A standing-room-only crowd spilled out of the council chamber into the rotunda Tuesday morning to let the Porter County Board of Commissioners know its opposition to proposed data centers that would cover nearly 800 acres in Wheeler if approved.
Planned unit development (PUD) applications were submitted to the county on Feb. 28 and were not part of Tuesday’s board agenda; the Post-Tribune acquired the applications through an Access to Public Records Act request.
Those voicing opposition did so predominantly on environmental grounds, particularly concerns over noise and water pollution, the safety of school children separated from the southerly proposed site by a railroad track, and the desire to make a decision sooner rather than later.
Nearly two dozen people spoke against the application, starting with John Hunter, superintendent of Union Township School Corporation. He cited not only environmental concerns, such as pollution and noise, but said tax increment financing districts, or TIFs, would have negative impacts on the school district if approved.
He said property values would also be affected. “Residentially, we’re going to lose about 10 square miles,” Hunter said. “Why would we put an industrial area immediately adjacent to a school?”
Residents in Chesterton, Burns Harbor, and most recently, Valparaiso, have opposed data center proposals on similar grounds.
The areas in question are currently zoned rural residential, and the board of commissioners would need to pass ordinances to amend the county’s unified development ordinance approving a PUD. The applications were submitted by AXPK, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, on behalf of the property owners who would transfer ownership upon adoption of the ordinances. The proposed projects are being called Jeremiah A and Jeremiah B.
Jeremiah A is proposed for a 351.85-acre parcel at the northeast corner of County Road W 450 North and County Road N 750 West owned by John Loxas of Hammond. It is the more northerly of the two non-contiguous parcels and south of the landfill, and proposes an 80% impervious surface area.
Jeremiah B is proposed for 434.46 acres owned by Johnson Sunnybrook Farm, LLC, and Ceres Cedar Creek Farm, LLC, of Hobart, at the southeast corner of W 450 North and N 650 West, due north of Union Township Middle and High schools.
Architectural elevation plans show the buildings would be constructed of pre-cast concrete and pre-finished metal and aluminum composite panels, among other materials, and stand up to 120 feet tall, not including an additional maximum parapet height of 20 feet. Porter County Director of Development and Stormwater Management Mike Jabo said, “The UDO’s criteria is limiting to something less than that,” and said a building that tall would have to receive a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals.
He couldn’t speak to whether a 120-foot-tall building could cast a shadow onto adjacent property with an 80-foot setback. Proposed setbacks for the developments abutting residential areas would be 80 feet to the side and rear, and 100 feet in the front. Proposed setbacks from the nearby cemetery would be 100 feet on all sides. Setbacks from the property line to primary buildings proposed for all other settings are 50 feet on the side and rear and 80 feet in the front.
Jabo said the height limitation is an example of the considerable scrutiny and back-and-forth the applicant will receive for its proposals. “What they have proposed is nowhere near what we’re going to see when they get to the plan commission,” he said.
The Summary of Intent submitted by AXPK for Jeremiah B reads, “The property is appropriate in large part based on its location which will have minimal impact on the community as a whole, and also due to its location in close proximity to existing utility services.”
Every person who spoke against it disagreed that the impacts would be minimal. “The proximity to three schools without land use studies is unacceptable,” said Angel Forystek, a Wheeler resident and mother of school-age children.
Sandy Hill, who lives on County Road 650, said she has a friend in South Dakota who lives near a data center. “He says it’s 24/7 noise,” she said of the noise it puts off. “He said you can turn the TV up as loud as you want and you can still hear it.”
Under the category of noise standards, the application for Jeremiah A reads, “Normal operation shall be mitigated through screening or muffling devices, such that the decibel level perceived at adjacent noise-sensitive land use is at or below 75 dB.” That’s considered loud and equivalent to the noise level of a busy restaurant or loud radio.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says eight hours of exposure to 85 dB can damage hearing. The proposed ordinance for Jeremiah B exempts the noise maximum for “construction, general maintenance/future construction and/or equipment or machinery used in emergency scenarios.”
The tone eventually got heated between some in the audience and Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North. “We did not ask for a data center to come knocking at our door,” he said. He told the crowd that while the board was there to serve them, it would not do to circumvent the application and due diligence process.
Multiple speakers thanked Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center, for making it known that she planned to vote against any proposed data centers, which she confirmed after the meeting.
Jabo is in the process of setting up an informational meeting at the Porter County Expo Center to be run by the plan commission. AXPK would get to introduce its proposals and the public would get to ask questions. He expects the meeting to be in late April or early May.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
