A proposal that would allow an out-of-state company to build a data center on more than 100 acres in Decatur Township moved forward on Feb. 26 at a contentious hearing attended by hundreds of neighbors worried about energy and water use, excessive noise and home property values.
Sabey Data Center Properties, a Washington-based company, is seeking approval to build a “data center technology park” on some 130 acres of land at the corner of Camby Road and Kentucky Avenue. The development would employ up to 100 people and require massive amounts of energy.
Following a 45-minute hearing at the City-County Building midday Thursday, Judy Weerts Hall, the Metropolitan Development Commission Hearing Examiner, recommended approval of the petition to use the site. Neighbors are expected to appeal the recommendation before the nine-member Commission votes on the matter next month.
A handful of people loudly shouted down Hall after her recommendation and got asked to leave. Others shouted profanities at Hall and people outside the public assembly could be heard chanting against the data center as Hall spoke.
More than two dozen attendees, however, cheered the decision. Several held signs supporting the union jobs they believe the center will create.
The land, located across the street from an AES substation, was zoned for light industrial use for a Decatur technology park that never came to fruition.
Hall denied the neighbors’ request to push the hearing to August to give city lawmakers a chance to develop clear-cut policy on data center development.
Some neighbors argued that data centers currently fall into a gray area under Indianapolis’ development standards without guidance for where they should go. The data center debate has played out in intense hearings and public meetings around the city in Franklin Township, Martindale Brightwood and Pike Township.
“Do you know how many other data centers might be looking at Indianapolis and trying to jump in before there’s an ordinance?” said Pat Andrews, the Decatur Township Civic League committee chair on land use. “This is the wild, wild west. They have no rules they have to follow.”
Mindy Westrick Brown, the attorney for Sabey, said the data center would use a closed-loop water system to decrease the total amount of water needed to cool its intensive technology. In addition, she said Sabey would pay for all electricity and grid upgrades needed to power the site, which falls in AES. That commitment follows a statewide statute that requires data center operators to pay for at least 80% of the power upgrades they need.
Brown said her client believes a data center falls under light industrial use that got approved when the site was rezoned several years ago.
“The plan of operation clearly shows the intensity will not be increased compared to the previous and permitted uses,” Brown said.
Despite those commitments, neighbors took issue with the few jobs the site would create and the lack of benefits that the $4 billion data center would bring to its direct neighbors. The technology park that never got built was projected to create hundreds if not thousands of jobs, Andrews said.
For an hour before the hearing, more than 40 people gathered in a protest outside the City-County Building, yelling chants like “When I say Sabey, you say no way.” Protect Decatur Township, a neighborhood grassroots effort to stop the data center, organized rides to bus Decatur residents from the far south-west side to downtown.
Councilor Josh Bain, who represents the township, was not present at the hearing.
The project is expected to receive some form of financial incentives to build in Indianapolis.
Alysa Guffey writes business, health and development stories for IndyStar. Have a story tip? Contact her at amguffey@usatodayco.com or on X: @AlysaGuffeyNews.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Decatur Township data center moves on over objections from neighbors
Reporting by Alysa Guffey, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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