Soft touch on controversial development gets public hearing Aug. 17

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The City of Kokomo remains tight-lipped about the possibility of a data center being developed, but its actions belie the denials issued by Mayor Tyler Moore and members of the Kokomo Common Council throughout 2026.

Despite those denials, the city is moving to regulate data centers, though community members may question the sincerity of such actions, given the proposal that will be submitted for consideration by the Kokomo Plan Commission. A lengthy ordinance amending the city’s comprehensive plan for development will have a public hearing on Aug. 17, but only a small portion of the document is devoted to regulating data centers.

Further, the proposed regulations specific to data centers are bare-boned and do not address the majority of concerns voiced over months by the community. The Kokomo Common Council established a 700-acre industrial park on the city’s northeast side and annexed the property earlier this year, attracting hundreds of protestors adamantly opposed to the development of a data center.

At that time, Mayor Tyler Moore and members of the council repeatedly denied that a data center was under consideration or that any plan had been brought forth. The community didn’t buy the politicians’ claims as they watched communities across the state of Indiana begin to struggle against data center development.

The political heat elevated to the point that the Howard County Board of Commissioners will hear a recommendation for a two-year moratorium on data center development in coming weeks. That moratorium, however, would not apply to property within Kokomo’s city limits.

Now, the city is entertaining a set of regulations to be included in a new section of the city’s comprehensive plan for development, entitled “6.75 DC-01 Data Center Standards.” The details of those regulations read as follows: (editorial explanations italicized and in parentheses)

This Data Center Standards section applies to the following districts: LI, MI, HI (light, medium, and high industrial zoning)

A. The following data center standards apply:

1. A minimum setback of 200 feet is required from property lines abutting a residential district.

2. A minimum separation of 300 feet is required between any data center component and an existing residential structure.

3. Equipment or generator testing is prohibited between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

4. The landscaping requirements in 6.27 and 6.28 (part of the existing comprehensive plan) regarding foundation planting and parking lot parking do not apply where the building or parking lot is not visible from a public street.

5. All roof- or ground-mounted Mechanical Equipment shall be completely enclosed. Ground-mounted enclosures for mechanical equipment shall be landscaped or fenced on all sides not facing the building, to provide full screening.

6. A proposed Data Center that will be developed in phases shall submit a Master Site Plan as part of the initial application. The Master Site Plan shall disclose the full anticipated build-out of the site, including:

a. The anticipated total building area at full build-out, in square feet;

b. A general timeline or sequencing plan for anticipated phases; and

c. Identification of any utility infrastructure designed to accommodate future phases beyond the phase for which approval is initially sought.

The city noted there are several standards already codified in the comprehensive plan which should apply to data centers, including a 50-decibel operational sound threshold for developments abutting residential uses and a 75-decibel operational sound threshold for developments abutting all other property uses.

The comprehensive plan also contains language requiring new developments to have “adequate public facilities” for electrical and water usage. What that entails and how the standard is satisfied are not described.

However, the Kokomo Common Council’s Public Works and Improvement Committee developed recommendations concerning data centers that largely went unheeded. That committee, headed up by Councilman Jeff Plough, initially had the support of the committee members, but it was quickly shut down by council leadership through lobbying that resulted in three of those committee members withdrawing their support.

The recommendations considered by the committee, but not to be introduced to either the plan commission or the city council, include:

• Limiting construction hours to between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday;
• A minimum setback of 400 feet between the primary facility and its property line;
• A noise limit of 55 decibels at the facility’s property line and development of a noise study and mitigation plan;
• Screening all mechanical and electrical equipment from public view;
• Posting of emergency contact information at each access entrance to the facility;
• Limiting cooling systems to closed-loop or air-only systems;
• Burying all on-site utility lines; and
• A decommissioning plan that requires identifying the scope and timeline for decommissioning, requirements for asset disposition and hazardous materials handling, and a facility restoration plan that remediates any environmental impacts.

The committee also sought requirements that any proposed data centers verify the existence of adequate electrical capacity and that the data center operation not lead to increased electrical costs to area residents. The same regulations would have been recommended when it comes to water supply, including a caveat that the data center not negatively impact private wells or the City of Kokomo’s water supply.

Had the committee decided to advance its recommendations, there would have been a requirement for annual reports detailing energy and water consumption, noise compliance, and emergency generator testing to be submitted to the city by the data center operators.

When the Moore administration met with the council members on July 16 to discuss data center regulations, it specifically rejected many proposals raised by the committee members who remained committed to addressing the community’s concerns.

Concerns that are specifically not addressed in either the comprehensive plan or the proposed data center standards include requirements for:

• Underground utility installation,
• Closed loop or air-only cooling systems,
• Development of an energy efficiency plan,
• Development of a noise study and mitigation plan,
• Development of an operation and maintenance plan,
• Development of an emergency response plan, or
• A decommissioning plan.

The city’s response to these proposals is that they are “not a requirement for similar industrial uses.”

During the city council’s informational meeting on Aug. 11, Councilman Matt Grecu addressed the proposed amendments, though he avoided making specific mention of data centers.

“I can’t imagine that there’s any rational reason to vote against it,” said Grecu, who also sits on the Kokomo Plan Commission. “Even if somebody felt that it doesn’t go as far as they wanted it to, it’s offering more protections than we have today. So, I think we would want to put those protections in place.

“If there’s a further conversation in the future about anything else that can be done, the community is going to be better off because of protections that are in place in this.”

Beyond the data center issue, there are several changes to the city’s comprehensive plan that will be considered. Most of the changes are small amendments to existing regulations that will serve to streamline the development process and avoid the need for special exceptions for mundane details that would not negatively impact the community.

“It’s going to take some pressure off the plan commission office because there are things that have been recurring cases before the Board of Zoning Appeals,” said Grecu. “It takes them a considerable amount of time to put all those pieces together, and they’re consistently being granted. You need to amend the ordinance to reflect that it’s just the common practice.”

However, there are a few changes of note, including the addition of a tattoo parlor as a special exception use in an OC (Office/Commercial) district and changes to fence and wall heights when required by state or federal regulations, as well as the permitted use of security (barbed) wire at jails and prisons.

Several changes made by the Indiana Legislature also must be codified, and they are included in the proposed ordinance changes. They include:

• Allowing schools to be located in any zoning district;
• Allowing indoor shooting ranges to be located in all Agricultural, Commercial, and Industrial districts, though a city can prohibit them in historic districts, floodplains, and commercial areas that allow mixed-use residential projects; and
• Allowing sporting goods stores to be located in all commercial districts.

“There are some things within state law that our zoning ordinance was not in compliance with,” said Grecu. “It’s kind of a goofy thing that state law now says a school can go into any zone, and we don’t have the right to say no. So, if somebody decided they were going to build a school next to a high-intensity factory, we don’t have the legal authority to reject that.”

A public hearing encompassing all of these proposed changes will be held on Mon., Aug. 17, at 5 p.m. in the council chambers at Kokomo City Hall, 100 S. Union St. The city council will consider the ordinance at its meeting on Aug. 24, at 6 p.m. at City Hall.