A trio of Hobart residents had their long-awaited day in court Monday and now await a judge’s decision that could potentially invalidate a fill permit for the Amazon Web Serves data center project and win various health impact and environmental concessions along the way.
At question is whether the Hobart Plan Commission and City Council followed proper legal procedure in approving a fill permit to enable grading of the land at 61st Avenue and Colorado Street — work which is currently in full swing on the 723-acre parcel.
Lake Superior Court Judge Bruce Parent ordered the city’s legal counsel and attorneys for plaintiffs Angelita Soriano, Barbara Koteles and Joe Conn to deliver their findings of fact by November 9. Parent will then make his ruling in approximately 7-14 days.
The plaintiffs are seeking summary judgment to nullify the permit allowing mass grading on the property. They contend that the Hobart Plan Commission had no power to authorize the fill permit because it failed to provide all of the information required for such an application, nor did it produce the required findings of fact required for issuance of the permit.
Indianapolis attorney David Dearing, a specialist in environment law, argued in court on Monday that what was originally advertised as a site plan review before the Plan Commission was abruptly changed to one involving a fill permit and thereby did not follow proper procedures. He said that consideration of the fill permit did not meet certain legal requirements, such as the impact on local property values, particularly within the Eagle Creek subdivision, which is located along 61st directly across the street from the data center.
“The fill permit was botched,” Conn told the Post-Tribune after the hearing. “The Plan Commission did not pay reasonable regard to the impact on property values in the context of approving the fill permit. There was no documentation on property values.”
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Hobart resident Theresa DuBois added, “People came to the (Plan Commission) meeting prepared to talk about the site plan but they addressed the fill permit instead.”
Attorney David Westland, appearing on the city’s behalf, said he is confident in Hobart’s position that it followed the law and its own ordinances and that the court should grant dismissal of the case.
Soriano said she was disappointed that the court previously dismissed the portion of the case seeking to invalidate the data center site plan approval. She’s hopeful that if the fill permit is invalidated concerned residents can win certain concessions from the city involving grading the land, the construction of the data center and the operation of the 26 structures on site.
Among those wish list items are more robust studies involving health impact on the local population, air quality and noise, as well as passage of a comprehensive city ordinance regulating the development of data centers and a review of the community benefits agreement signed between Amazon and the city.
Soriano said she is also frustrated that the city has not shared with her the full administrative records of its dealings with Amazon.
While she acknowledges the data center is probably not going away, Soriano believes that rebooting the fill permit and addressing the impact of re-zoning of the land can make the development more palatable to all Hobart residents.
“I want our residents to have more of a say over the type of standards we want,” she said. “We’re hoping to have a seat at the table, which the city hasn’t been giving us.”
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.