The data center fight in Starke County, Indiana
As of October 1, 2026, Starke County, Indiana has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Dec 15, 2025; documented end date 2026-12-15).
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
Board of Commissioners adopted Ordinance 2025-37 by a 3-0 vote on Dec 15, 2025, on the Plan Commission's Dec 4 favorable recommendation, barring building permits, improvement-location permits and site-plan applications for hyperscale data centers (>5,000 sq ft) in unincorporated Starke County for 12 months. Prompted by a Chicago-based firm's Nov 2025 inquiry about rezoning two parcels for a data center. No extension has been adopted. Instead the Plan Commission voted Aug 12, 2026 to send Resolution 2026-PC-15, a zoning amendment to define and prohibit commercial data centers, to a public hearing on Oct 14, 2026
SourceOfficial
read 2026-09-29
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
Abei Energy data center proposal (rezoning request) — Blocked by ban
Operator: Abei Energy (data center division)
Chicago-based Abei Energy's data center division emailed the Starke County Plan Commission asking about rezoning two parcels from Agricultural to Industrial. County officials disclosed the inquiry to residents on 2025-11-03; Abei was placed on the Plan Commission's 2025-11-12 agenda. Exact parcels, acreage, and project size were never disclosed publicly. The county drafted a hyperscale data center moratorium ordinance in direct response and adopted it (Ordinance 2025-37) on 2025-12-15, before Abei's proposal advanced to a rezoning vote -- so this project's outcome is 'moratorium' (blocked by the county's own timeout), not a formal denial.
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
- 2026-07-15 — Plan Commission recommends a one-year extension of the data center moratorium; as of 2026-09 the Board of Commissioners has not been confirmed to have voted on it. · source
- 2025-12-15 — Board of Commissioners adopts Ordinance 2025-37, a 12-month moratorium on permits for hyperscale (>5,000 sq ft) data centers in unincorporated Starke County, by a 3-0 vote. · source
- 2025-12-04 — Starke County Plan Commission unanimously recommends a 12-month moratorium on hyperscale data center applications to the Board of Commissioners. · source
- 2025-11-03 — Starke County commissioners publicly discuss Abei Energy's inquiry with citizens after incomplete email screenshots circulated on social media; Commissioner VanDeMark says a moratorium ordinance was already being drafted at the Plan Commission. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-09-02.
Recent news
35 stories tracked since 2017-05-31 across 11 outlets. 22× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 11× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. Most recent: “Starke County sheriff cites public opinion, data concerns for ending Flock contract” (WNDU, 2026-09-09).
- Starke County sheriff cites public opinion, data concerns for ending Flock contract
- Starke County sheriff cites public opinion, data concerns for ending Flock contract
- Starke County sheriff cites public opinion, data concerns for ending Flock contract
- Starke County sheriff cites public opinion, data concerns for ending Flock contract
- North Judson man arrested in fatal Starke County hit-and-run
- Deadly hit and run investigation underway in Starke County
- Amazon Backs Starke County Watershed Project
- Amazon funding Starke County watershed restoration project
- Autumn Ferch wins Republican nomination for Starke County Prosecutor
- Starke County Plan Commission passes motion proposing ordinance prohibiting new energy infrastructure
- Starke County puts moratorium on large data centers
- Starke County Commissioners approve data center moratorium
+23 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 35 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
Starke County Board of Commissioners — Zoning ordinance amendments and moratoria on building/site-plan permits for unincorporated Starke County, acting on recommendations from the Starke County Plan Commission
Meets: First Monday of each month at 5:00 PM CST; third Monday of each month at 9:30 AM CST
Where: 53 E Mound St, Knox, IN 46534
Public comment: Not specified on the commissioners' page; the county's data center moratorium was preceded by a noticed public hearing (see NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING, https://starke.in.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/NOTICE-OF-PUBLIC-HEARING-Data-Center-Moratorium.pdf)
dbinkley@starke.in.gov · (574) 274-4853 · 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike VanDeMark | President, Board of Commissioners | mike@plymouthfoundry.com | 574-274-4853 | Voted for Ordinance 2025-37 (12-month hyperscale data center moratorium), adopted 3-0 on 2025-12-15 |
| Charles Chesak | Vice-President, Board of Commissioners | charlesrc2003@hotmail.com | 574-806-3746 | Voted for Ordinance 2025-37 (12-month hyperscale data center moratorium), adopted 3-0 on 2025-12-15 |
| Don Binkley | Member, Board of Commissioners | dbinkley@starke.in.gov | 574-249-0895 | Voted for Ordinance 2025-37 (12-month hyperscale data center moratorium), adopted 3-0 on 2025-12-15 |
| Bill R. Crase, Jr. | President, County Council | bill_crase@live.com | 574-249-8809 | not recorded |
| Dave Pearman | Vice-President, County Council | starkecouncild3@aol.com | 574-249-0519 | not recorded |
| Todd Leinbach | Member, County Council | tleinbach@starke.in.gov | 574-249-5030 | not recorded |
| Howard Bailey | Member, County Council | habjr13@gmail.com | 574-806-8050 | not recorded |
| Bruce Bennett | Member, County Council | nbbennettfarm@gmail.com | 574-806-2408 | not recorded |
| Kay Gudeman | Member, County Council | lexusdiana1953@gmail.com | 574-806-1078 | not recorded |
| Cassandra Hine | Member, County Council | cassi46534@gmail.com | 574-249-8943 | 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
- Pulaski County (16 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-02
- Marshall County (17 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Fulton County (24 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-03-02
- Michigan City (33 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- White County (39 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-20
- Cass County (39 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Merrillville (39 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-05-31
- Elkhart (44 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.