Henry County data center approved by last commissioners vote
The Henry County Commissioners have taken the last vote needed at the county level to okay the building of a proposed data center near Knightstown. But, as IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports, the vote wasn’t unanimous.
Commissioner Susan Huhn cast the lone no vote during Wednesday night’s meeting. She says an analysis of emails, phone calls, and polls she recorded shows more than 80 percent of constituents that contacted her asked her to vote against the data center.
“I think that this vote flies in the face of community voice, Huhn said. “And I think it is, I think it is a poor choice.”
The other two county commissioners, like Steve Dellinger, did not agree.
“The interaction that I have had with the public at large is that for every one person I had tell me no, there were at least two others say that we should do this,” he said.
The Surge Development LLC-built data center is expected to take up more than 500 acres and be located close to State Road 109 and I-70.
The vote was to approve a ‘Planned Unit Development’ (PUD). It allows developers to use a pre-existing zoning code and build upon it to properly fit their project. Being the first building of its kind in the county, the data center required a PUD before it could move forward with construction.
At the public hearing for the data center, the developers of Surge Development LLC, specified they purposefully used the most restrictive zoning code for their PUD proposal.
Residents of Henry County have been split on the construction of a data center. Those against its construction point to things like the strain data centers have on power grids and natural resources.
Read More: Data center critics speak out at Indy environmental committee meeting
Those in support of the data center believe it will create many construction jobs that will be a positive impact on the county.
To combat concerns, developers have made a list of commitments they promised to adhere to. These commitments include not drilling any on-site wells, exceeding environmental emission standards, and generating significant tax revenue for local schools.
The project now goes through a lengthy planning process where details about the construction of the facility will be finalized.
Huhn says it’s still possible for the data center to return to the county government in some capacity for a vote if significant details of it change over time.
Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu
