A dozen members of the Indianapolis City-County Council have spoken in opposition to Google’s planned data center in Franklin Township.
The controversial project cleared a key hurdle last week when the Metropolitan Development Commission voted 8-1 in a secret ballot to grant preliminary approval to the company’s request to rezone nearly 470 acres for the project. But opponents, including the district’s councilor, are hoping that the city’s legislative leaders will halt the rezoning in the coming weeks.
Republican Councilor Michael-Paul Hart represents the area in which the Google project would be constructed, on the far southeast side of Marion County. Typically, rezoning cases that the Metropolitan Development Commission approves are brought to the council as part of a package that can include multiple projects. If councilors take no action, the commission’s decision stands.
Councilors may call down a specific zoning case and request a public hearing be held at a subsequent council meeting. A majority of the council must approve this action.
Hart plans to do this at the council’s Sept. 8 meeting, with the hope of stopping Google’s controversial development, which has prompted concern from residents, in part, that the project will strain energy and environmental resources.
Six Republicans and six Democrats have publicly come out in support of his efforts. Historically, councilors have supported a district’s representative regarding divisive projects.
In a statement Friday, Republicans on the council said their caucus would adhere to “traditional norms and customs” of the body, “under which members should defer to the district councilor on rezoning cases.”
Democrats Jesse Brown, Kristin Jones, Frank Mascari, John Barth, Andy Nielsen and Jared Evans have made public statements against the data center.
Barth wrote in a statement posted to social media that the project “raises major concerns about water use, enormous energy demand, noise, and the long-term loss of land that could be used for housing or community projects.”
What happens now?
When Hart moves to call down the proposal on Sept. 8, a majority of councilors must vote to schedule a public hearing for the measure. That means that just one more councilor, aside from those who have already publicly supported Hart’s move, needs to vote in favor of holding a hearing.
The public hearing could potentially be held Sept. 22, at the council’s next regularly scheduled meeting, but Hart told IBJ it may be delayed because the timeframe gives little room for notice of the public hearing.
After the public hearing, three-fifths of the council, or 15 councilors, must vote to adopt, amend, or reject the proposal. Hart told IBJ that he’s hopeful that 20 councilors will come out in opposition to the measure in advance of that vote. And he’s optimistic his colleagues will defer to his position when considering the rezone.
It’s a precedent he said he followed in the case of a recent vote on an affordable housing project in Council President Vop Osili’s district.
“His request was that we support it, and so I supported it,” Hart said. “There is that mutual understanding between councilors, regardless of party, that you [as the district councilor] know best.”
The Metropolitan Development Commission last week also introduced a request to consider a 10-year property tax abatement for the first building planned for the complex, which has an estimated cost of $314 million.
Total estimated costs for the first phase of the campus total $914 million, including an investment of $600 million for equipment to power the facility.
The abatement must still be considered by the commission and presented for a public hearing on Oct. 1.