In their April 1 Tribune opinion, Council Members Diana Hess and Mark Catanzarite present residents of St. Joseph County a false choice: reasonable protections from hyperscale data centers or economic development. They respond to my March 24 call for a stop to new hyperscale data projects until the County Council amends current zoning laws and other policy as, “not the best way to address residents’ concerns about future economic development.”
Somehow, these two veteran council members have missed the fact that residents’ concerns go far beyond future economic development. I have heard from hundreds of residents across the county concerned about the ill effects of such hyperscale data centers on their health, safety, welfare, property values and utility bills. And residents have reason for concern. Air, water, light and sound pollution are well-documented realities of projects across the country and world. Skyrocketing energy and water consumption are taxing electrical grids and local aquifers for little in return in the way of permanent jobs.
Hess and Catanzarite posture that instead of a moratorium, here are the actions the council “can” take to protect us, all the while not committing to doing anything. “Can” take actions?” The entire County Council has had since 2023 when it originally added data centers as an approved category to the county zoning ordinance with a vote of 9-0 in favor. And what have they done? They have added little in the way of requirements to the data center ordinance to protect the health, safety and welfare of bordering residential, parks, schools and agricultural areas.
The primary purpose of zoning ordinances is to protect property values; ensure public, health, safety and welfare; manage community growth; and prevent incompatible land uses from mixing (such as hyperscale data centers next to residential neighborhoods). Why is the County Council not applying such critical guardrails for data centers, laws that result from public scrutiny and approval by elected officials, not agreements struck by county staff and cloaked by non-disclosure agreements?
St. Joseph County’s current zoning ordinances and other policies are ill-equipped to protect those living within the impact zone of a heavy industrial 900-plus-acre data center which can extend for over one mile. For example, the county still allows for a mere 50-foot setback between a residential area and a 600,000 square foot heavy industrial building with external generators ― the size of a single building at the Microsoft data center project. Fifty feet is equivalent to a walk to your mailbox. And high utility bills will affect every resident of the county on top of other rising costs.
Hess and Catanzarite caution that a pause on data centers to allow for zoning revisions could throw the county into court. The opposite is more likely. The lack of action by the county to meet its legal obligation to protect the public can lead to litigation by that same public. We are beginning to see legal recourse taken in communities with weak zoning laws and threats of large data center projects. Recall measures targeting elected officials who have not met their legal obligations are also on the rise.
And what do Council Members Hess, Catanzarite and any other council member offer? Most have responded to my call for zoning revisions and other legal protections with silence. A number have pledged that if elected, they will “just say no” to the next data center proposal. Others, like Hess and Catanzarite, continue to espouse the virtues of the county’s current economic development agreement process, which now dictates the terms of the Amazon and Microsoft projects. These agreements provide lucrative tax incentives drawn up behind non-disclosure agreements while providing little to no guarantees of public protection.
The members of our current County Council are calling for us to simply trust them, the Board of Commissioners and the County Economic Development director to protect residents on a case-by-case basis. Do we all have to suffer through repeated 10-hour zoning hearings hoping an elected official doesn’t fall to the pressure of Big Tech, a political party or other special interests? Does this make anyone feel safe?
Protections versus prosperity? This is an old and tired trope in the world of community planning. We can and must pursue many development options towards good pay and benefits without sacrificing quality of life. Examples of growth that achieves all abound in other communities. We must move past false choices and find a balanced path that pairs incentives with guardrails. Our County Council needs to get to work now on our behalf!
Jan Cervelli is a Democratic candidate for St. Joseph County Council, District C.
Election note
The deadline for submitting a Letter to the Editor endorsing a candidate in the May 5 primary ― and for a candidate to submit a Viewpoint ― is Tuesday, April 21. The deadline for The Tribune to publish such commentary is April 28. Letters may be mailed to Voice of the People, South Bend Tribune, 635 S. Lafayette Blvd., Suite 138, South Bend IN 46601; emailed to vop@sbtinfo.com or faxed to 574-236-1765. The word limit for letters is 200; the word limit for Viewpoint is 700. Please include your name, phone number and address.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Protections vs. prosperity is a false choice | Opinion
Reporting by Jan Cervelli, Guest columnist / South Bend Tribune
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