Residents between Monrovia and Mooresville have only recently learned that almost 400 acres of neighboring farmland is the proposed location of a data center that will be owned by an unidentified technology company.
On Feb. 10, the Morgan County Plan Commission will meet to consider a petition to change the land’s zoning from agricultural to PUD zoning, which will allow the center to be built. Only property owners bordering the 400 acres were given official notice of this public hearing, or of the Feb. 4 “town meeting” at which citizens could ask questions about the rezoning proposal.
Reports have also surfaced that some Morgan County officials and Monrovia Town Council members signed nondisclosure agreements that prevent them from disclosing the name of the technology company and other information about the proposed data center. Why did our elected officials agree to be muzzled?
Rather than a view of idyllic farmland, the neighbors of the proposed data center — which include the Keller Hill Heights housing addition’s 60 homes — will look out at four large buildings and one smaller building that are to be built on the site.
If data centers located elsewhere in the country are any indication, the site is likely to be surrounded with a razor-wire fence. The data center will sap local groundwater, using hundreds of thousands of gallons daily to keep the computer equipment cool. Irritating noise will emit from the buildings 24 hours a day, seven days a week, heard from more than a mile away. The cost to power the center will be passed on to ratepayers. Traffic volume will increase while property values will undoubtedly decrease. Data centers do not typically employ many workers either.
Perhaps the land cannot be farmed forever, but is a data center what we want? There is simply not enough benefit from a data center to outweigh the negative effects. Everyone impacted should attend the Feb. 10 meeting of the Morgan County Plan Commission — 6:30 p.m. at the Morgan County Administration Building, 180 S. Main St. in Martinsville — to urge commission members to vote “no” on rezoning the land.
Germaine Willett
Mooresville
