A map shows the location of the proposed data center in Charlestown. Submitted image
CHARLESTOWN - A public hearing for Charlestown’s proposed data center has been postponed to allow more time for city staff and residents to ask key questions and learn more about the details of the development.
The Charlestown Advisory Plan Commission originally set a hearing for the data center at Shadow Lake Industrial Park for June 8, but Mayor Treva Hodges said Thursday the company behind the center, QLEVR, has agreed to set a later date for a listening session where residents will receive answers to their questions, which range from how the data center would affect the surrounding environment to the potential impact on property values.
The new date will be announced by the city when decided.
QLEVR, which specializes in evaluating real estate purchases for data centers, purchased 12 acres of land at 1800 Cristiani Parkway in Shadow Lake Industrial Park, filing a proposal for a 55,000-square-foot data center. The center would be three megawatts and cost about $105 million, according to engineering plans by local consultant The Wheatley Group.
Construction would take about 14-16 months if the plan is approved.
The economic impact summary by The Wheatley Group stated the center would create 20 full-time jobs once finished.
The plan comes at a time when data centers are booming around the country, and community members in places like Georgia and Utah are expressing concerns about water quality, energy emissions and utility usage.
A sign was posted at the site of the proposal, and residents in nearby neighborhoods were sent letters detailing the plan this week.
Hodges said the project would be funded entirely by QLEVR and would not impact neighbors’ property taxes. Documents submitted by the company also said the data center would not contaminate the area’s soil or water. QLEVR said it plans to fill the data center with 60,000-70,000 gallons of water, which will run through the center in a closed-loop circuit.
Still, multiple people living in the Woodford Farms subdivision just a mile from the site told the News and Tribune Thursday they were concerned about how the center could emit harmful energy emissions, drive away new residents and dampen the experience of nearby students at Charlestown Middle School.
One woman, just a few years shy from retirement, said she once planned to move out of Charlestown and sell her home once she hit a certain age. But now, she said, the possibility of a data center has made her anxious her property value will tank and she’ll be stuck where she is, or with far less money from her home’s sale than she envisioned.
The woman, who declined to use her name, also said she worries what the data center will do to the climate conditions for insects like the butterflies and bees pollinating her garden.
Jordan Flaherty is another Woodford Farms resident who bought her home in the neighborhood two years ago.
Originally from Louisville, she and her family moved to Charlestown to enjoy a rural, country-like atmosphere within driving distance to shops and amenities in Jeffersonville. She said she initially liked that Hodges expressed a desire to bring more small businesses to Charlestown, but feels a data center would defeat that goal, especially given it would only create a small number of jobs.
“When it comes to these types of buildings, you don’t get rid of farmland,” Flaherty said. “You put in all of these warehouses — people don’t want to look at that. They don’t want to live next to it. If we’re going to get away from a small-town feel, let’s at least add things that the residents can utilize.”
Flaherty said she also worries about ambient noise drifting to the nearby middle school and that a data center put in the middle of a residential area would make people turn away from coming to Charlestown.
“You’re going to have residents that leave, and then all you’re left with are residents that can’t afford to leave, so then it becomes run down,” she said. “You’re taking a beautiful town with beautiful rural environments. You’re destroying the environment and adding in ugly warehouses. What’s left? Why would we stay?”
Hodges said she was unaware the land in Shadow Lake Industrial Park had been sold before a week ago, much less that a data center was planned to take shape there. The mayor told the News and Tribune she was displeased developers did not inform city staff of their plans before filing the proposal, saying that’s not typically how business is done in the growing city.
Flaherty and other residents, however, said they are skeptical of her claim.
“I find it hard to believe when she was also on the committee that approved the one in Jeffersonville,” she said, referring to the Meta data center under construction at River Ridge Commerce Center. “I would like to see her be transparent and honest with the residents, and if this is something that she has wanted, I think she should own up to that.”
Hodges responded to claims she was dishonest in a phone call Thursday, saying the perception that mayors know everything going on in a community is false.
“I hear rumors all the time about different developments that might come through, and until they land, until it’s official, I don’t claim to know anything,” she said, “because they come and go.”
She said she’d heard rumors over the last six months about a data center being placed in Shadow Lake, along with possible data centers in unincorporated areas of Charlestown, but maintained those rumors were unsubstantiated and that she did not know the Shadow Lake proposal was moving forward at all until paperwork was filed with the city.
“Even if I know that a project is coming down the pipeline and looking at things, that doesn’t mean that it’s going to land or that I’m allowed to say anything,” she said. “A lot of times, people reach out and ask questions about wastewater capacity or any of those kinds of things. It doesn’t mean I know specifically what that is or that I am going to say anything publicly until it is public information.”
“I don’t know how much more transparent we can be,” she added.
Sarah Zehnder is another Charlestown resident opposed to the data center. Zehnder echoed concerns about the potential for “horrendous noise” and said Charlestown needs to serve its people, not corporations.
“We need rezoning so that industries like this aren’t being built in children’s backyards,” she said. “So that they may grow up and see green grass and trees, as opposed to more monster, grey, vacant buildings.”
She said Charlestown residents have long asked for a better grocery store, more restaurants or places where teenagers can get jobs.
“We need our officials to not only hear us, but to stand with us to keep this small town a nice place to call home,” she said.
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