Kosciusko County board rebukes data center project; measure not dead yet
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
After hearing over an hour of complaints and concerns about preserving the agricultural nature of Kosciusko County, the county’s zoning board gave a unanimous vote of disapproval to a proposed data center in the area.
The 8-0 vote Wednesday by the county’s Area Plan Commission is a strong statement against the plans of industrial property developer Prologis, which is hoping to rezone 554 acres of farmland for industrial use.
However, authority to rezone the land rests with the Kosciusko County Board of Commissioners, which will have the final say on the measure later this month and isn’t bound by the plan commission’s recommendation.
Before the vote, plan commission members said the county’s comprehensive plan emphasizes protecting farmland. If Prologis builds a data center at the proposed site, Plan Commission President Lee Hardman said he’s worried more development will follow, eroding the area’s agricultural character.
“My concern is not that this particular request will change from a data center…but what about the other areas around it? That concerns me. I think it opens a Pandora’s box that I’m not comfortable with at all,” Hardman said.
The plan commission’s vote came after nearly two dozen local residents spoke in fierce opposition to the data center. Those who spoke feared a data center would take away a productive plot of farmland and infringe on the region’s rural history.
Some worried about the strain a data center would place on water and electrical resources. Others felt traffic would be negatively affected by the project. One speaker even compared the increased property tax revenues that would come with a data center to the pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray Jesus in the Bible.
“If this data center proposal is accepted, we’ll be setting a precedent for future decisions. A decision that could mean using more farmland that might be needed for additional businesses and homes,” said Kosciusko County resident Randy Warren.
Data center plans
The request before the plan commission called for the rezoning of 554 acres of farmland north of County Road 700 N and west of CR 300 W, about three miles northwest of Leesburg. The parcels are owned primarily by Murphy Place and Timothy Polk.
The landowners agreed to a voluntary stipulation that, if rezoned, the acreage could only be used for a data center.
Prologis Senior Vice President of Data Centers JC Witt told Inside INdiana Business that Prologis would build the data center and then lease it to another user. Prologis estimates the site will add around 300 jobs once construction is complete, though residents who spoke questioned that number.
Witt attended Wednesday’s hearing and said the fact a series of power transmission lines come together on the site makes it ideal for the company’s data center designs. He emphasized the data center would be as unobtrusive as possible and said the county would see $355 million in property taxes over the data center’s first 20 years of operation.
That’s compared to a little over $350,000 over the same time frame if the acres remain farmland.
A representative from the Kosciusko Rural Electric Membership Corp,—the utility cooperative that provides the county’s electricity—said the center wouldn’t raise rates or strain the co-op’s power supply. The co-op said it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to build adequate transmission lines to a different site.
Many speakers at Wednesday’s hearing said they weren’t necessarily opposed to a data center, they just didn’t want it in the heart of land that’s been used by farmers for generations.
“This entire area is ag; it’s incredibly productive,” said local attorney Jack Birch. “Just because there’s three power lines there doesn’t mean we get to destroy everything else in the area or have a significant impact on everything else in the area.”
The zoning request now goes before the Kosciusko Board of Commissioners on April 22. None of the three commissioners have returned interview requests from Inside INdiana Business.