St. Joseph County Council advances plan to ban new data centers

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- The St. Joseph County Council voted 6-3 to advance a resolution that would prohibit new hyperscale data centers from being built in the county.

The resolution directs the Area Plan Commission to amend the county’s zoning ordinance to prevent additional hyperscale data center development. The measure was introduced by Republican council members Amy Drake, Joe Thomas, Randy Figg and Andy Rutten.

Drake said the measure is intended to pause additional growth while county officials determine how to address the data centers already approved or under construction.

“We are not technically banning,” Drake said. “There is an industry here in St. Joe County. We just want to balance, so we think this bill prohibiting any more data center companies coming into St. Joe County, so we can deal with what we’ve got here, figure out where it’s going, is the best way forward.”

The county currently has around 40 data center buildings either under construction or in development, all projects connected to Amazon in New Carlisle and Microsoft in Granger.

The resolution now moves to the Area Plan Commission, which will work out how existing projects will be addressed under the proposed zoning changes. The ordinance is expected to return to the full County Council within 60 days for a final vote.

“Anytime we pass anything through the council, we could be sued, so that doesn’t mean hold off,” Drake said. “We have to push things forward that we think are reasonable and that the community wants to see.”

Other Indiana counties have taken action on data center development this year. Marshall and Cass County both approved a permanent ban on data centers in April.