There’s a land rush for data centers in Northwest Indiana. Hammond, Valparaiso and Portage all have them. New Carlisle and LaPorte are getting them. And now Burns Harbor is tasked with deciding whether to allow one there.
The Plan Commission is set to consider Provident Realty Advisors’ proposal to rezone 100 acres at the Worthington Steel site to allow for a data center there.
If Provident’s name is familiar, it’s because the company proposed to build a data center on the old Brassie golf course before the Chesterton Town Council rejected the idea amid strong resident backlash.
Provident has data centers in or under development in eight Texas cities — Grand Prairie, Las Colinas, Fort Worth, Dall, Richardson, Plano, Austin and Dallas — as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to its website.
Provident is tight-lipped about its Burns Harbor proposal, first introduced to the Plan Commission on July 8.
“It is our company policy not to comment on sites in the land use process. Pursuant to our filing, we are hopeful about this site and strive to be a good development partner with the town of Burns Harbor,” Provident representative Nick Farris said.
A February 2023 report by Magnum Economics for the Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, examined the economic impact data centers have in Illinois. Chicago ranks fifth globally in terms of data center markets, the report said. Northern Virginia is far and away the leader, followed by Singapore, London and Tokyo.
The 11 data centers built in Chicago and its Illinois suburbs between 2020 and 2021 represent a total investment of $4.2 billion and over 8,000 construction jobs, the report said.
It’s not hard to figure out why Northwest Indiana is also considered prime territory for data centers. It has all the advantages of proximity to Chicago that Illinois suburbs have but with the added advantages of lower property taxes and a business-friendly regulatory environment. Indiana has been leveraging those two assets for decades to lure businesses.
The Provident data center rejected in Chesterton would been a $1.3 billion investment. The company declined to say before Monday’s meeting how much the Burns Harbor data center would cost.
Jobs at data centers typically pay $100,000 or more. These are for highly skilled employees.
Jennifer McHargue is president of the Town Council, which is expected to consider Provident’s proposal and the Plan Commission’s recommendation, for or against, at the council’s Aug. 14 meeting.
“As council members, we’re all still doing our own research,” she said. “I’m going to the Plan Commission meetings, and I want to hear what everybody has to say.”
Although the 100 acres Provident wants to put the data center on are on Worthington Steel property, the land is currently zoned residential. Burns Harbor, a town of just 2,300 residents, has a tiny geographic footprint.
McHargue said she is listening to residents and their questions.
Among the concerns she has heard is that Provident is pushing for a speedy approval.
“There have been no decisions made on anything,” she said. “Nothing is being rushed. Provident is following all the meeting rules.”
Once the Plan Commission makes its recommendation for or against the rezoning, the Town Council will consider the ordinance twice, including a public hearing when the ordinance is up for second reading.
“This is the first developer that has shown interest in that property in a decade,” she noted.
McHargue, like other residents, wants answers to questions about noise pollution, environmental impact and other concerns. “I’m just listening to everybody,” she said.
Annette Hansen, executive director of the Izaak Walton League’s Porter County chapter, said she lives about one mile away from the data center’s proposed site.
“I hear they use so many gallons of water, almost like a Pratt type of thing,” she said, referring to Pratt Industries’ paper mill in Valparaiso which is a large water consumer.
Hansen also wants to know if data centers add refrigerant to the water to keep the electronics cool, and if so, how is the refrigerant extracted before the water is returned to its source.
When power goes out, what kind of generators will be used? Will diesel fumes be a concern? Will data centers get priority over other customers when NIPSCO is restoring power? These are also questions she hopes to get answered Monday.
Hansen is writing a resolution for the national Izaak Walton League to consider regarding data centers.
“If Provident comes back and says we’re just going to put up one of those little cute ones, OK,” Hansen said. The ones in Portage and Valparaiso, she’s fine with. But if it’s like what Provident proposed for Chesterton, that’s another story.
“We need to come up with a different term for these gigundous things,” said Gary Johnson, president of the Izaak Walton League’s Porter County chapter. He wants to slow down the approval process until the public learns more about Provident’s proposal.
“Provident people aren’t totally stupid. They’ve got to know there’s a reason why Chesterton didn’t do it,” Johnson said. “The public still doesn’t know the whole story of what happened in Chesterton.”
“They’re all trying to make tons of money while the regulations are loose, almost nonexistent,” Johnson said.
Ed Orlando, a Burns Harbor resident for six years, joined in the fight against Provident’s proposal in Chesterton, where he used to live.
“How many local people are going to be employed by it?” he asked. Would employees work on site or remotely?
“Is it a bit mining data center? Is it a hyperscale data center?” Orlando wants to know.
“As a resident, I’ve seen what can happen when these things go wrong,” he said.
“They’re newer, so there’s a lot of unknowns,” he said. “Before we sign off on these things, we’ve got to understand them.”
“You’re in a jail cell next to a thing that’s killing you” when property values plummet because of a project that goes south, Orlando said.
“Technology is going so fast. What Microsoft is doing in LaPorte, they had the sense to keep it far away from residential areas,” Johnson said.
“The bigger the project, the more the customer underestimates how much this thing is going to cost and how it’s going to work,” he said. Complexity adds complications, in his view.
“This ‘not in my backyard’ is legitimate because these things just spew it out in all directions,” Johnson said.
Among residents’ concerns are low-frequency sound waves that could evade noise barriers set up on the site’s perimeter.
“I think Burns Harbor is going to ask for a lot more to be released to the public. I think they learned from their neighbors,” Johnson said.
“I’ll be there at Monday’s meeting. Hell on wheels, I’ll be there,” he promised.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.