Porter County officials gave an overview at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting of what residents should expect from next month’s town hall on the proposed data centers in Wheeler.
Mike Jabo, Porter County director of development and stormwater management, planned to release the town hall structure via the media well before the May 13 date, but the crowd at the meeting spoke out against the centers for the second meeting in a row and requested the plan as did Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center.
Jabo explained that under the county’s unified development ordinance, a neighborhood meeting is an optional step in the petition process. “We feel very strongly, with a project of this size and scope, a neighborhood meeting is important,” he said.
The town hall will take place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, at the Porter County Expo Center and will be hosted by the Porter County Plan Commission. It is the body that will hear the formal petition from AXPK, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, on behalf of the property owners who would transfer ownership upon adoption of the ordinances.
Jabo explained that the format will be similar to the town hall that was held at the Expo Center several years ago regarding a proposed solar farm in Malden. A dais seating the plan commission and its staff will head the room and a table will be set up for AXPK as presenter.
There will be sign-in sheets for members of the public who wish to speak. While formally it will not be a question-and-answer format, with the petitioner expected to respond, Jabo and Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, said it is an opportunity for AXPK to hear all the questions and concerns of the public, and to come prepared to answer them at the first public hearing held by the plan commission at a later date.
“They can pose questions, yes,” Jabo said of the public at the town hall. “The thing is so huge, there will be lots and lots and lots of questions.”
The areas in question are currently zoned rural residential. The plan commission will formally hear the petition and make either a favorable or unfavorable recommendation to the Board of Commissioners, who would need to pass ordinances to amend the county’s UDO approving a planned unit development.
The proposed projects are being called Jeremiah A and Jeremiah B. Jeremiah A is proposed for a 351.85-acre parcel at the northeast corner of County Road W 450 N and County Road N 750 W owned by John Loxas of Hammond.
Jeremiah B is proposed for 434.46 acres owned by Johnson Sunnybrook Farm, LLC and Ceres Cedar Creek Farm, LLC, of Hobart, at the southeast corner of W 450 N and N 650 W due north of Union Township Middle and High Schools.
During the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting several people, including some who spoke at the April 1 meeting, again expressed concern over the petition.
“What keeps us up at night is not knowing what that process is,” said Amy Ketchum. She asked officials to walk the audience through the petition approval process.
Jabo said it’s a combination of confirming the petitioner has met Indiana Code and Porter County’s UDO. First, he said the plan commission will hold a public hearing during which the public can make comments that the plan commission must address. At that point, it can vote to make a recommendation for or against the application or it can continue the meeting.
Once the plan commission has made a recommendation one way or the other, the Board of Commissioners will have up to two meetings. Commissioners can approve or deny the request at the first meeting.
Officials can’t say how long the process will take. “The answer is we don’t know,” said Porter County Attorney Scott McClure. “Mr. Jabo’s department needs to determine when the application is completed. That sets the timeline in motion.”
Ketchum looked up from her phone and told the board about breaking news from Kosciusko County. “While we’ve been sitting here, that county denied it. They considered it heavy industrial.”
“I actually know the commissioners there, so guess who I’m calling?” Biggs replied.
It’s the industrial aspect that has protesters most concerned as Union Township school children would be separated from the southerly proposed site by a railroad track. Union Township retired pediatric nurse Cheryl Johnson mentioned extremely low-frequency magnetic fields and studies showing their potential link to childhood leukemia.
“I have tagged the toes of little children,” she said. “Have you seen a child die of leukemia?”
One young mother, who asked to be identified only as Jennifer S., cried through her entire statement, speaking of her two kids, one of whom is five. “She’s going to be there for 13 years,” she said of her daughter’s school career. “She’s going to get a full dose.”
Opponents of the centers are organizing swiftly. Yard signs have been distributed for weeks. An informational meeting for people to ask questions and get involved is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Monday at Wheeler High School, Door D.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.