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Several Martindale-Brightwood residents have joined with a statewide environmental group in a legal effort to stop development of a data center in their neighborhood that recently received city approval.
In a civil lawsuit filed May 1, five people who live in or own homes near the intersection of 25th Street and Sherman Drive joined the Hoosier Environmental Council in arguing that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission erred a month prior when it approved a rezoning that will allow Los Angeles-based developer Metrobloks to build a $500 million small-scale data center on a 14-acre site near Brightwood Plaza.
Much of the lawsuit is focused on the possible environmental harms the 75-megawatt data center could create in the predominantly Black community that has historically faced environmental burdens, including lead contamination, from industrial activity. The suit says MDC failed to consider the concept of environmental justice when it made the approval.
Paula Brooks, environmental justice director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, was one of many remonstrators against the data center project. The lawsuit cites her testimony over concerns about possible noise pollution, air quality impacts, excessive water usage, brownfield contamination, cumulative environmental impacts, environmental justice and inadequate environmental review. The lawsuit says the project doesn’t fit with the city-certified quality-of-life plan for the neighborhood, which cites environmental justice as a key tenet.
An attorney representing Metrobloks, Tyler Ochs of Bose McKinney and Evans, told IBJ in an email that he cannot comment on pending litigation. IBJ also requested comment from the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, another defendant in the suit.
The Los Angeles-based company has disclosed commitments it was making to minimize environmental impacts, including limits on generator testing and noise. According to DMD documents, Metrobloks will use hospital-grade, low-emissions generators that would run for just 20 to 3o hours per year for testing, and otherwise would only be used in case of an emergency. The generators would be enclosed in sound-muffling structures.
The developer also committed to paying the full cost of utility upgrades for AES Indiana and using a closed-loop cooling system, rather than one that requires consistent water draws. That system would require an initial fill of approximately 60,000 gallons, plus 5,000 gallons annually to account for evaporation.
This suit comes just a few weeks after another Indianapolis community took legal action against a data center plan. Residents in a southwest portion of Indianapolis are asking the courts to stall a proposed 250-megawatt data center from Seattle-based Sabey Corp. that they claim was pushed through in an improper approval process in which the company wasn’t required to rezone the full property.
Both cases are being litigated by Arie Lipinski, a local environmental and property rights attorney.
There is some precedent for courts throwing out a data center rezoning decision. In Prince William County, Virginia, a massive data center project is currently stalled after a judge sided with residents that the development commission failed to provide proper notice for a vote. That case is now awaiting consideration by the Virginia Supreme Court.
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