Michigan City officials are pushing forward with a new version of a data-center moratorium that would exclude Google’s massive Project Maize development entirely, a move that has reignited tension just weeks after the original proposal was tabled by an 8-1 council vote. The new ordinance would suspend approval of new data-center developments until zoning regulations are added or until July 31, 2028, whichever comes first, but would carve out both phases of Google’s current project.
The original moratorium, introduced earlier this year, was tabled in September so the city’s planning department could weigh in, according to wvpe.org. That version would have paused permits and tax abatements for data-center-related projects while the city worked out zoning rules, though it already excluded projects underway, including Google’s data center at the former Federal Mogul property. Council members had said their plan was to draft a resolution directing the planning department on what to examine next.
A New Draft, Same Core Carve-Out
Council member Bryant Dabney, who has pushed for the moratorium’s return, said the pause would give officials time to evaluate the Google project before allowing additional data centers into the city, according to Indiana Public Radio, published by Indiana Public Radio. City officials would look at noise, water usage and energy use at the Google facility during that window, per the same report. Dabney had previously floated keeping a moratorium in place for one year after Project Maize begins operating, telling the Chicago Tribune in September that the facility was expected to be running by 2027, meaning a pause could stretch into 2028.
But the new ordinance text itself sets July 31, 2028 as a possible end date for the pause, and would end the moratorium once city zoning regulations are adopted, whichever happens first, per Indiana Public Radio’s reporting. Google is the operator behind Project Maize, an $832 million data-center development at 402 Royal Road on the former Federal Mogul site, a detail the Chicago Tribune confirmed after an earlier Tribune report had said the project’s end user had not yet been formally announced.
Sponsors Say They Were Left Out
Joseph Nelson, another council member, did not mince words about how the new draft came together. He said he and resident Nancy Moldenhauer, along with others, had worked hard on the original ordinance, and called the process behind the new version disingenuous. Nelson said he was not consulted about the rewrite and did not appreciate being left out, according to the same Indiana Public Radio report. Sponsors of the original ordinance echoed that complaint, saying they were never brought in on the new language before it surfaced…