The data center fight in Cass County, Indiana
As of October 1, 2026, Cass County, Indiana has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Apr 21, 2026).
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
Board of Commissioners adopted Ordinance Comm-Ord-2026-08 on Apr 21, 2026, on the Plan Commission's favorable recommendation from an Apr 7 hearing. The ordinance amends the zoning ordinance's district-use table to mark "Data Processing" a prohibited use in every district — Agricultural, Residential, Business, Industrial and Commercial General — a permanent ban, not a time-limited pause. All three commissioners (Ruth Baker, president; Mike Deitrich; Roger Spencer) signed it, 3-0. No named company or project triggered it. "Cass County" + "data center" news searches are dominated by an unrelated fight in Cass County, Michigan — do not conflate the two
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.
Recent news
66 stories tracked since 2017-05-19 across 22 outlets. 57× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 8× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. Most recent: “37-year-old man suffers life-threatening injuries after crashing into utility pole, barn in Cass County” (WTHR, 2026-09-15).
- 37-year-old man suffers life-threatening injuries after crashing into utility pole, barn in Cass County
- Neighbor of possible 2nd Cass County data center was not informed of pending land sale
- Cass County town hall draws packed crowd over data center and fiberglass factory plans
- 'Badly decomposed' body found in Cass County field, sheriff says
- 'Badly decomposed' body found in Cass County field, sheriff says
- Cass County Commissioners Close The Swimming Area At France Park Until Further Notice
- Investigation ongoing after recovery of juvenile at France Park (Cass County)
- DNR: Juvenile dead after reported drowning at Cass County lake
- Divers Recover Body of Child from Cass County Lake
- Cass County residents prepare to act on future data center proposals
- Residents prepare to act on future data center proposals in Cass County
- Residents prepare to act on future data center proposals in Cass County
+54 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 66 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
Cass County Board of Commissioners — Amendments to the Cass County Zoning Ordinance (including the district-use-standards table that now bans data processing/data centers county-wide), property/road management, contracts and board appointments, acting on Cass County Plan Commission recommendations
Meets: Regular sessions per the CivicClerk portal calendar (exact recurring day/time not published on the commissioners' page itself)
Where: Cass County Government Building, Room 200, 200 Court Park, Logansport, IN 46947
Public comment: Commissioners maintain a written Public Comment Policy (linked from the commissioners' office page as a PDF); the Data Processing amendment itself went through a noticed Plan Commission public hearing on 2026-04-07 before the commissioners' vote
(574) 753-7770 · 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruth Baker | President, Board of Commissioners | ruth.baker@casscountyin.gov | (574) 753-7889 | Signed Comm-Ord-2026-08 banning data processing/data centers county-wide, adopted 2026-04-21 |
| Roger Spencer | Member, Board of Commissioners | roger.spencer@casscountyin.gov | — | Signed Comm-Ord-2026-08 banning data processing/data centers county-wide, adopted 2026-04-21 |
| Mike Deitrich | Member, Board of Commissioners | mike.deitrich@casscountyin.gov | (574) 753-7891 | Signed Comm-Ord-2026-08 banning data processing/data centers county-wide, adopted 2026-04-21; quoted: "I don't think this is going to make them go away. But we're not prepared at this point to entertain anything." |
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
- Miami County (16 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Fulton County (22 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-03-02
- Howard County (22 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-18
- White County (27 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-20
- Pulaski County (27 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-02
- Starke County (39 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-15
- Grant County (40 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-03-16
- Marshall County (41 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
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.