A St. Joseph County Council committee Tuesday will consider a rezoning that a developer has requested to build a second data center near New Carlisle. The New Carlisle Town Council strongly opposes the project.
To build the data center, for a client the developer refuses to publicly identify, the company would need the county to rezone over 1,000 acres along Chicago Trail from agricultural to industrial.
The site sits just beyond New Carlisle town limits but on Tuesday the town council voted 4-0 for a resolution stating its opposition to the project. Specifically, it states such projects should be confined to the Indiana Enterprise Center, the newly industrialized area that the county established in recent years to develop the Amazon data center east of the town.
Democratic County Council Member Bryan Tanner recently has pointed to consultants’ views that the project won’t overly tax the area’s aquifer or drive up electric bills. But with another data center Microsoft plans for Granger, Republican County Council Member Amy Drake agrees with those who think two data centers in the county is enough for now.
“We don’t know for sure until it happens, until we kind of see a few years into this process. I think everybody’s right to wait and see on this because if we’re wrong, it’s going to be a big impact.”
The full council votes Nov. 11.
