Rezoning decision on Martindale-Brightwood data center delayed

It will be another month before the Metropolitan Development Commission decides whether or not to recommend a rezoning request for a data center in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood in Indianapolis. 

Residents of the historically Black Indianapolis neighborhood have pushed back for months against the proposed development from Metrobloks, a California-based data center developer. 

The opposition led to the hearing examiner allowing for more time to research the proposal and organize. The next meeting on the request is set for Feb. 12.

Cierra Johnson, the vice president of One Voice Martindale Brightwood, said she’s excited for the extension, which gives the community more time to organize. 

“This gives us an opportunity to do more research,” Johnson said Thursday before/after the meeting at the City-County Building. “We are still in like strong opposition to the development of this data center and ones across the state.”

Martindale-Brightwood, a historically Black Indianapolis neighborhood, has become the latest battleground over Indiana’s growing data center industry. Metrobloks filed a rezoning request to build a data center complex on a nearly 14-acre plot of land on Sherman Avenue at the site of a former drive-in theater.

Residents have largely opposed the data center — citing long-standing concerns about pollution in the area — including lead-contaminated soil — and fears that the project could bring additional burdens related to noise, water use and power demand.

Data centers are facilities that store and process large amounts of digital information. Their rapid expansion has been driven by the rise of artificial intelligence and increased demand for data storage, with companies increasingly flocking to states like Indiana for cheaper land and tax abatements approved by the state legislature in 2019.

Metrobloks filed a rezoning request with the city on Oct. 16, according to the Department of Metropolitan Development, just days after neighborhood residents stopped traffic during a protest against the development. 

In its proposal filings, the company said it will work with the utility company to prevent financial impact to local residents by purchasing long-term agreements and paying for any infrastructure upgrades. It also says it will not use groundwater, and that cooling systems are “closed-loop” — meaning they will recycle water.
 

City-County Councilor Ron Gibson, who represents the area, has said he supports the project and argues it’s different from larger-scale data centers proposed elsewhere in the region.

“We cannot put all data centers in the same box,” Gibson said at a councilor forum last week. “There are some that are bad for our community. There are some that could possibly be a good investment, and we’ve got to determine which ones are.”

But City-County Councilor Jesse Brown said he wants the council to regulate the development of data centers in Indianapolis. Last week, Brown introduced a resolution that called on data center developers to stop using non-disclosure agreements when meeting with elected officials.

Councilor Brown spoke in support of the month-long continuance at Thursday’s meeting, citing widespread opposition to data centers from constituents 

“[Councilors] work for the taxpayer. They work for the people who vote to put them in or out of office. They're forgetting that they're taking for granted the fact that they get all this prestige and power and the ability to work behind closed doors on what they want,” Brown said. 

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