Rezoning Proposal Passes Morgan County Plan Commission
Data Center Rezoning Proposal Passes Morgan County Plan Commission
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — The Morgan County Plan Commission voted to approve a rezoning plan to build a new data center.
On Monday, plan commissioners voted 5-2 on the proposal to rezone 158 acres of land near Monrovia for the project. The plan now heads to the full commission for a vote Monday, Oct. 6.
Commission member Bill Rumbaugh was one of the five who voted in favor of the rezoning plan. He said this was “not a fun vote.”
“I don’t like being called a crook, I don’t think I’m scamming anybody,” Rumbaugh said Monday. “I’m up here to make a very painful vote.”
Rumbaugh said as he gets older and things are changing rapidly, the county should go with the changes. He added that he’d rather see the data center built than 1,000 new houses go up in that area of the land that could be rezoned.
County commissioners already approved rezoning 390 acres of agricultural land for the same project back in February.
The vote came after the Morgan County Plan Commission heard from concerned neighbors about the effect they say that a data center in their area would have on utility costs and property values.
The company behind the data center proposal remains a mystery. During Monday’s meeting, some folks asked about who was behind the project but did not get an answer.
Attorney Joe Calderon, who represented Google while the company was looking to build a data center in Franklin Township before pulling their proposal last week, also spoke at Monday’s meeting. He told commissioners and residents that the project does meet the standards laid out in the county’s comprehensive plan.
“The data center really is reflective of everything that we do today with our devices, whether it be our laptops, our phones,” said Calderon.
It’s still unclear whether the data center would be water-cooled or air-cooled.
Co-organizer for the group Protect Morgan County Alec Willis told WISH-TV on Monday that there’s better business out there for Morgan County than big tech
“Big tech hasn’t been friendly to the Midwest,” he said.
Morgan County commissioners will meet next Monday to make a final vote on the rezoning plan for the data center. Those protesting against the proposal are expected to be at that meeting too.
