A contingent of residents is urging county commissioners to pledge a one-year freeze on data centers in Hancock County.

County residents Leah Lederman and Kiley Blalock appeared before the Hancock County Commissioners at their March 3 meeting, requesting commissioners to consider the moratorium request.

Board of Commissioners President Gary McDaniel took the proposal under advisement and said the commissioners will “check out all of our options” regarding the moratorium.

A moratorium is a delay of a specific activity, and is usually implemented for officials to consider, study and potentially adopt new regulations for said specific activity.

As data usage increases with the everyday implementation of AI and machine learning applications, large data centers have popped up across the United States, with Indiana being no exception to the boom.

Hancock County saw its first data center proposal in April of last year, when Shelbyville developer Surge Development proposed a 775-acre planned unit development in Buck Creek Township with a data center on the property. Amid resident concerns, the proposal was withdrawn in May.

Lederman told commissioners last week that the AI industry’s “gold rush for land and power” is overwhelming local governments, and the needs of data centers are still in a state of flux, and it is unclear what the local capacity is to fulfill a potential data center in Hancock County.

She said a one-year moratorium would allow further research to be done concerning appropriate zoning for data centers and the impact on the local environment and infrastructure.

As of Monday, the online petition had 420 signatures.

“It behooves Hancock County to wait until there’s been more troubleshooting before we allow a data center here. AI is a trend. The bubble will pop, just like it did with spec warehousing,” Lederman said. “And if we’re not careful, we may end up sacrificing land and resources for something that will have moved on in a decade.”

Data centers have become a hot-button issue across the country, with concerns particularly rising over electricity costs and environmental factors.

A Politico poll released last month revealed 37% of respondents would support a data center in their community, while 28% would neither support nor oppose it, and 28% opposed a data center. That poll also found that over a quarter of Americans aren’t set in stone about their opinions regarding data centers.

Moratoriums have become increasingly popular as a way to halt development of data centers, with the range of time ranging from one year to an indefinite period of time.

In Indiana, Fulton, White, Putnam and Marshall counties have enacted moratoriums with regard to data center development in the past year.

Blalock, a Charlottesville resident whose family owns farmland in Henry County that borders land approved for a data center, said AI data centers are different from traditional data centers, with AI data centers generating more energy.

She added the county does not have the ordinance or regulations that would govern buildings on the scale of data centers.

“We need to understand what it means for us to even coexist with a facility like this before one’s at our door,” she said.

McDaniel said after the meeting the county’s attorney is looking over the moratorium request, while expressing his reservations, saying he doesn’t know if the pause would benefit the county.

Hancock Economic Development Council communications director Mitchell Kirk said while HEDC understands that residents have questions have about data, since these facilities have important infrastructure considerations, HEDC leaders do not believe a one-year moratorium is the right approach.

He said a blanket pause on an entire industry could create uncertainty for all types of investment and limit the county’s ability to consider projects on a case-by-case basis.

“We support continued public dialogue, strong zoning standards, and careful coordination with utilities and local officials. Our goal is to ensure that any project considered in Hancock County is evaluated responsibly and in the community’s long-term interest,” Kirk said.
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