MONROVIA — Heavy equipment arrived on Keller Hill Road last week as dirt work began on Google’s planned data center campus. The multi-building, multi-billion-dollar campus is planned to be located in Monroe Township just across the street from Monrovia’s town limits.
Some local residents took to social media to complain how slow traffic had become on Keller Hill Road as a result of the construction.
Social media criticism is the least of the county’s worries, however, after two property owners filed a motion in the Morgan County Superior Court on Nov. 17 to compel the Morgan County Board of Commissioners to produce requested documents related to a lawsuit filed by the residents back in March.
That lawsuit was filed after the county commissioners approved a rezone request for around 390 acres of property for data center use, despite widespread opposition from residents as well as the wider community. Many cited the alleged lack of transparency from county officials, concern for loss of property value, the high water and electricity usage, and environmental degradation.
The plaintiffs in the March lawsuit are Susan Boulianne Kessler and Teresa L. Moore, who alleged the data center will “cause immediate and irreparable loss of both plaintiff’s property values and their use and enjoyment of their property.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the commissioners’ rezone approval “was arbitrary, capricious and abuse of discretion, not in accordance with the law, and unsupported by substantial evidence.”
Further objections in the lawsuit include the commissioners allegedly failing to pay reasonable regard to the county’s comprehensive plan, and the alleged unlawfulness of granting the petition to a then-unnamed developer.
Ultimately, the plaintiffs want the judge to issue an order vacating the commissioners grant of the petition, which would render construction of the data center impossible, at least temporarily.
Much has changed since March. Google officially announced itself as the planned developer, and it was granted another rezone of an additional 158 acres in October for data center use. Shortly before that, Google purchased a 79-acre farm inside Monrovia’s town limits, the zoning of which is controlled by the town.
The plaintiffs in the March lawsuit filed their revised first request for production of documents on Sept. 24. The defense for the county commissioners was to have complied by Oct. 24, but the defense requested an informal two-week extension, pushing the due date to Nov. 7.
The defendants did not meet this deadline. Counsel for the plaintiffs contacted the defense on Nov. 10, who said she would try to produce the requested documents by Nov. 14.
This deadline was not met either, and the plaintiffs are now asking the court to intervene so plaintiffs can receive the documents by Nov. 24, after presstime.
A hearing on the motion to compel discovery is scheduled for Dec. 11 at 10:30 a.m., with Judge Dakota VanLeeuwen presiding.
Meanwhile, as the ground is being laid for a data center campus to emerge in Monroe Township, a second lawsuit to stop the data center was filed Nov. 5 in Morgan County Superior Court 2.
New lawsuit
This second lawsuit is much like the first, except this time the aim is at the additional rezone of 158 acres of land that followed the initial 390-acre rezone.
The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are William R. Williams and Joseph L. Holloway, trustees of the Williams-Holloway Living Trust; Sue Dill, trustee of the Dill Revocable Trust; and Susan Boulianne Kessler, returning from the first lawsuit.
All of the plaintiffs either own property or are related to those who own property that is adjacent to the planned data center site.
“The Data Center II PUD (planned unit development) will significantly alter the rural character of Morgan County for the worse,” the lawsuit reads.
The plaintiffs argue they have standing to seek a declaratory judgement in this case on behalf of their respective trusts because the county’s rezoning of the subject property “adversely affects the Trusts’ rights, status or other legal relations” pursuant to Indiana Code.
“Construction of the features authorized by the Data Center PUD and their use will cause immediate and irreparable loss of the plaintiffs’ property values and their use and enjoyment of their property,” the suit continues. “The Board’s grant of the petition for the Data Center II PUD was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, and unsupported by substantial evidence.”
Additionally, and like the first lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege the data center rezone “failed to pay reasonable regard to the Morgan County Comprehensive Plan, the current conditions and the character of current structures and uses in each district, the most desirable use for which the land in each district is adapted, the conservation of property values throughout the jurisdiction, and responsible development and growth.”
No court hearing related to this second lawsuit has been set as of presstime.
