CROWN POINT — Data centers and large-scale battery systems have barely penetrated unincorporated Lake County but officials already are preparing for their eventual removal.
The Lake County Council voted 7-0 Tuesday in favor of revising the county's unified development ordinance to specify the process for decommissioning and removing inactive data centers and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
The policies require the physical removal of all equipment, installations, structures, foundations and electrical components; proper handling of all specialized assets; and the restoration of soil and vegetation at the site, among other provisions.
In addition, a decommissioning plan must be submitted in tandem with the special exception request to construct a BESS or data center, updated every five years, and sufficient funds set aside by the owner-operator to cover the total decommissioning cost estimated by an independent professional engineer.
"This is meant to create even more stringent regulations as it relates to land use in unincorporated Lake County to make sure that as technology changes, and if the needs change, for things like battery energy storage, or data centers, or anything like that that's being developed now, that the land is returned to its current, usable form, and all environmental issues, if there are any, are remediated," said Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-Cedar Lake.
Ned Kovachevich, director of the Lake County Plan Commission, said it's possible the policies may never be needed, or perhaps not needed for 30 or 40 years.
Still, he said, they're an important addition to the county's existing data center and BESS development policies.
"We noticed that there were no provisions for decommissioning and abandonment in those two documents," Kovachevich said. "As technology moves forward, I'm sure we'll be in front of you for more updates and more restrictions on these things."
Records show the Lake County Council approved its first BESS rezoning request in December 2024. Recently, a data center developer has proposed a $5 billion project in the same area near State Road 2 and Clay Street, about two miles east of Interstate 65.
Niemeyer emphasized that the BESS and data center policies approved by the county council merely regulate those potential facilities.
"These ordinances that we are considering here do not give a green light or carte blanche to any development. There's still the zoning process, which the first data center proposal is still going through," Niemeyer said.
In fact, Niemeyer said he's planning to convene an open house in mid-April for Lake County residents to interact with the data center developer, local utilities and state energy officials, among others, to get answers to any questions they have about the project.
"While many of those questions are covered in the special exception process that we adopted here, it's important that before we go to zoning there are some other considerations given to answer those questions," Niemeyer said. "We're very much engaged in this process and listening to folks."
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