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Residents press Hobart council over proposed data center; call for noise limits, groundwater testing and traffic safeguards
Summary
During public comment at the March 18 meeting, multiple residents urged the council to block or more tightly regulate a proposed data center in the 61st Avenue corridor, raising claims about noise, diesel‑generator emissions, groundwater risks from dewatering and ambulance access; councilors said staff would follow up but offered no immediate policy change.
Several Hobart residents used the council’s public‑comment period on March 18 to press officials for stricter oversight of a proposed data‑center development in the 61st Avenue corridor, citing noise, air and water concerns and recounting delays in emergency response.
Patricia Corey (speaker 7) told the council she opposed placing a data center at the 61st/69th Avenue site and asked for a written commitment that residents would receive replacement wells if groundwater were affected. Corey described an ambulance response she said was delayed because first responders could not find a house and urged the council not to treat her neighborhood as a "dumping zone." "I say absolutely no data center at 61st And 69th Avenue," she said during public comment.
Jean Clausen (speaker 3) said she had been denied time on the agenda earlier but came to ask about traffic and emergency access, citing an unrelated 274‑car backup elsewhere as an example of how construction traffic could gridlock local roads. She asked the council to schedule meetings with representatives from the other project (New Carlisle) and with project developers so residents could get direct answers; the chair and staff said they would meet with counterparts to compare projects and clarify differences.
Jennifer McQuaid (speaker 3, later identified) told the council Ross Township residents felt like a "sacrifice zone" after forced annexation and criticized the rezoning to industrial uses, saying she fears emissions from numerous diesel generators used for data‑center testing and backup power. Council members responded by stressing the city’s fiscal constraints and the need to fund services, while acknowledging the concerns and saying staff would continue to pursue mitigation measures and information from developers.
Multiple residents asked the council to: adopt a lower noise limit for new development, require baseline groundwater and soil testing before construction or dewatering, and create a formal "data‑center ordinance" with protections used in other municipalities. Council staff and members said the developer had submitted soil and stormwater filings and that some technical work had been done; staff committed to following up with groundwater/soil records and with emergency‑services call logs to review alleged ambulance delays.
No formal policy changes were adopted at the meeting. Councilors agreed to pursue follow‑up: pull ambulance call records for the incidents residents cited, confirm the scope of soil and groundwater testing already filed by the developer, and consider whether additional ordinance language or permit conditions are necessary before construction moves forward. Several residents warned they would press for stricter rules if staff findings did not address health and access concerns.
What’s next: staff was asked to report back with EMS call records and technical documentation about soil/groundwater testing; the annexation petition and permit filings will proceed through public‑hearing and plan‑commission processes where environmental and traffic mitigation can be more fully examined.
Representative quotes from the meeting follow: "I say absolutely no data center at 61st And 69th Avenue" (Patricia Corey). "We feel like we are being treated as a sacrifice zone" (Jennifer McQuaid).
