Almost one year after the Michigan City Common Council approved a controversial data center, council members introduced an ordinance to put a moratorium on any future hyperscale developments.
The ordinance — introduced by council members Nancy Moldenhauer, D-6th, Joe Nelson, D-3rd, and Daisy Lee, D-2nd — was on its first reading and was referred to the council’s planning and zoning committee for more consideration. It will also have a public hearing before the council’s later vote.
“I’ve heard the requests of many residents in meetings and in emails that a moratorium on data center development be put in place for Michigan City,” Moldenhauer said during Tuesday evening’s meeting. “This document is evidence that the three sponsors and other city council members have listened and heard your concerns.”
The ordinance, if passed, will only pertain to new data center development and not Google’s Project Maize data center, located at 402 Royal Road, according to council documents.
“I have hope today — for the first time in a long time,” said Ashley Williams, Michigan City resident and executive director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana. “We need to get this right the second time … Project Maize slipped in through a zoning verification letter, no special use, no exemption publicly granted. That cannot happen again.”
The ordinance asks for environmental protections, including for generators, fuel storage and noise pollution, and it requests for the plan commission to update city codes for data centers. The moratorium, on first reading, is also indefinite and temporary, Moldenhauer said, to not have the city plan commission and department “complete this within a time period that may not fit within their current responsibilities and priorities.”
Councilman Bryant Dabney, D-at large, said Tuesday that the moratorium should be for one year after Google’s Project Maize is in operation. Dabney said the current data center development is expected to be in operation in 2027, so a moratorium could stretch to 2028.
“We will then have real data collected,” Dabney said. “We will see how they are as a community partner. … We want to have actual data that we can look over, just in case, down the line, another data center wants to come to Michigan City.”
Councilman Don Przybylinkski, D-at large, proposed making the moratorium last for one year, adding that the city needs to act quickly to ensure they have the necessary knowledge of the developments. He also said they don’t need to know what Google will do once Project Maize is in operation.
“We know what we want,” Przybylinkski said.
Councilman Greg Coulter, D-1st, said he also agrees that the moratorium should be for one year.
Coulter called Royal Road “the ideal location” for a data center because it’s further from residential neighborhoods and schools. Those in opposition disagree, saying it’s near homes and about seven-tenths of a mile away from a school.
However, Coulter brought up concerns about other potential sites, naming NIPSCO’s Michigan City generating station, which is on track to retire coal operations by the end of 2028, according to Post-Tribune archives.
“What in the world would happen if the NIPSCO site turned into a data center?” Coulter said. “There’s all those people right there, and it’s right on the lake. … That’s why I’m in favor of this ordinance — it allows us to have good rules in place to make sure that if another data center comes to Michigan City, that we have it in a good part of Michigan City.”
Multiple residents spoke in support of a moratorium, during Tuesday’s meeting. Many asked for the moratorium to be for at least one year, if not more.
Dominic Yanke, a resident who lives near the Project Maize data center, said he’s in favor of at least a one-year moratorium. He also said future data centers should be required to submit prospective health impact studies, and the city needs new zoning ordinances to regulate data centers.
“While the data center moratorium will not reverse the harms caused by the current data center,” Yanke said, “it will protect residents from future data centers being given free rein in Michigan City.”
Michigan City resident Amy Losinski told the council that the moratorium ordinance is coming one year too late, but it’s a step in the right direction.
“It’s extremely important that we use this opportunity to fix this problem going forward,” she said. “That’s why it’s important to take the time to do the research before choosing the direction that our city takes because there’s so much that’s unknown.”
Losinski also said that big technology companies are racing to outdo the other with artificial intelligence, and cities and towns will pay the price. She claimed they’re sneaking in under M-1 limited manufacturing municipal zoning and ignoring the environmental and public health risks of the developments.
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Debra Shore, Michigan City resident and former regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, said she commends the council for their work and supports the resolution. Former state Rep. Pat Boy, D-Michigan City, also spoke in support of the moratorium, saying data centers need more regulations about their development.
“I don’t have any objection to the idea of data centers,” Boy said. “They are new to the game, and they have no rules. We need to have the city planner and the plan commission take a serious look at all the ramifications around data center development and to recommend development deadlines be included in our planning code and approved by the common council.”