Valparaiso’s new seven-member Environmental Advisory Board, created and launched a month ago, devoted most of their second meeting Monday to hearing details about a possible data center on land previously purchased for a sports complex while addressing complaints and concerns from residents who live in the area.

Valparaiso City Council President Ellen Kapitan, who serves on the new board, promised the public a more transparent description of the development and land use for the city’s north side, and noted what impact the new board could have while addressing the concerns of the public, including landowners in the vicinity.

Last month, Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas told the Post-Tribune that this month would be devoted to the Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission exploring other public and private development opportunities for 248 acres of property, originally purchased in hopes of a plan from former Mayor Matt Murphy and the Valparaiso Parks Department to create an expansive sports complex.

“The commission’s decision to hold on to the property was fueled, in part, by the fact the commission pledged TIF revenues to cover annual lease rental bond payments, which were sold to pay a portion of the new park construction costs,” Costas said in February.

“The city and RDC are prudently exploring alternative developments that will generate new property tax revenues. At the December 2024 Redevelopment Commission meeting, the commissioners authorized the public offering for the property to find out what the market might bear for this property in terms of development ideas and price. One submission was received,” Costas said then.

The proposal from Agincourt Investments LLC, represented by Todd Leeth, was presented at the January 2025 RDC meeting, the mayor said previously. The commission approved an option agreement, which outlines the next steps for the developer and commission to complete due diligence before selling the property.

“I cannot get into the specifics of the end use yet because of non-disclosure agreements,” he said last month.

Social media posts with speculations and concerns began generating dialogue last weekend which prompted Kapitan to invite Valparaiso Director of Development George Douglas to update all with more details on behalf of the Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission.

“We’ve received a lot of emails and there’s been a lot of online chatter about what is going on at the (County Road) 500 North parcel of development,” Kapitan said. “As we know, some things may or may not be true with what we read on the internet.”

Douglas began by emphasizing a statement on behalf of his department: “There is currently no data center project in Valparaiso.”

“I suspect many of you are here because of social media posts concerning a potential data center in Valparaiso,” Douglas said.

“As you might expect, there is a lot of information swirling around and not all of it is accurate. Let me repeat that there is currently no data center project in Valparaiso. There is an option agreement to allow a developer time, approximately 300 days, to investigate whether a data center is feasible in Valparaiso,” Douglas said.

That investigation, he said, includes working with NIPSCO, city utilities, the city council, and the plan and redevelopment commissions.

Douglas said the Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission issued a Request For Offering in December 2024 for the 249 acres purchased by the commission in 2022 to explore possible options for use of the property.

“The commission received a proposal for a nonresidential campus development which could include a data center,” Douglas said.

“The option agreement outlines a thorough due diligence process with multiple obligations placed on the developer. That due diligence process is ongoing. At this time, we don’t have a project. We don’t have a design and we don’t have a site plan. What we do have is a preliminary conceptual plan,” Douglas said.

The option agreement and proposal are already public and available on the city’s website, he added, and the developer understands the project would have several public approval steps before any construction started.

Douglas also assured the new Valparaiso Environmental Advisory Board “will be an important and knowledgeable group to help the council and city understand the environmental impacts of any proposed project.”

More than a dozen residents shared their concerns with the board and most said they found out about the proposal over the weekend from social media posts created and shared by the Izaak Walton League and Duneland Residents Against Data Centers.

Vanessa Moore, of Washington Township, said her home would be near the proposed data center. She received a flier Sunday that outlined the reasons data centers “do not make good neighbors.”

“I’ve been told of the amount of water and power needed to run a data center and the amount of noise and light generated by these operations,” Moore said. “A data center would negatively affect nature and wildlife within a five-mile radius.”

Michael Lowe, 71, who lives on 300 East, said he has a home, shop and 12 farmable acres along the area of the proposed data center.

“When I bought this property in the past four years since I retired, I had no idea they would ever dream of building something like this,” Lowe said.

“To go from agricultural ground to building a park to now a development like this in a blink of an eye is unacceptable. I spent 47 years in the fire protection business and data centers are not what we want in Valparaiso,” Lowe said. “They are noisy. They are light pollution and at the end of the day, they end up looking like a powerhouse. This community is not going to get on board for something like this.”

Valparaiso City Attorney Patrick Lyp, who serves in an advisory capacity for the environmental board, explained near the close of Monday’s meeting that he was responsible for “handling the transaction for the purchase of both of the land parcels” under recent debate.

“For the folks here, realistically, for this proposed data center project, in terms of having city involvement, is probably not until June, July, August,” Lyp said.

The procedure includes a 10-month due diligence period, Lyp said, and NIPSCO is already reviewing the plans. A lot has to happen before the environmental board would see a plan to react to, since the redevelopment and plan commissions, and the city council, would have to rezone the property. That’s many months away, he added.

“I certainly agree, if I lived nearby, I’d want to know. In terms of the next steps, there won’t be any until summer so I don’t want people thinking they have to be checking the newspaper or feeling they have to come down here (to meetings) only because the first step will be a proposal, for us and the council to react to,” Lyp said.

Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter.