The No Data Centers group is not letting up on getting its message across to Hobart officials.
The two proposed data centers, to be built off Colorado Street and 61st Avenue, weren’t on the Hobart City Council agenda Wednesday but that didn’t stop the group from protesting in front of city hall and providing comments during the public portion of the meeting that lasted more than two hours.
At the beginning of the meeting, Hobart City Councilman Matt Claussen, D-at-large, brought up a letter received from No Data Centers spokesperson Angelita Soriano.
She had requested, per Indiana’s Open Door Law, a “real” town hall meeting to discuss the proposed data centers and to include all Hobart city officials involved, the data center developers and their attorneys, utility and IDEM representatives to be recorded and held in a large venue.
Mayor Josh Huddlestun told Soriano he would try his best to set up a meeting such as she was seeking.
“It will take time to get it all together,” Huddlestun said.
Soriano at Wednesday’s meeting also asked that no action be taken at Thursday’s Hobart Plan Commission meeting at which petitioner Todd Leeth, attorney for Hobart Devco, LLC., is proposing a data center to be built on an 168-acre parcel on 61st Avenue, roughly half a mile from the roadway’s intersection with Colorado Street.
Leeth will be presenting a site plan and seeking a fill permit request at the meeting.
In addition to the Hobart Devco proposed data center, Wylie Capital is also seeking to build a data center on 400 acres at the southeast corner of 61st Avenue and Colorado Street.
That site has received final rezoning property, from R-3 to M-1, but petitioners have not yet presented site plans, according to city officials.
Plan Commission meetings are generally held at the Hobart City Hall but because of the anticipated numbers, the request by the group to hold in a larger facility was accepted by Hobart officials.
Marie Fryar, another member of the No Data Centers Hobart Indiana group, presented a petition with over 1,000 residents opposed to the data centers at the Wednesday meeting.
“We aren’t opposed to progress. We fear we may lose our city with all its charms…We feel no one is listening,” Fryar said.
Fryar also included information she provided to city officials, including a report from Purdue University professor Nicholas Brasovan.
In his report, Brasovan defined a data center and their use, and spoke about the energy requirements, the data center’s footprint.
“Data centers provide jobs for local construction, and we all want to see our brothers and sisters in the trades building our community and infrastructure, but when the construction is done, most data center jobs and use are located off-site,” Brasovan said.
Brasovan, who received a round of applause after he spoke, said he now lives in Crown Point but had grown up in Hobart and had retained strong ties there.
He added: “Constructing a data center is a one-way door. Once built, there is no turning back and we must shoulder the consequences of our decisions. Finally, I leave you with an old adage: I like profit. I like doing the right thing. If I can’t have them both, then I will do the right thing.”
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Prior to the meeting, group protesters stood outside Hobart City Hall in the dark, holding up “no data centers” signs, while passing motorists honked their approval.
One of the protesters, Frank Fritz, has lived in Hobart for 52 years.
He said one of the proposed data centers would be located right across the street from where he lives.
“What the mayor is doing is undermining our investments. It’s just blatant,” Fritz said.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.