To accommodate what’s expected to be a large crowd, the Elkhart County Advisory Plan Commission has moved its July 9 public hearing over a proposed data center in Bristol.
The plan commission has now moved the meeting to St. Mark’s United Methodist Church on Main Street in Goshen.
A developer is asking the town to rezone and combine two farms north of Bristol to build a data center to be called the Bristol Innovation Park. But some residents continue to oppose the development, raising concerns about noise, water usage, energy demand and environmental impacts.
Members of the public will be allowed three minutes to speak. But the plan commission, as an appointed rather than an elected body, can’t approve or deny the rezoning. It can only make a recommendation to the elected Bristol Town Council, and that recommendation must be based on whether the project objectively meets development standards under the law.
At a later date, as the elected officials, the five-member Bristol Town Council will have more discretion to vote subjectively and deny or approve rezoning requests based more on their popularity.
