A St. Joseph County Council bill updating the county’s noise ordinance moved forward Tuesday night. The ordinance looks to have a major shortcoming regarding the data center that Microsoft will soon start building in Granger.
The county already has an ordinance limiting the noise that industrially zoned properties can emit, but this bill also would regulate the low-frequency sounds that can come from industrial users like data centers. That’s the vibratory energy that you can feel, rather than hear, and that rattles the window panes in your home.
County Council President Bryan Tanner has been working on the bill for months. It spells out a complaint process for residents and penalties for violators. On Tuesday night the county council’s Land Use Planning Committee gave it a favorable recommendation, and the full council will vote on it April 28.
Microsoft plans to build the data center near the Indiana Toll Road. But critics of the bill note that it won’t let people living north of the Toll Road complain about the data center sound because it prohibits taking sound measurements from any right-of-way wider than 150 feet, like the Toll Road.
In a statement, Tanner said that provision is required by federal law.
He said, “The unfortunate reality is that the Toll Road itself, and other major transportation corridors like it, simply produce too much noise to effectively measure or administer noise ordinance requirements adjacent to it.”
