The Lake County Plan Commission will be ahead of the curve when it comes to addressing any future data center requests that may come before it.
The Lake County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an amended ordinance, which was given a favorable recommendation by the plan commission at its July 16 meeting.
Councilman Randy Niemeyer, R-7th, urged fellow council members to approve the ordinance, which was compiled by a diverse group of nine members on the plan commission who supported it.
“If we don’t have a policy, this whole thing will swallow us up,” Niemeyer said.
“Proactive” was a word both county officials and two residents, Caroline McCrady and Terry Steagall, used before and after the vote.
Both McCrady and Steagall spoke briefly before the vote was taken.
“It will be nice to have something in place,” said Steagall, who spoke of his environmental concerns if a data center is approved.
McCrady called data centers “vampires of electrical and water use.”
“There’s so many things to be concerned about,” McCrady said.
The ordinance, now that it is approved, will provide guidance as department heads and local boards consider data center proposals for unincorporated areas of Lake County, Niemeyer said.
Niemeyer said that in his 17 years of public service, he has found that “if you have no policy, you have a bad policy.”
“This gives the public and staff a chance to evaluate the scope and scale,” he said.
Though Porter County communities have so far been reticent about approving any data center proposals, several Lake County municipalities are more open to the idea.
Last year, Merrillville changed zoning for some 180 acres on 101st Avenue east of Deep River for a data center after four companies approached the town about building them. On Thursday, the Hobart Plan Commission voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning for 400 acres on 61st Avenue, east of Colorado and north of 69th Avenue, after a request by Wylie Capital, a Chicago-based real estate developer that builds data centers.
The zoning change next goes before the Hobart City Council for its approval.
Lake County Plan Commission Director Ned Kovachevich said the ordinance is comprehensive and will help answer any questions when a data center proposal is submitted.
He said that his department has had discussions with no less than three groups that are looking for areas to establish data centers.
“The scary thing is not having something in place,” Kovachevich said.
He told those residents with concerns to provide him with their emails so that if a data center request is made that he can let them know.
The law only requires him to notify those living adjacent to the project, he said.
The ordinance defines a data center as a facility used for the storage, management, processing and transmission of digital data and that houses computer or network equipment, systems, servers, appliances and other associated components related to digital data storage, processing and related operations.
Data center uses included data storage facilities, server farms, artificial intelligence training or processing, image processing, cloud computing, email servicing and other uses, according to the ordinance.
Under the ordinance, all equipment and buildings within the data center must be set back at least 200 feet from all property lines near agricultural or residential-zoned areas. The maximum sound levels associated with the data center cannot exceed 55 decibels, according to the ordinance.
All on-site utility lines have to be placed underground, and perimeter fencing has to be 6 feet tall, according to the ordinance. Data centers that remain inactive for more than 15 consecutive months have to be decommissioned, according to the ordinance.
The data centers would be prohibited in business zoning districts, and a special exception in light industrial and heavy industrial zoning districts, according to the ordinance.
When applying for special exception approval, company officials will have to submit a site plan — including property lines, setback lines and right-of-way lines and physical features — a proposed construction schedule, and proposed access routes for emergency response vehicles and large semi-tractor trailers.
The approval would also require written verification from the Northern Indiana Public Services Company verifying adequate capacity in the supply lines and sufficiently sized utility supply equipment to safely accommodate the proposed data center. The letter would also have to verify that the data center wouldn’t cause electrical interference or fluctuations in line voltage, according to the ordinance.
Additionally, the approval request would have to include an energy efficiency plan, a water management plan, a visual screening report, a preliminary operation and maintenance plan, and a decommission plan, among other components, according to the ordinance.
