The data center fight in Boone County, Indiana
As of October 1, 2026, Boone County, Indiana has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jun 16, 2026; documented end date 2027-06-15).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
1-year moratorium in unincorporated areas, unanimous (Ordinance 2026-08); 12th Indiana county to pause. Does not affect Meta's $10B LEAP campus, which sits on land annexed into the City of Lebanon, not unincorporated county land
SourceOfficial
read 2026-09-02
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
Meta Lebanon / LEAP Data Center Campus — Proposed
Operator: Meta · Tenant: Meta · Size: 1,000 MW · Acres: 1,500
1500-acre, 1GW, $10B+ Meta campus at the LEAP Lebanon Innovation District. Multiple sources (WISH-TV, WRTV, Data Center Dynamics, IndyStar) place this site on land annexed into the City of Lebanon as part of the state-sponsored LEAP district -- NOT unincorporated Boone County and NOT the Town of Advance. This conflicts with the task baseline description citing the Town of Advance; flagging for the tracker maintainer to reconcile (see research_notes). Either way, all reporting agrees this project is exempt from the county's unincorporated-land moratorium. First proposed publicly around Nov 2024 (~$800M), then expanded to the current $10B/1GW scope announced Feb 2026; groundbreaking construction reported ongoing through mid-2026 with resident complaints about light/noise pollution.
Next: Early stage. File a public-records request for the application and site plan.
Latest in the record
- 2026-07-08 — IndyStar reports ongoing construction disruption for neighbors (light pollution, noise) during Meta campus build-out. · source
- 2026-06-15 — Boone County passes a 1-year moratorium on new data centers in unincorporated county land; county officials and press confirm this does not affect the Meta LEAP/Lebanon project because it sits on annexed City of Lebanon land, not unincorporated county land. · source
- 2026-02-11 — Meta officially announces expanded $10B, 1GW data center campus at LEAP District in Lebanon. · source
- 2024-11-25 — Meta proposes ~$800 million data center in Lebanon, Indiana. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-09-02.
Recent news
16 stories tracked since 2025-08-15 across 14 outlets. 13× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. 1× Noise from the facility is drawing resident complaints. Most recent: “Oklahoma Worker, 33, Killed by Pickup Truck at Meta's Lebanon Data Center Site” (hoodline.com, 2026-09-15).
- Oklahoma Worker, 33, Killed by Pickup Truck at Meta's Lebanon Data Center Site
- Boone County becomes latest community to enact data center moratorium
- 'I feel like our home is being invaded': Lebanon residents disrupted by light, noise from Meta data center project
- Construction on Meta Lebanon data center a ‘nightmare’ for neighbors
- Boone County Commissioners Approve Moratorium On Data Centers
- Boone County Commissioners Approve Moratorium on Data Centers
- Boone County approves moratorium on new data centers
- Boone County approves moratorium on new data centers
- Boone County enacts data center moratorium
- Boone County commissioners approve 1-year moratorium on data centers
- Boone County Planners Back One-year Moratorium On Data Centers
- Boone County considering data center moratorium
+4 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 16 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
Boone County Board of Commissioners — Zoning ordinance and moratorium adoption for unincorporated Boone County; the Area Plan Commission (APC) drafts and recommends land-use/zoning policy (including the data-center moratorium) which the Commissioners then vote to enact.
Meets: 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, 9:00am-12:00pm (per county website; 2026 dates include Jan 20, Feb 9, Feb 23, Mar 9, Mar 23, Apr 6, Apr 20, May 4, May 18, Jun 1, Jun 15, Jul 6, Jul 20, Aug 3, Aug 17, Sep 8, Sep 21, Oct 5, Oct 19, Nov 2, Nov 16, Nov 30, Dec 14)
Where: Connie Lamar Room, Boone County Annex, north of the courthouse; commissioners' office at 127 W. Main Street, Suite 400 (4th Floor), Lebanon, IN 46052
Public comment: No formal public-comment procedure is published on the county site. Residents can request agenda items via the "Boone County Commissioners Agenda Request Form" available on the commissioners' meetings page; meetings are also posted to the county's YouTube channel, and residents can subscribe to receive agendas/minutes by email.
commissioners@co.boone.in.us · 765-483-4492 · website
Read from the official page on 2026-09-02. Meeting details change — confirm before you go.
Who votes on it
| Name | Role | Phone | Recorded stance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Beyer | Boone County Commissioner (President, per 2026-06-15 press release) | tbeyer@co.boone.in.us | 765-483-4492 | Voted for the moratorium (unanimous) and is quoted supporting it: "This moratorium gives the county an opportunity to carefully study data center development, gather information, and ensure our policies align with the long-term goals and priorities of our residents." |
| Don Lawson | Boone County Commissioner | dlawson@co.boone.in.us | 765-483-4492 | not recorded |
| Scott Pell | Boone County Commissioner | spell@co.boone.in.us | 765-483-4492 | not recorded |
| Jennifer Hostetter | Boone County Council President (2026) | — | — | not recorded |
| Shari Richey | Boone County Council Vice President (2026) | — | — | not recorded |
| Kevin Van Horn | Boone County Council Member | — | — | not recorded |
From the locality's own roster page; "not recorded" means no public statement is on file, not neutrality.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Indiana.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Indiana briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Indiana
- Indianapolis (Marion County) (25 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-12-31
- Putnam County (34 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-17
- Howard County (35 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-18
- Cass County (49 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- White County (53 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-20
- Grant County (53 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-03-16
- Miami County (54 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Vermillion County (54 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
All 23 tracked actions in Indiana are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.