The data center fight in Fulton County, Indiana
As of October 1, 2026, Fulton County, Indiana has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Mar 2, 2026; documented end date 2027-03-02).
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
The Area Plan Commission recommended the moratorium 6-1 on Feb 10, 2026 at a standing-room-only hearing; the Board of Commissioners adopted a 1-year pause 2-1 on Mar 2. Commissioner Dave Sommers cast the dissenting vote ("I've got to represent 20,000 people, not just 2,000"); Bryan Lewis and Rick Ranstead voted yes. Triggered by Decennial Group's proposed ~500 MW / 300-acre campus near Akron, presented to 40+ residents at a contentious Feb 4 open house before any site or tenant was named. A data-center review committee formed during the pause to study impacts and draft zoning; no source confirms its final recommendations or a follow-on vote
SourceNews
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
Decennial Group Akron Data Center Campus (proposed) — Blocked by ban
Operator: Decennial Group · Size: 500 MW · Acres: 300
Decennial Group co-founder David Pavlick (also spelled 'Pavlik' in some coverage) proposed a roughly 500 MW, 300-acre hyperscale data center campus near Akron, in Fulton County, no specific parcel/site was ever named publicly, and no hyperscale tenant was named (Pavlick said an unnamed hyperscale company larger than Decennial's existing CoreWeave-tenanted Hammond, IN facility was interested). Estimated $100-150 million in associated infrastructure investment (roads, bridges, community water upgrades) plus a closed-loop water design were described at a Feb. 4, 2026 public open house at the Akron Banquet Hall attended by 40+ residents; reporting says commissioners themselves learned of the proposal only about 10 days before that open house. The Fulton County Area Plan Commission recommended a 12-month moratorium 6-1 on Feb. 10, 2026 specifically in response to this proposal, and the Board of Commissioners adopted it 2-1 on March 2, 2026, effectively pausing the project. No later announcement of the project being formally withdrawn was located; it is currently blocked by the moratorium rather than confirmed dead.
Next: Blocked by a local ban or moratorium - the project stopped at the ordinance, not at an application. Watch for the ordinance being challenged in court or allowed to lapse.
Latest in the record
- 2026-03-02 — Board of Commissioners votes 2-1 (Lewis, Ranstead yes; Sommers no) to adopt a one-year moratorium on data center construction, effective immediately, halting the Decennial project. · source
- 2026-02-10 — Fulton County Area Plan Commission votes 6-1 at a standing-room-only hearing to recommend a 12-month data-center moratorium to the Board of Commissioners, explicitly in response to the Decennial Group proposal. · source
- 2026-02-04 — Decennial Group co-founder David Pavlick presents early plans (~300 acres, $100-150M infrastructure investment, closed-loop water design, no site/tenant named yet) to 40+ residents at the Akron Banquet Hall; meeting grows contentious. · source
- 2026-01-15 — News of a potential ~500 MW Decennial Group data center near Akron begins circulating locally, prompting formation of the Facebook group 'No Data Centers, Fulton County' (~2,200 members by later in the year). · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-09-02.
Recent news
16 stories tracked since 2019-05-27 across 10 outlets. 10× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 5× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. Most recent: “James “Jim” M. Zimmerman 64, of Akron, Indiana, longtime Mentone resident” (giant.fm, 2026-08-31).
- James “Jim” M. Zimmerman 64, of Akron, Indiana, longtime Mentone resident
- Daniel “Dan” D. Severns 82, of Akron, Indiana
- Fulton County rejects data center incentives
- Fulton County takes aim at data center tax breaks
- Data center review committee gives update to residents in Fulton County
- Patricia L. Perry 84, of Akron, Indiana
- Fulton County moves forward to create committee on possible data center ordinance
- Fulton County commissioners approve one-year moratorium on data center construction
- Fulton county residents react to data center moratorium
- Fulton County data center moratorium heads to county commission vote
- Officials recommend data center moratorium for approval in Fulton County, Indiana
- Fulton County approves 12-month data center moratorium after heated public hearing
+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
Fulton County Board of Commissioners (moratorium vote); Fulton County Area Plan Commission (recommending body / oversees the data center review committee) — Board of Commissioners adopted the moratorium ordinance 2-1 on March 2, 2026; the Area Plan Commission recommended it 6-1 on Feb. 10, 2026 and appoints the data center review committee tasked with drafting the post-moratorium ordinance.
Meets: Board of Commissioners meets as posted; Area Plan Commission meets the 4th Monday of every month unless otherwise posted.
Where: Fulton County Office Building, Commissioner's Room, 125 E. 9th Street, Rochester, IN 46975
Public comment: Public comment taken at posted Board of Commissioners and Area Plan Commission meetings; agendas and packets posted in advance via the county's Agenda Center.
574-223-3869 · 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Sommers | Commissioner | — | 574-223-3869 | Voted NO on the March 2, 2026 moratorium (the lone dissent, 2-1). Quote: "I've got to represent 20,000 people, not just 2,000 ... this right here looked like our first and best alternative," referring to the county revenue the Decennial Group project would have brought. |
| Bryan Lewis | Commissioner | — | 574-223-3869 | Voted YES on the March 2, 2026 moratorium. Quote: "Anything less than a year is silly ... I'm hoping we can move through this thing at a fairly good rate." Also said, "If the people in Akron and that area don't want it, then I think we need to really look hard at that and give them what they want." |
| Rick Ranstead | Commissioner | — | 574-223-3869 | Voted YES on the March 2, 2026 moratorium, joining Lewis for the 2-1 majority (by elimination: Sommers dissented and Lewis is on record in favor; no article separately quotes Ranstead, so this vote attribution should be confirmed against the county's own minutes before being cited as certain). |
| Barry Baldwin | Fulton County Councilman (R) -- county council, not a commissioner; does not vote on the moratorium | — | — | Said, "Ultimately, we would like to have our zoning laws for Ag changed back to the way they were." |
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
- Marshall County (20 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Cass County (22 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Pulaski County (23 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-02
- Miami County (24 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Starke County (24 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-15
- White County (38 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-20
- Howard County (41 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-18
- Elkhart (45 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-12-31
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.