Residents assail proposed data center at Hobart meeting, raise noise, traffic and water worries

Patricia Corey, a Hobart resident, urged the council to reject placing a data center near 61st and 69th avenues and asked for a park she said had been promised instead.

"I say absolutely no data center at 61st And 69th Avenue," Corey said during the public‑comment period, pressing the council to prioritize neighborhood parks and services over the proposed development. She also described an ambulance‑response problem during her mother’s recent emergency and asked the mayor for a written pledge on replacing wells if the project affects groundwater.

Jennifer McQuaid, who said she lives in Ross Township, framed the controversy as more than local opposition: "We were forcibly annexed...it feels like you have turned us into a sacrifice zone," she said, arguing that rezoning previously agricultural land to industrial would expose nearby homes to noise, air pollution and heavy truck traffic.

Councilors acknowledged the scale of residents’ concerns but defended the need to attract development to fund services. The chair said the city has commissioned traffic studies and is working with the development team to minimize impacts, noting, "We're looking at all site parking spots, bussing them in, minimizing the traffic impact." He also told residents staff would continue adjusting construction traffic plans as pain points are identified.

Residents asked the council to lower the city’s noise limit and to require stronger protections for new development. McQuaid recommended a 55‑decibel standard for new construction; council members said the question is complex and depends on where levels are measured (property line versus dwelling interior) and on exemptions, but agreed to review data and discuss targeted protections.

Several commenters pressed for environmental safeguards. McQuaid and others asked that the city require baseline groundwater and soil testing before major site work. "I requested at the board of public works... that we have our groundwater tested and the soil tested so that we know we have a baseline right now," she said, adding that testing would help detect changes if dewatering or other construction alters concentrations of legacy chemicals in the soil.

Council staff replied that developers have submitted required soil and stormwater filings and that city staff would review them; one councilor said he would pull ambulance call records to investigate the response delay Corey described. Residents and councilors agreed to continue follow‑up outside the meeting, including requests for additional data and meetings with project teams.

The council also set a public hearing date for a voluntary annexation related to the I‑65/37th Avenue corridor for April 15; Richard Anderson, who introduced the annexation, described the parcel as about 6.66 acres coming into M‑1 zoning and said the CATCO project is considering expansion there.

The meeting closed without an immediate decision on the data‑center project; council members said further technical review and community engagement will continue.