We believe St. Joseph County residents are in favor of a data center moratorium. The reaction to the last data center vote here gave us plenty of evidence.
Last December, the council chambers overflowed with residents saying no to another data center.
People spilled into the hallway and occupied the bottom floor of the County City Building. Online, Zoom met its capacity, and the county’s head of technology had to adjust the system to let more people in.
Citizens stayed put until 4 in the morning to express their all-out opposition to a third data center in St. Joseph County, especially in New Carlisle, which is already home to AWS, one of the biggest data center campuses in the world.
The council voted down data center number three: 7-2. It was overwhelmingly clear another data center was unwelcome.
The County Council ― charged with rezoning land for these hyperscale centers ― had a crash course in data centers. Just a few years ago, neither us nor the public knew much about them.
We encountered very little opposition when Amazon’s AWS data center was proposed ― the first big data center project in St. Joseph County. Most people couldn’t believe an $11 billion project was eyeing South Bend. Business leaders considered it a gigantic win for our local economy.
However, the AWS project was just the beginning of a mad rush of data centers into Indiana, sparked by the state’s lucrative incentive package designed to attract them. The stampede of data centers into our state has since caused widespread citizen outcry.
Public opposition escalated here locally when a second data center wanted to build on the historic St. Joe Farm site in Granger. (We now know that project as Microsoft.)
Hundreds of angry residents filled the St. Pius gym. They felt the proposal was being rushed. They were frustrated that the economic team leading the project wouldn’t answer questions. Attempts by some of us to postpone the vote failed. The project passed anyway.
When the third data center came to the council, the only yes votes came from Democrat Council members Diana Hess and Mark Catanzarite. In April, the same two wrote a Viewpoint for The South Bend Tribune headlined: “Why a moratorium on data centers is not the answer.”
We disagree. We believe that public sentiment is radically on our side.
We all know the big concerns revolving around data centers: water usage, noise, electricity, air quality, even surveillance. We are assured by AWS and Microsoft that they are putting protections in place and will be responsible on all fronts.
Still, with two hyperscale data centers now in St. Joe County, citizens are not ready to trust any more data centers coming into St. Joe County until they see a track record. We agree with them.
Unlike Hess and Catanzarite, we want a countywide pause on any more data centers. We think this is a reasonable, commonsense position shared by the majority of our citizens.
Of course, if you like data centers, we already are one of the state leaders in this sector and their development is projected to bring money into St. Joe County’s property tax coffers, as well as bring jobs to the local economy.
However, we also don’t want to put all our eggs into one economic basket. Technological advancements in this area could make the data centers we build now outdated in several years. We do not want to end up in another Studebaker situation, with massive, abandoned warehouses.
With upcoming November elections, voters have a choice on the moratorium. Three of us are on the ballot, and we’re running on a data center moratorium: Joe Thomas (District A: west side/New Carlisle); Amy Drake (District B: Clay Township); and Jamie O’Brien (District C: Granger).
O’Brien is not a current member of the council, but it’s his vote that could get us the five of nine votes needed to pass the moratorium. Council members Randy Figg and Andy Rutten are not up for reelection but are also committed to voting yes on a moratorium.
We believe the people of St. Joe County want a moratorium on county data centers. If we’re right, we will see their response at the ballot box.
Amy Drake (District B) and Joe Thomas (District A) are members of the St. Joseph County Council. Jamie O’Brien is the Republican candidate for the County Council, District C. Council members Randy Figg and Andy Rutten also contributed to this Viewpoint.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Voters have a choice on a data center moratorium | Opinion
Reporting by Amy Drake, Joe Thomas and Jamie O’Brien, Guest columnists / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Amy Drake, Joe Thomas and Jamie O'Brien, Guest columnists | USA TODAY Network
