Inside a packed meeting room in downtown Indianapolis on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Development Commission approved a proposal to build a data center on Indianapolis’ east side.
Over the past few months, Georgia-based data center developer DC Blox has been pitching itself as a good neighbor to the Warren Township community, including Irvington.
But the community has stood largely opposed, with dozens of protestors congregating outside the City-County Building downtown. Many held signs and made t-shirts with slogans like “Block DC Blox,” “Stop the data center,” and simply “Nope.”
After the vote in the meeting room, some screamed at the commissioners and yelled obscenities. Irvington resident Mikey Hess criticized the commission, which is made up of appointees by the mayor and the City-County Council.
“It's very clear that this unelected committee does not have the community's best interests in mind,” Hess said. “We're dealing with people who think they can do whatever they want. They don't care about children because they don't live there. It's not their relatives. It's not their neighbors.”
Since the developer requested a use variance rather than a full rezoning petition, the commission’s approval is the final decision.
This comes just days after a City-County Council committee introduced draft language to create a moratorium on data centers through 2027 in Marion County.
The development
DC Blox initially proposed a $2 billion data center campus. After pushback, DC Blox said it would build two buildings instead of three, with 25 fewer backup diesel generators and a larger buffer south of the Pennsy Trail.
The company said the project will be built in two phases — a one-story, 70,000-square-foot building expected to be completed within two years, followed by a two-story, 250,000-square-foot building roughly five years out.
Irvington Community School Board members largely made up the opposing comments — including board member Eric Serrano, who argued that even the scaled-down plan is not right for a plot of land so close to an elementary school.
“A smaller version of the wrong use in the wrong proceeding is still the wrong thing,” Serrano said.
The site of the proposed data center is on the border of two districts represented by two members of the City-County Council — Andy Nielsen and Michael-Paul Hart.
The councilors disagree on the development. Nielsen is against the proposal, largely based on the dissent from the community. In his comments at the meeting, Nielsen said that 83 percent of the respondents of a survey he put out to gauge community support said they were opposed to the data center.
But Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, who is supportive of the development, argued at the hearing that the developer will increase the city’s tax base, and provide funds for much-needed improvements to nearby infastructure.
City-County Councilor Jesse Brown also spoke at the hearing, asking the commission to approve a moratorium on data centers.
But Commission President John Dillon rejected the request, saying the commission would continue to wait for the amendment for a moratorium from the City-County Council.
Farrah Anderson is WFYI's investigative health reporter. You can follow her on X at @farrahsoa or by email at fanderson@wfyi.org
