most recently referred to the Committee on Government Operations. (Latest status: referred to Committee on Government Operations.)
- House Fiscal Agency analysis: no direct fiscal impact on state or local governments.
Purpose
- To amend the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act by adding a new section (proposed MCL 125.3515) that makes “digital asset mining” a permitted use in industrial zoning districts and restricts local governments’ ability to impose zoning or noise requirements that treat mining differently than data centers.
Key provisions
- Permitted use: In any industrial zone, “digital asset mining” would be a permitted use and would not require special land use or conditional use approval.
- Parity with data centers: A local unit of government may not impose any zoning restriction, requirement, or imposition on a digital asset mining business that is not also imposed on a data center in the same zoning district.
- Noise limits: Local governments are barred from setting a specific decibel limit that applies to digital asset mining businesses, except that general sound pollution limits that apply to industrial zones remain enforceable.
- Definitions included in the bill (selected):
- Digital asset mining: using electricity to power a computer or node for the purpose of securing a blockchain.
- Digital asset mining business: a group of computers consuming more than 1 megawatt of energy for the purpose of securing a blockchain protocol.
- Node: a computational device that contains and updates a copy of a blockchain.
- Blockchain, blockchain protocol, and data center: defined to clarify scope and comparability with data centers.
Who is affected
- Local governments/planning authorities: limits local zoning discretion and conditional-use procedures in industrial districts with respect to digital mining operations; requires parity treatment with data centers.
- Industrial property owners and developers: may ease siting and permitting for large-scale cryptocurrency mining in industrial zones.
- Digital asset mining operators: clearly permitted (subject to general industrial standards) and protected from special local noise limits or unequal zoning requirements.
- Neighbors and communities: potential impacts (noise, traffic, utility demands) would still be subject to applicable general industrial standards, but the bill narrows local regulatory tools specific to digital mining.
Notes and clarifications
- The bill targets only industrial zones and defines the regulated activities and thresholds (notably the >1 MW energy-use threshold for a “digital asset mining business”).
- House Fiscal Agency concluded there is no direct fiscal effect on state or local government budgets.
- Some posted legislative materials include unrelated text from another jurisdiction’s bill (appears to be an erroneous inclusion); the summary above reflects the Michigan HB 4085 content as it would amend the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act.
