Indianapolis’ Department of Metropolitan Development is proposing stricter restrictions on future data centers in Marion County.
The draft rules would create a new category for data centers, which currently aren’t covered by any zoning definition in the county.
The ordinance is intended to regulate where data centers can be built in Marion County, how close they can sit to homes and how much noise they can generate.
Data centers have been a controversial issue in Indiana — largely because of concerns over water and energy consumption and the fast-paced expansion of the developments in the Midwest.
Data centers can be the size of a warehouse or a massive facility filled with servers that store, process and transmit the digital information people rely on every day, from social media feeds to medical records to artificial intelligence.
The department previously released draft zoning rules in April. The timeline of the ordinance has drawn criticism from many community members, who are upset that data centers currently in the zoning process would not have to follow the ordinance.
After months of public comment and meetings on the proposed rules, the department has made the rules stricter for data center developers.
The proposed rules increased the minimum separation between a data center’s primary building and the property line of a protected district including parks and historical preservation areas from 200 feet to 400 feet. And now, the maximum sound levels have decreased from 65 decibels to 55 decibels at or beyond the property line.
The new rules would also require data centers to submit an annual report to the Metropolitan Development Commission, providing more details about their operations, including energy and water consumption, noise levels, and how often they test generators.
The MDC is scheduled to hear the data center zoning amendment on July 1, 2026.
