After months of debate, and an eight-hour meeting that ended at about 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, the St. Joseph County Council voted down a rezoning needed for a data center near New Carlisle.
It turned out to be an issue that cut across party lines with no Republicans voting for it, despite support from County GOP chair Jackie Horvath and Republican county commissioners president Carl Baxmeyer. Only the council’s two most-senior members, Democrats Diana Hess and Mark Catanzarite, voted for the rezoning.
Opponents had to overcome a high-dollar PR blitz that included TV ads, door-to-door canvassing, and a push-poll text blast. The developer and others made a strong case for the property tax revenue the project would bring, to replace some of what’s being lost by the Indiana General Assembly’s cuts this year.
But the council sided with the opponents, many from around the New Carlisle area, who are trying desperately to preserve what’s left of the rural area’s character, as Amazon builds the world’s largest data center nearby. On a 1,000-acre site along Chicago Trail, the New York-based developer wanted to build 14 buildings, each the size of Notre Dame Stadium.
That was just too much for Republican Council member Amy Drake, whose fatigue at the late hour might have been showing. A yes vote was to deny the rezoning.
”I am with the people of New Carlisle on this," Drake said. "I think it’s overwhelming. I think that you have been forgotten, ignored and taken advantage of in the past, so I am voting yes, or no! I’m voting yes for you. Yes for you, no for the data center.”
