Valpo City council chambers were at capacity last night March 10th, 2025 with citizens standing along walls and filling the hallway viewing area out to the main entrance. The doors to City Halls were locked until just after a quarter till, the posted time of chambers opening before meetings. People lined the sidewalks in both directions passing out signage and stickers to show unity in opposition to a data center even being considered in the Valparaiso community.
The Mayor and council made statements on the Redevelopment Commission project, the proposed data center, followed by a filibusteringly long council meeting, then public comments, the whole meeting lasting just over four and a half hours closing at 10:37 PM. This article will cover the data center timeline of events and then in another article the tabling of Robert Cottonโs Ordinance No. 6 for responsible submission requirements for projects receiving city tax incentives.
Let’s start with the timeline of events concerning this proposed data center then a breakdown of the mayor’s statements, the councils, and the hundreds of people who showed up to show opposition to this.
At the December 12th Valpo RDC meeting City Attorney Lyp brought forth a motion under “Other Business” without a published agenda reference to make public offering of the 500N property (Data Center Location) to see what interests might be out there. George Douglas did not comment on this motion although the meeting minutes make reference to attorney Lyp reaching this recommendation of sale through discussions with Douglas. Councilman Cotton who sits on the RDC immediately seconded the attorneyโs motion and it passed unanimously with no discussion of reason or intent.
There were two dates of official ad proof for December 18th and December 27th, Christmas time, run in the Northwest Indiana Times, that time of year when all local investors scan the legal briefs in the NWI Times for opportunities. With a very narrow time limit to submit proposals it appears the city got one from Agincourt and opened it at the 500N proposal opening January 6th, 2025. George Douglas stated he would review it and report back to the RDC. At the January 9th RCD meeting Douglas outlined a non residential campus design end user that wished to enter into an option agreement to buy the property. No mention of the intended data center at any time in the discussion. Most of the focus was on the $50,000 an acre they were willing to pay. There was a motion by the RDC president to enter into the option agreement contingent on all parts of it being met and it passed unanimously.
The February RDC meeting reflected the councilโs reorganization with Robert Cotton being replaced on the RDC by Diana Reed and Barb Domer keeping her position on the RDC and also being voted into vice presidency under Rob Thorgren President. The only mention of the 500N property was in mention of approval of executive session minutes pertaining to real estate matters. There was approval of the farm lease RFP for 500N for this year also. Then as far as I can tell around the beginning of March the Izaak Walton League of Porter County released onto their Facebook page a statement declaring the agreement with Agincourt to be for a hyperscale data center in Valparaiso city limits. This information spread like wildfire both online and with door to door footwork to the surrounding neighborhoods. It has been the publicโs focus of every city meeting since with the culmination of public outpouring coming at this council meeting.
The Mayor’s statement began by saying he recognized a lot of people were here for information on the data center and wanted to comment publicly. He said to a standing crowd they could speak their opinions after the council meeting during the public comment section of the format. This ended up being two hours and forty seven minutes to which one public commenter stated โIt’s almost like you guys filibustered your own meetingโ going on, โAll of that was nonsense, all of that could have taken place after all these people went home.โ The mayor continued โIn December our RDC entered into an option with a company that may propose a data center project in the near future.โ He explained this is the first step in a lengthy process to determine if this is right for our community, Saying โThere will be many public meetings prior to any decision being made.โ โLooking at the pros and cons for such a project in Valparaisoโ and adding that โWe have a saying at City Hall, that a good process will yield a good result.”
Councilman Barb Domer spoke next stating she is the vice president of the RDC and that she voted yes for this option agreement. She then said โA lot of the residents are feeling this whole process lacks transparency.โ Going on to question the timeline of events and when the city was going to announce this proposed data center to the public. Saying since a group brought forth the information โwe have to react and respondโ. Domer ended her comments about a lack of transparency in a process she took part in by saying โIf we were to rewind the process and do it exactly like the public wanted there would still be a room full of people here opposed to the data centerโ
Councilman Cotton who also voted on the RDC for this option agreement said โWith a degree of ignorance with some of the things that have come to my attention here, I had always been somewhat favorable or agnostic if you say about the usefulness of data centers.โ continuing and asking that โwe are not working in a realm of simple emotion, but rather from the standpoint of your objections being based on data.โ also saying it was wonderful to see the room so full. Councilwoman Reed who now serves on the RDC said she is looking forward to the information as it comes out. Councilwoman Kapitan and attorney Lyp discussed the legal aspects of this transaction were it to happen. Kapitan asked if it was legal to sell this land purchased with American Rescue Plan Act money. Lypโs response, โyesโ. Kapitan also questioned the timeline of all of this, putting the council in a reactionary position saying โAlthough we had these side conversations and told that they were confidential but now the information is out in the public, it has put us council as a body in this weird spot of what we can or cannot disclose .โ โI think we can do a lot better. โ
Councilman Domer brought up another point in closing council comments โTo make sure that I understand this, that there is no opt out clause for the option agreement and if the company exercises the option to purchase the land. That they will purchase the land but they would not be able to do anything with it because it would require a zoning change.โ โthat having an opt out clause for the city is not specifically in that option agreement.โ City attorney Lyp responded by saying โNo, that’s accurate.โ Referring to protecting their business interests as a โclean optionโ in this deal, not wanting the threat of the city being able to pull out.
