One bright spot from last Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting was confirmation by our Manager, Dan Anderson, that Indiana Township is close to releasing a draft ordinance for Data Center regulation. This news was relayed in response to a resident's letter citing my post last month about submitting a model Data Center Ordinance to the Township back in July 2025. I am happy to hear that the Township is taking this threat to our citizens seriously, and we will at least have some protections against Data Centers in place in the near future. Once the draft is released, I will read it thoroughly and consult with experts in this emerging field of law to determine whether the Township’s ordinance approaches the maximum protections we can give our citizens against Data Center development.
We must pass tough Data Centers regulations ASAP, or Indiana Township will face the sad fate of other communities devastated by gigantic development proposals coming to town before any protections are in place. We only have to look to our neighbors in Springdale to see what happens when a Data Center developer sets its sights on your town before Zoning codes are updated to face this threat. Despite nearly every Springdale resident who spoke out voicing strong opposition, their Board voted to allow a massive, energy and water devouring behemoth of a Data Center in the heart of the town - a riverfront location that little more than a year ago we were told might be the home of a Rachel Carson environmental center. All across the country, from Georgia to Utah, electricity rates are skyrocketing, water sources are getting sucked dry, and citizens’ basic property rights are being violated. Townships like ours are being bullied into submitting to Big Tech backed developers, all to accelerate a technology that will either result in a colossal waste of resources or radically transform our society beyond all recognition, with no plan in place for our children’s future.
Please don’t buy the AI propaganda coming out of the mouths of state and federal officials from both parties. Fighting Data Centers does not make you anti-tech or anti-progress. I fight Data Centers not because I am anti-AI, but because I am pro-citizens’ rights. Just like in our fight against irresponsible mass housing developments, I believe special rights should not be given to outside moneyed interests at the expense of our own citizens’ fundamental right to the peaceful enjoyment of their own property.
I fight Data Centers because I don’t think representatives should ever approve for-profit developments without a clear vision of how these operations will impact the quality of life for citizens in the years and decades to come. The national outrage against AI Data Centers mirrors our local fight against Township leadership continually rubber-stamping mass housing development when our Comprehensive Plan is five years out of date. We should not be approving development that will impact our community for a century without an up-to-date plan for how Indiana Township should look in the next decade. Similarly, across this country, politicians are green-lighting AI projects that could radically change American society without a plan and without policies to address mass unemployment, economic inequality, and social disruption.
I fight Data Centers for the same reason I fight so many other predatory for-profit operations in Indiana Township: because they privilege the short-term profit interests of outsiders over the long-term personal interests of our own citizens, who just want to live in a place that still feels like home.
If you are as concerned as I am about getting strong AI regulations in place please reach out to our Manager, Dan Anderson, and your local representative on the Indiana Township Board of Supervisors. If you are not sure what district you reside in just email all of us. And if you have any questions for me don’t hesitate to reach out. I welcome your help in this fight!
