A developer is proposing a data center in Porter County, which is planning a public meeting given all the recent interest.
Chesterton, Burns Harbor and most recently Valparaiso have put the brakes on proposed data center projects amid a boom in demand due to the rising use of artificial intelligence and data generally in an increasingly digital work.
A developer contacted the Porter County Planning Department about interest in developing a data center in unincorporated Porter County. The developer was slated to appear before the Plan Commission on March 26 to make a personal introduction, but Porter County is now instead going to hold a separate public meeting on the data center after a large vocal opposition led Valparaiso to scuttle a possible data center that was being investigated at the site of an abandoned athletic facility project next to the Meadowbrook subdivision off of Ind. 49.
Porter County Commissioners President Jim Biggs said the data center introduction potentially could take over the meeting, resulting in other agenda items not being given full attention.
"As we have observed during the recent data center discussions in other communities throughout our county, the commissioner’s office, in cooperation with the Porter County Planning Department, believes that any public presentation related to any prospective data center merits its own public meeting rather than being combined with other non-related cases involving other county business," he said.
The meeting will be pushed back to a future time that's yet to be determined.
"The rescheduling of this meeting allows the county to engage in thoughtful planning, notify interested parties and make proper meeting space accommodations so that all sides of the topic can be heard and meaningful discussion can be achieved. Furthermore, as elected and appointed officials, this additional time allows us to formulate meaningful questions and conduct necessary research on this topic," Biggs said.
A report by the Chicago-based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle found data center developers have acquired or leased about 3,000 acres of land in Northwest Indiana, which could lead up to $30 billion in data centers, which are large farms of computer servers and networking equipment that store data like digital records in a climate-controlled environment. Hammond and Portage have data centers, and more are under development in New Carlisle, LaPorte, Merrillville and Hobart.
AginCourt Investments LLC reached a purchase option agreement with Valparaiso that gave it 300 days to investigate the feasibility of a data center campus at east of Indiana 49 between County Road 400 North and County Road 500 North.
Neighbors who had previously been told a baseball park was coming to the site raised a number of concerns about noise, pollution, power consumption, water usage and other environmental impacts. Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas decided to pull the plug on the project after the public outcry. While other Region communities have welcomed data centers as significant investment, data center proposals have run into similar public opposition in Chesterton and Burns Harbor.
"As many residents know, data centers have recently taken center stage in the newspapers, social media and various public meetings. This has not gone unnoticed by county officials," Biggs said. "As such, Porter County government aims to provide the proper forum where everyone can appropriately discuss and consider presentations and public comments while representing all sides of this important subject."
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