Google's Indianapolis data center plan advances over neighbors' objections

Shouts of “Sellouts!” and loud boos erupted inside the City-County Building on Wednesday after Indianapolis development officials voted 8-1 to advance Google’s plan for a massive data center in Franklin Township.

The vote marked another setback for residents, who have opposed the project for months over concerns about water use, energy demands, environmental impacts and noise. The rezoning request now heads to the City-County Council, which is expected to make a final decision in late September.

Residents will have less direct involvement in negotiating concessions from Google as the process moves forward.

Similar fights are playing out elsewhere in Indiana. In Morgan County, residents have opposed a zoning change for nearly 400 acres of farmland in Monrovia, where a data center is proposed. In Boone County this week, plans for a 1,500-acre Meta data center in Lebanon’s LEAP Research and Innovation District advanced after winning approval from the local planning commission.

Brittany York, who lives next to the proposed Franklin Township site, said the looming possibility of the data center as her new neighbor feels devastating.

“We want to know what we’re getting into before we are consigned to it, because this is the point where we lose our ability to fight back,” resident York told the commission, just minutes before the vote.

Republican City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, who represents the district, also spoke against the project. He argued the data center would occupy more than 450 acres of Franklin Township while offering fewer benefits than other types of development.

Hart pointed to two manufacturing companies that have opened in the township since the petition was filed, bringing about 500 jobs on a fraction of the land. By comparison, he said, Google’s facility would create about 50 jobs, consume far more energy and generate less in return through employment and tax revenue.

Because of the project’s massive energy demands, Hart said he also worries it could block other development in the area.

“The core issue here is not whether development will happen, but what kind of development we choose,” Hart told the commission. “That choice must be based on public feedback, my analysis, and the opportunity costs to other areas in my district.”

Julie Goldsberry, who lives less than half a mile from the site, said Google’s promises weren’t enough to ease concerns about the company’s lack of transparency.

“NDAs, long waits or no response at all to our questions, and inadequate commitments — cloaked in language about their generosity — do not bode well for a long-term relationship between neighbors,” she told the commission.

Goldsberry, a decades-long Franklin Township resident, said neighbors aren’t opposed to growth but want a voice in deciding who their new neighbor will be.

“We are not anti-development. We understand something will be built on this site, but homeowners care about what happens to the properties around them,” she said. “Any homeowner in our shoes would feel the same — and we’re tired of being portrayed as troublemakers.”

The next full City-County Council meeting is September 8.

Farrah Anderson is an investigative health reporter with WFYI and Side Effects Public Media. You can follow her on X at @farrahsoa or by email at fanderson@wfyi.org.