Northwest Indiana residents will have a chance to hear more about a proposed data center in Eagle Township near Lowell at a town hall Thursday night.
A town hall for Project Shirley — the proposed data center — will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Lowell High School auditorium. The meeting will include a 30-minute presentation, followed by 90 minutes of questions and answers.
According to the Project Shirley website, only questions and comments submitted online will be addressed at the town hall. The question portal directs users to an email address: [email protected].
Andy Qunell, who’s with VRQ and assisting the project, was unable to respond to a request for comment about the town hall and why comments must be submitted ahead of time.
Qunell previously told Lake County Plan Commission members about the public forum, according to Post-Tribune archives. The plan commission voted to postpone a rezone vote about the project until its May 20 meeting, citing the public forum as the reason.
In December, the plan commission heard an initial presentation about a proposed data center in Eagle Creek Township, about six miles away from Lowell High School. Sentinel Data Centers, a New York-based company, proposed to build a data center on 160 acres of land, on the south side of Indiana 2 and east of Clay Street, according to Post-Tribune archives.
The Lake County Plan Commission would have to approve a rezone from A1 agriculture to M1 light industrial to build the project.
Project Shirley officials plan to apply for special exceptions to county rules on water usage and noise levels, according to the data center website.
Project officials previously said the data center follows Lake County’s comprehensive plan, according to Post-Tribune archives. The data center would bring a $5 billion investment, create more than 2,500 construction jobs, more than 250 on-site jobs, increased business, vendor spending and would expand the county’s tax base, Qunell previously said.
Project leaders don’t plan to file for a tax abatement, but that could change, according to Post-Tribune archives. It’s likely the project will be heard by the plan commission at least four times, Lake County Council at least twice and the board of zoning appeals at least once.
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Lisa Vallee, organizing director for Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said the potential Eagle Township project tells the same story as other projects nationwide.
“Lake County officials need to listen to the people and not hide behind inaccessible meetings controlled by the developer for a project that is already being rubber-stamped,” Vallee said in an email statement. “Community members have made it loud and clear: they don’t want another (artificial intelligence) data center in their backyards!”
Vallee addressed other data center projects in Northwest Indiana in her concerns, including in Michigan City.
“In Michigan City, residents were promised that the data center would produce almost no pollution, but when the phase one air permit was requested, approval was granted for 70 polluting backup diesel generators to operate near homes and schools,” Vallee said. “Let this be a lesson to other cities welcoming these projects.”