A large piece of property on 61st Avenue in Hobart is back in play as the city gets into the data-center game, but residents who didn’t want a proposed warehouse complex on the site don’t want it, either.
The Hobart Plan Commission during a nearly three-hour public hearing Thursday night ultimately approved unanimously a zone change to M-1 light industrial from R-3 for the 168 acres at 61st and Colorado Street for a proposed six-building data-center campus. The site was previously zoned M-1 in 2022 for a six-building warehouse complex by Becknell Industrial, but that deal fell through when the LaGrange, Ilinois company couldn’t find a tenant to house there, Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun said.
The proposed plan contains six two-story, 140,000 square-foot buildings with very high second stories to keep the air flow constant, said Todd Leeth, attorney for developer Hobart Devco LLC. The buildings would be set back 500 feet, or five times a typical M-1 setback, he said; and would be protected by an unscalable metal-pronged fence that wouldn’t be visible from the road because of the setback and landscaping installed at the front of the property.
Addressing concerns over low-frequency noise that might come from the centers, Leeth assured the audience that the centers would implement noise attenuation measures, including installing the equipment fans inward to allow the buildings to buffer any sound and planting the landscaping on raised berming to assist the already deep setbacks.
Traffic concerns, Leeth said, would be far less with a data center than with warehousing, with between an estimated 90 to 240 badged employees across the campus adding around 672 trips per day versus near-constant truck traffic. Additionally, most of the employees would have salaries between $85,000 and $120,000, and the campus could eventually bring in more than $5 million to the city’s property tax base, according to a project description the Post-Tribune obtained.
As for the resources the center would need, the property is already next to a power grid, so hooking in would be easy, and because the buildings are built to accommodate airflow, it won’t need water, Leeth said, adding that the developer is working with NIPSCO on a negotiated utility rate.
“This fits better into the city’s comprehensive plan and is a win-win,” Leeth said. “We’re not asking to put kids in the school district, and it’s light on services while being heavy on tax base.”
Huddlestun told the crowd that when the city rezoned the parcel in 2022, he voted “No” on it as the 2nd District councilman because of the overwhelming concerns over truck traffic, especially since the traffic around County Line Orchard is such an issue. And since the buildings would be equipped with state-of-the-art fire suppression tools, the center wouldn’t put a drag on the police and fire departments.
“Based on all the possible uses, a data center makes the most sense; it’s being responsible toward the residents while bringing the highest return to the city,” he said.
Residents who opposed the 2022 rezone, however, had a wide range of concerns. LeeAnne Perunko asked how many of the jobs would be guaranteed to Hobart residents.
“How do we know these jobs aren’t going to go to inside people who live in Illinois? We need to generate income here for us to keep Hobart going,” she said.
Another resident, Jennifer Williams, who actively opposed the 2022 rezone, asked that if the data centers are leased, what will they become in 15 or 20 years.
“Our Fire Department isn’t fully staffed, and (members of) the (Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission) advised that any proposed rate increase is to directly support economic development,” she said. “Residents in that area are on well water, and we know what happened in Cressmoor Estates. With the farming, we should believe there weren’t pesticides used?”
Williams added that the idea of residential going in that spot putting a burden on Hobart’s EMS is “fearmongering.”
“Residential and industrial doesn’t mix,” she said. “We would like nothing (there), but we know it has to be something.”
Resident Molly Arroyo said that none of the residents in her neighborhood had been notified of this potential project and said she can’t believe there were no residential builders willing to develop the parcel because any children living there would go to Merrillville schools.
Hobart Assistant Fire Chief Ronald Reed, on the other hand, said the city needs the project.
“Last year, the department did 6,000 runs, and one new fire truck currently costs $2.6 million. It has to be replaced,” he said. “We need to attract big projects like this.”
Former Hobart Mayor’s Assistant Bob Fulton said the property owner is who chooses how they want to use their property and that he thinks the data center is “the best we’re going to get.”
“I hope this isn’t going to be, ‘We don’t want to want to change,’ because then, the community never grows,” he said.
The rezone will now go before the City Council.
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