REAL PoV: Rezoning St. Joe Farm for Microsoft Data Center

WRITTEN BY DAN SCHAETZLE

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Hello fellow citizens. I am Dan Schaetzle, St. Joseph County Councilman for the Granger area. In May, I voted to rezone St. Joe Farm from agricultural to industrial. St. Joe Farm is slightly larger than 900 acres and sits on the north and south sides of Cleveland Rd. south of the toll road and between Bittersweet and Current Roads. On the south side of Cleveland, it extends further west toward the railroad tracks and Capital Avenue. The farm is privately owned and the owner petitioned the county to rezone the property to industrial after Microsoft showed interest in acquiring the property to build data centers. This rezoning fits in the county’s Capital Avenue Land Use Plan which was developed with contributions from county and city of Mishawaka stakeholders.

As councilman for the district in which the rezoning was requested, it was not my job to make a case for this project. Rather, it was my job to listen to constituents both for and against the rezoning, investigate their concerns, hear the perspective of the land owner, understand the intent of the company interested in the purchase and comprehend any other benefit or liability to the county and its residents if the property were to be rezoned. Residents’ concerns included water usage, noise pollution, traffic, loss of farmland, power usage and how the scenery would change.

Water usage seemed to be the number one concern. Data centers require water to cool their equipment; however, because of our temperate climate, a data center in our community will not use near the amount of water used for similar facilities in Georgia, Florida or Texas. Additionally, the water used by the data center will not come from the aquifer that supplies our homes here in Granger. Rather, it will come from Mishawaka Utilities which pulls water from a deeper aquifer separated by a clay barrier from
the aquifer that supplies our water. The city of Mishawaka has in fact done volumetric and qualitative testing of the lower aquifer to be sure drawing water does not affect the upper aquifer. Based on their findings, our water source is safe.

Noise pollution was also a concern of residents that live near the proposed location. Data centers produce noise levels up to 96 dB(A), which is an expression of the relative loudness of sound as perceived by the human ear. The toll road just to the north of St. Joe Farm produces between 70 and 80 dB(A) at a distance of fifty feet from the highway – a relatively constant hum with louder moments. The laws of physics tell us that whenever a distance from a source of sound doubles, the intensity of the sound decreases by six dB(A) (for example if you move from 50 to 100 feet from the sound). The closest residence to the most northeasterly possibility for the data center is 292 linear feet away. With the
reduction in sound caused by that distance, and without subtracting for reductions caused by vegetative buffering and the setback of the data center, the closest residents will experience noise from the proposed data center at least 22 to 32 dB(A) quieter than the noise produced by toll road traffic. In other words, the sound of the toll road will still be the loudest, most consistent sound they hear.

Concern was also voiced that any entrance to the facility from Bittersweet or Cleveland would be dangerous and the overall traffic load of those two roads will become unmanageable. Data from the Indiana Department of Transportation helps to alleviate those concerns. According to INDOT, the proposed development of St. Joe Farm will have an impact of a 3 to 6 percent increase in road utilization. This is much less than the impact subdivision or office park developments would have. In order to further address residents’ concerns, I will propose that Bittersweet be widened with turn lanes or that any traffic from the facility onto Bittersweet be limited so only right-turning traffic entering or exiting the
facility. Also, there will have to be work done on Cleveland to construct turn lanes for the main entrance and exit to the facility, and the Current Road junction with Cleveland will have to be reformed.

In addition to the concerns I have already addressed, the loss of farmland and the crops produced was brought up. The numbers vary on how much land it takes to feed an American, but if we take the average of those numbers we get 1.8 acres. With approximately 340 million people in the United States, it then takes 612 million acres to feed our population. As 2023 ended, the United States had 878.6 million acres
of farmland. In fact, we produce enough food to feed our population and export twenty percent of farm products by value. Even with the loss of about 1.8 million acres of farmland to development every year, we are not in any danger of running out of food.

Finally, brownouts were also voiced as a concern. Data centers do use a lot of power. To address this, Microsoft will have to work with Indiana Michigan Power to build a separate substation to deliver their power. Therefore, the data centers will not be on the same substation as the rest of Granger. This should protect us from power failures in our homes and businesses. The county will work closely with the buyer of the property and the power company to be sure their plan is solid and does not put Granger homes at risk of brownouts.

With all of those concerns addressed, we can be sure that the scenery is going to change. A drive down Current, Bittersweet or across Cleveland will not be the same. An electrical substation and large buildings on part of the land will be unattractive to some folks. The nostalgic white buildings of St. Joe Farm, however, will remain. The current owner is not selling that part of the property. In addition, there will be a 200 foot wide natural barrier along Juday Creek as it cuts through the property. Other areas of the property are not fit for buildings, including the southeast corner of the property. I will encourage the buyers to allow those areas to go back to their natural state – the way they looked prior to their drainage for agricultural uses.

Commissioner Baxmeyer and I will also request that Microsoft contribute to community projects. Those could include contributions to the Anderson Road Park, an extension of Granger paths, other green spaces, and technology related programs in our schools. In addition, the building of data centers will contribute several hundred construction jobs and up to 300 well paying permanent jobs. Residual employment is also very high for data centers, and we will see many of those jobs in our community.

Given our ability as a council to successfully respond to the concerns of some residents and the support of others, the added jobs and diversification this project brings to our economy, as well as the potential community projects and increase in tax base (money the county can spend to improve our lives through better roads, bridges and fulfilling other needs), I voted for the rezoning and will continue to work toward the realization of this project.

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