There is a boom in data center construction due to high demand. Indiana’s favorable tax policy has made it a prime location for large corporations to build these centers. However, many residents of areas for these data centers have come out in stark resistance to their development.
The most recent of these fights against data centers was in Franklin Township, which concluded on Sep. 23, with the proposal being withdrawn minutes before the vote for re-zoning the agricultural land to be for the development of the data center. The argument against the data center is based on several main facets, the most prominent of which are the increased cost of living, environmental impacts and lack of benefits.
The first and most common concern is the cost of utilities, especially water and electricity. Residents in the township rely primarily on well water for their needs and fear that this data center will significantly deplete the aquifers. There is the possibility for some residents to get city water run to their houses, but this is an expensive process that costs at a minimum $2,360.
There are also concerns about air pollution due to diesel backup generators having to be routinely tested. In the end, many residents felt that possibly higher bills and the noise and air pollution from running diesel generators was just too big of a negative.
In addition to the negative impacts of the data center, many people expressed concerns that the data center would not provide any real benefits. Because the data center would have a tax exemption on purchase for the first ten years, the amount of money the community would get is minimal. Once operational, it would be staffed by around 50 people, which is relatively small compared to the massive amounts of land being used up. The conclusion that many reached was that the datacenter would have offered them no real benefit to outweigh the downesides.
The boom in demand created by AI has caused a massive amount of investment money to go into building these datacenters. Across the state many of these data center projects have faced pushback. Last April, one was attempted in Hancock county which was also denied rezoning.