The next hour and twenty one minutes were public comment on the proposed data center. The vast majority of people waited there hours there to comment and they were sure to be heard. Many Folks complained about several topics, including quality of life, potential health hazards, drain on the area’s water supply, drain on the area’s utilities, property values, and other annoying aspects of a Data Center.
According to Izaak Walkton of Porter County, it’s alarming for just one step to take place in the development process. “Once a developer – utility- town – or county gets a foothold and begins to build, they often cluster so they need to “build out” with more high transmission line corridors for more power which has led to Eminent Domain.” In fact, the RDC took a filed trip to St. Joe County, most likely at the active Amazon hyperscale data center construction site.
Just released TODAY (Tuesday, March 11th) from the city, Mayor Jon Costas has said (speaking of Agincourt) โthey have agreed to withdraw from pursuing the project, and also to release their option on the land.โ Costas also says that he โtakes full responsibility for how this potential project was communicated and will strive to improve in future opportunities. Valparaiso is an amazing communityโฆโ
The next RDC meeting is this Thursday March 13th. We will see what happens next.
TheSTOP DUNELAND AND VALPARAISO DATA CENTERS FACEBOOK PAGE had acquired 2,100 MEMBERS in a matter of days. The Izaak Walton’s (Facebook link) Citizen donations for “Stop Duneland and Valparaiso Data Centers” were being collected and tracked by the Porter County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America. IWLA-PCC is the local, non-profit organization that helped spread citizen awareness about Hyperscale Data Centers in Chesterton and Burns Harbor. The group assisted in halting both municipalities from further development of such facilities in their communities. PCC is heavily invested and has the proper structure in place to be accountable for donated funds. NWIconservation.org Thanking folks for their support. https://www.paypal.com/donate/… https://www.nwiconservation.org/home
Watch This Meeting’s Video online here.
All articles published by the City of Valparaiso can be located here.
Watch a 2 Minute Snippit Video posted on Facebook of the Mayor’s Remarks here during the march 10th city council meeting.
10 Shocking Factors Effecting Data Centers. (article by Hivenet)
Since Monday, PanoramaNOW has discovered an article online worth mentioning here. โUS Admits Data Centers are Harmful to Your Health,โ This article quotes a recent report by Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside and an expert on AI sustainability. According to the Ren Report from 2019 โ 2023 there have been over 1,100 premature deaths, according to his calculations.
Basically, โthe problems are caused by toxic gases, such as nitric oxide or PM2.5 particles, expelled during the process of generating the electricity that powers these Data Center facilities. These gases come both from the power plants that feed the data centers, which are usually only a few kilometres away, and from the back-up generators they have in case the regular supply is cut off.โ Data Centers are no more or less polluting than other industries. The difference, according to Ren, โlies in the growth rate of this sector and the apparent ignorance about the pollution it generates,โ Ren Continues.
According to a Northwest Indiana Times article dated March 31st, Data Centers are causing electric generation to increase at a pace much faster than normal. “The Department of Energy estimates that Data Centers go from accounting for 4.4% of power use in 2023 to as much as 12% in 2028 and that a single Data Center consumes as much as 50 times more power than a comparable commercial building.”
Another article by MSN brings up other “problems” with Data Centers such as increased brown outs and black outs, electrical fires, appliance breakdowns, and unstable electrical supply. Click here to read it.
About QTS and AXPK:
QTS “had” posted the Porter County Data Center on their Website, but it was soon taken down. QTS is based out of Atlanta Georgia, with their Headquarters in London England. QTS is the global digital infrastructure leader connecting the worldโs economy.
QTS and AXPK, LLC are combining forces to build a data center in Porter County, next to the Union Township High school. According to Bizapedia, AXPK is located out of Wilmington DE, that was formed in September 2024. AXPK, LLC dos not have a website. However, their phone number is registered as 312-636-5401 which is associated with a company named CSC Corporation (now DXC Technology) operates out of Wilmington, DE.
According to AI: “DXC Technology has numerous data center locations, with some owned or leased and others managed in a colocation setting. Specifically, DXC Technology has 43 owned or leased sites globally, in addition to over 250 managed colocation locations. DXC Technologies DXC Technology is an IT services company with a significant presence in data center services and infrastructure. They offer solutions for managing and leveraging data centers, including colocation, hybrid cloud, and migration services. DXC provides services for modernizing data center infrastructure, like networks, and offers consulting for cloud and data center strategies.”
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Susie Young Baxter, CEO, has published PanoramaNOW Magazine for 31 years. Her hobbies are Camping, Boating, Hiking, Nature, Gardening and Outdoor Activities. She is an Artist, Graphic Designer, an Avid Seamstress, Dabbles in Homemade Crafts and Landscaping. Since her Father was a Health Teacher, she also likes homeopathic Health Solutions. Since blogging started over 10 years ago, PanoramaNow has been added to Newsbreak – a national news affiliate.
