Bristol residents react angrily to rezoning for data center

BRISTOL — A vote to rezone the future site of a $1 billion data center was met Thursday with boos, cries of "shame" and vows to vote Bristol Town Council members out of office.

The rezoning of nearly 250 acres of farmland southwest of town passed unanimously on second reading, with the exception of Dean Rentfrow, who abstained. An unnamed company plans to build a data storage campus where a large number of computer servers would host information for online applications.

The vote followed more than two hours of remarks from remonstrators, often with loud bursts of applause between them. Critics filled the sanctuary of the church that was used as the meeting location, after the crowd at the Sept. 5 session spilled out of the council chambers when the first-reading vote was held.

Objections ranged from the amount of noise that data centers create and the amount of water and power they demand, to speculation over who the owner might be. Some pointed to the impact data centers have on the communities where they are built.

"Every resident has a concern. The noise is a solid concern; 85 decibels, that's a train," said resident Kathy Hall Leib. "If you live in town, you hear the trains going by. That's going to be constant. You can put a berm up and you can plant trees on top of it, and that's going to buffer it a little bit, but it's going to be a constant low hum. It will be constant."

She said her family has lived in Bristol for six generations. She said they even lived and farmed on the land that was up for debate.

"It kind of saddens me to see what's become of all that land. It's all been rezoned industry. I used to play in that field," Hall Leib said. "I feel, like everybody else in town, that this is a back-door deal."

Mike Miller introduced himself as a fifth-generation Bristol resident. He said the buffer being proposed wouldn't make a difference to the low-frequency sounds emitted by data centers, and asked who would pay for soundproofing for classrooms that may be disturbed by the noise.

"Long-term health effects. These decibels will run off the wildlife. They affect nocturnal animals. You have Amish in the community, they ride horses. It affects the nervous system. Who's taking care of this?" he said. "I'll be damned if some data center is going to come in here and ruin the life of these kids."

After closing the comment period hours later, council President Jeff Beachy explained that the rezoning was requested by the landowners, the Wilhelm family trust, in order to sell the property. He said the change from agricultural to manufacturing came with the recommendation of the zoning board.

He said he spoke with a supporter earlier in the day who was afraid to speak for fear of being ostracized.

"I know you're going to say, oh, I'm just making all this up, but whatever," Beachy said as the voices from the pews were raised again. "He is a business owner in the Town of Bristol who lives by the site and actually farms the land. And his comment is, 'I am in support of this because it's inevitable that the property is going to sell.'"

Beachy said council's job was to make a decision on the best use of the ground.

"If you want to keep it farmland, buy the land yourself and continue to farm it. That's a simple answer. That's a real simple answer," he said, again to raised voices. "This zoning request is A1 to M1, with only a data center (allowed). If this does not pass, the Wilhelm trust will go back to the zoning board and request a PUD, a planned unit development. And if that passes, you will get manufacturing in there. You could get a trailer factory, you could get an RV factory."

This time he was met with cheers and applause.

Before passage, the rezoning was amended to include a number of written commitments from developers.

Tim Ramm, senior vice president of project management for real estate developer Province Group, said they made adjustments to the plan based on questions and objections raised at the previous meeting.

He said to give Bristol more oversight during the review process, they committed to submitting a site plan to the town for approval before any construction can begin. That's in addition to oversight by Elkhart County to see that development standards are met.

"Lot of concern last meeting that what we were saying wouldn't actually get implemented, that it would sort of fall off the radar at some point. With the written commitment that the town has approval of the site plan, will help to ensure that's not the case," Ramm said. "We all want to bring forward a great project, and you have the ability to check all of these things as we bring the site plan forward."

They also committed to keeping the primary access point to the north rather than using C.R. 23, and to reducing light pollution by lowering pole-mounted fixtures, restricting the height of building-mounted lighting and using shrouded light fixtures. They committed to larger than required landscape buffers of 50 feet and building setbacks of 150 feet at the southern edge.

Ramm said they were confident that with measures such as upgraded generator enclosures, sound attenuators and a 6-foot berm on the south side, they could maintain a level of 70 decibels at neighboring residential property lines.

"What's important to note here is that a data center is a very positive, strong economic use. It's really a powerhouse for the communities that they reside within," he said. "It is going to be important to the state, the county and the Town of Bristol because of the economic benefits that are generated from these data centers. They're very low-impact uses, about the best you could possibly ask for on a number of fronts."

He said data centers don't generate much vehicle traffic and claimed they don't impact schools or emergency services. Council heard at the Sept. 5 meeting that the campus would employ up to 150 people and make a property tax contribution of around $23 million a year.

The data center could be operating in five to seven years after every stage of the plan is approved.

"They're sophisticated buildings that are staffed 24-7, 365. So if there are issues that pop up, they're handled very quickly," Ramm said. "What they do do, however, is create a significant positive economic impact for the local jurisdiction, the county, and again, the state. They're providing high-quality jobs, good pay, good benefits, and that's when the data center is up and operational."

Ericka Levitz-Schieber told council members it was clear that residents don't want the data center, regardless of any changes made to the plan. She asked how the town could put a dollar amount on farmland or quality of life.

"Whatever amendments you made, I consider them irrelevant. It doesn't replace the land. It's still taking away from the land," she said. "What are we going to do when there's no more land for food, for animals or us? It's priceless. I don't understand why this is even a consideration."