The St. Joseph County Area Plan Commission Tuesday will consider a rezoning that developers need for another data center near New Carlisle. The project is unrelated to the massive data center Amazon is building east of the town.
The developers are asking to rezone, from agricultural to industrial, over 1,000 acres of USDA-certified prime farmland along Chicago Trail. The site lies just north of New Carlisle. Town Council President Marcy Kauffman recently told The South Bend Tribune she’ll fight the project. She says it would kill what’s left of New Carlisle’s small-town country identity, as Amazon’s massive data center rises to the east.
The Area Plan staff is giving the project neither a favorable nor unfavorable recommendation. On one hand they note it would conflict with the county’s and town’s comprehensive plans, which call for preserving the land for agriculture.
But the report notes the county will need to continue courting such economic development, especially after the Indiana General Assembly’s property tax cuts this year will reduce funding for local governments.
The county council will consider the plan commission’s recommendation when it votes on the rezoning Sept. 23.
