Martindale-Brightwood

Despite months of protest and community meetings, the Metropolitan Development Commission approved the rezoning requests for a data center to be built on a nearly 14-acre plot of land on Sherman Avenue.

The recommendation follows months of pushback from residents who say the project would bring more industrial development to a neighborhood already burdened by environmental contamination.

They are urging Mayor Joe Hogsett to stop a proposed 14-acre data center ahead of a critical rezoning hearing Feb. 12.

A Metropolitan Development Commission examiner is scheduled to decide whether to recommend the rezoning request for approval on Feb. 12.

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

Martindale-Brightwood residents are mobilizing against a proposed data center development they fear will worsen environmental pollution and repeat the historic Black neighborhood's long history of industrial exploitation.

Residents protested the proposed development last month. The company holds that the data center would benefit the neighborhood.

Martindale Brightwood's five-year plan focuses on issues like housing and infrastructure, arts and culture, economic development and environmental justice.

The Beloved Community Outreach Center offers free mental health services to the MLK center’s four surrounding neighborhoods: Butler-Tarkington, Meridian Kessler, Crown Hill and Mapleton-Fall Creek.

HIM by HER Collegiate School for the Arts, a charter school in Martindale-Brightwood, announced it will cease operations in January.