After packed meetings and much backlash in the community, Munster officials announced Friday afternoon that the developer of the former Lansing Country Club will exclude data centers from its future plans for the property.
Gary Warfel, the Development Director of Saxon Partners, LLC on behalf of SPIN Munster, LLC, wrote to Town Council President Joe Hofferth that the firm will remove the Data Center Special Exception section and expressly identify data centers as a Prohibited Use within the application for the proposed Kenmara Technology Park. The revisions will be filed next week.
“Over the past several weeks, the discussion surrounding data centers has created significant concern, uncertainty, and division within the community,” Warfel wrote. “Facts, assumptions, misinformation, and fears have often become difficult to separate. It has become clear that further debate over this one possible use would deepen that division and overshadow the broader opportunity at Kenmara.”
The letter said, through conversations with town officials, staff, and counsel, the developer concluded that its most constructive step would be to prohibit data centers within the application so planning for the long-term future of the 59-acre property could continue.
The Munster Plan Commission tabled the ordinance that would have allowed data centers as a special exception use in the planned-use development agreement at a packed July 14 meeting. The commission was set to consider them again at its August 11 meeting.
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At the July meeting, Warfel said there was not yet a proposal for a data center at the property, but it lacked the property size needed for a hyperscale facility.
The town council approved the initial ordinance for the Indiana portion of the former Lansing Country Club property at the southwest corner of Fisher Street, Timrick Drive and Manor Avenue in November. It currently allows advanced computing, biotechnology sans “human cloning or stem cell research with embryonic tissue,” electronic device technology, engineering or laboratory testing related to the development of a product, technology “that assists in the assessment or prevention of threats or damage to human health or the environment,” medical device technology, product research and development. and advanced vehicles technology among the businesses allowed in it. The development agreement itself was signed in July 2023, according to the ordinance.
Staff writer Maya Wilkins and freelance reporter Michelle L. Quinn contributed.