County says there are no plans for a data center in North Liberty despite speculation

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Talk of another massive data center coming to Saint Joseph County is not true, at least for now. 

 Rumors are flying about a possible data center proposal in North Liberty, but development officials confirm there are no deals on the table right now. 

 North Liberty residents say the circulating rumors remind them a lot of what happened with the recent Dumont Solar Farm project in town; they heard whispers until it was suddenly up for a vote. 

 "We were blindsided about the solar farm, and so now that we're hearing about the data center, we're not going to be blindsided again," says Jason Gean, a North Liberty homeowner. 

Gean was a leading voice for his neighbors months ago when it was time to speak up against the Dumont Solar project.  

Now he's concerned it could happen again, but this time, with a data center.  

"People started contacting me from the community that they had heard about it," Gean explains. "And some of the property owners had also reached out, they were getting offers and solicitations to sell their land for a data center."  

Gean says land near Pine and Riley Roads in North Liberty seems to be what's of interest to these groups. 

Bill Schalliol, Economic Development Director for Saint Joseph County- says that corridor is prime real estate for developers because of the nearby Dumont substation, meaning easy access to power.  

"We've had some data center users, some smaller users, footprint users, that have kind of looked at that corridor," Schalliol explains. "We know there's been some groups talking to people because we've had calls to our planning team asking about zoning, land-use requirements, things like that."  

Schalliol says though, unless there is a rezoning request for that land, there is no project on the radar.  

"At this point in time, there is no land zoned for industrial uses and no land prepped to do a project," says Schalliol. "So, I think it's a lot of speculation, a lot of questions at this point."  

Plus, even if there was a rezoning petition, it would have to go through public comment. 

That's unless Indiana House Bill 1333 gets signed into law, which would totally flip the script for approval of data center projects in the Hoosier state.  

"If the bill were to pass as it's written today, if agricultural land meets certain requirements, it doesn't need local approval for a rezoning for a data center," explains Schalliol. "So, we don't know, we have not had a project come in, we've not researched land types or anything like that to compare this bill to this corridor, but that could be something that could circumvent local zoning." 

Neighbors who were able to successfully demand changes to the nearby Dumont Solar Farm during public comment periods worry about the implications of this bill in tandem with the speculative rumors of a data center.  

"I'm sure based on the communication I'm getting, that the community's probably going to rally again regarding this, it's just not right," Gean says. "They really need to reach out to all of the representatives, local and state, and make sure to let them know we don't support it and we want it voted down."  

House Bill 1333 passed a third reading Monday and was referred to the Senate as of Tuesday. 

The North Liberty Town Council President Randy Lemert confirmed with ABC57 he did not know about any proposals for a data center project.