Opponents of the proposed data center development in Union Township mobilized Monday.

A forum at Wheeler High School brought about 50 interested people together to answer questions and sign up to canvass neighborhoods in advance of a May 13 meeting at the Porter County Expo Center.

“Really, we’re here to organize and get people involved,” said Matt Carpenter, of Union Township.

“You can be creative in the way you get out and contact people,” he said.

“Don’t wait for somebody else to do what you need to do,” urged Wendy Reigel, of Chesterton, who helped lead the fight against the data center proposed last year for The Brassie, a former golf course.

“Tell your neighbor what you’re telling us,” Reigel urged.

When canvassing, attitude is important. Carpenter offered pointers.

Canvass in pairs for protection, he said. “Hit your own neighborhoods if you can.”

“Do try to find some common ground to be relatable,” he urged. Wear Wheeler Bearcats attire and say things like, “I’m the guy who walks these dogs. That’s my wife whose truck you see all the time.”

Be respectful of property. Don’t park in their driveway, and don’t walk on their grass, Carpenter said.

Try to keep conversations to five minutes, and don’t bring up politics, Carpenter said. “This isn’t about red or blue or independent.”

If they disagree, just nod and smile, then move on to the next house, he suggested.

“What seems to be the most negativity we can bring in a positive manner,” one resident asked.

“Tell them to google Virginia, Loudoun County, Virginia, data center alley,” Reigel said. That area, in northern Virginia, has a high concentration of data centers with more in development.

In Union Township, AXPK, LLC, has petitioned to build on two parcels totaling 800 acres. Sale of the parcels to AXPK is contingent on rezoning. AXPK wants a planned unit development, a zoning category tailor-made for the project, a common practice for many developments.

The proposed projects are called Jeremiah A and Jeremiah B. The first is proposed for a 351.85-acre parcel at the northeast corner of County Roads 450 N and 750 W. John Loxas of Hammond owns that land.

The second, owned by Johnson Sunnybrook Farm, LLC, and Ceres Cedar Creek Farm, LLC, of Hobart, is at the southeast corner of 450 N and 650 W, due north of Union Township Middle and High Schools.

Kyle Duarte, of Union Township, put that 800-acre development in perspective. “All of Ameriplex (in Portage) is under 400 acres,” he said.The data center being built in New Carlisle, which is on 220 acres, will use 500 backup generators, said Bryce Gustafson, an organizer with Citizens Action Coalition.

“The driver for the data centers is artificial intelligence,” to facilitate language learning, he said. “That’s when we started seeing these hyperscalers coming to Indiana.”

“I think every community should have agency in what they want in their community,” he said, despite actions in the Indiana General Assembly that would take away local decisions on issues like where to locate small nuclear reactors.

That’s an issue relevant to data centers because of their high demand for electricity and reliability.

NIPSCO has asked the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to allow it to create GenCo, a separate company devoted to powering data centers. The Citizens Action Coalition opposes it, Gustafson said, saying it would essentially be self-regulated.

NIPSCO’s integrated resource plan suggests 3,900 gigawatts generated by natural gas plants to meet data centers’ demand. In comparison, peak demand for other customers is 2.2 gigawatts, Gustafson said.

“We’ve never seen anything close to what’s happening right now,” he said.

“All of us know there’s going to be a power plant back there behind our schools,” a resident said.

Data centers have previously been proposed for locations in Chesterton, Burns Harbor and Valparaiso, all of which have been shot down by opponents.

Smaller data centers have proliferated in Indiana, including one at Ameriplex in Portage.

“We knew it was QTS data centers proposing this,” a resident said, citing a web page that gave brief details about a proposed site in Porter County. That web page has since been taken down.

Gary Brown, a member of the Porter County Izaak Walton League, urged the Union Township group to be vocal at the May 13 meeting. “It’s not how loud you scream, it’s how you tell your personal story.”

“We need as many people as possible to let the commissioners know it’s not right to charge the zoning right by our schools to light industrial,” Marissa Barnes said.

The Porter County Planning Commission will hear the proposal first and decide whether to recommend the project go forward.

It’s up to the county Board of Commissioners to make the final decision.

So far, Commissioner Barb Regnitz has expressed her opposition, Barnes said. Commissioners Jim Biggs and Ed Morales have said they want to see the process go through before voting on it. Concentrate on residents in their districts – north county and south county, respectively – to pressure Biggs and Morales, Barnes urged.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.