Decennial Group Akron Data Center Campus (proposed) Blocked by ban
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 No later announcement of the project being formally withdrawn was located; it is currently blocked by the moratorium rather than confirmed dead.
Key facts
- Operator
- Decennial Group
- Size
- 500 MW
- Acres
- 300
- Location
- Fulton County (Akron), Indiana
- First proposed
- 2026-01-15
- Hearing
- 2026-02-04
- Decided
- 2026-03-02
- Stage today
- Blocked by ban
Source
read 2026-09-02
What to do next
Next step: 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.
What has happened so far (4 events)
- 2026-01-15rumor/announcement
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 - 2026-02-04public open house
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 - 2026-02-10recommendation
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 - 2026-03-02moratorium vote
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
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 12 places to look)
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Indiana IDEM — Office of Air QualityThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- IDEM Virtual File CabinetSearchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Fulton County (Akron) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Fulton County (Akron) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- MISO (Midwest & Gulf) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 41.041, -86.016 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
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.
Around here
- Fulton County community briefing — Enactedexpires 2027-03-02
- Indiana briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Indiana
- Project Riverjump (Marion) — Marion (Grant County), 37 mi Withdrawn
- Abei Energy data center proposal (rezoning request) — Starke County, 37 mi Blocked by ban
- Recore Digital AI data center inquiry — Grant County, 41 mi Rumored
- Google Fort Wayne — Fort Wayne, 46 mi
- AWS Northern Indiana expansion (New Carlisle) — New Carlisle (St. Joseph County), 52 mi
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Decennial Group Akron Data Center Campus (proposed)”, aigridwatch.com/projects/decennial-group-akron-fulton-in, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).