Meta Lebanon / LEAP Data Center Campus Proposed
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.
Key facts
- Operator
- Meta
- Tenant
- Meta
- Size
- 1,000 MW
- Acres
- 1,500
- Location
- Boone County, Indiana
- First proposed
- 2026-02-11
- Stage today
- Proposed
Source
read 2026-09-02
What to do next
Next step: Early stage. File a public-records request for the application and site plan.
What has happened so far (4 events)
- 2024-11-25announced
Meta proposes ~$800 million data center in Lebanon, Indiana. · source - 2026-02-11announced
Meta officially announces expanded $10B, 1GW data center campus at LEAP District in Lebanon. · source - 2026-06-15moratorium
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 - 2026-07-08community-impact
IndyStar reports ongoing construction disruption for neighbors (light pollution, noise) during Meta campus build-out. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 13 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.
- Boone County Board of Commissioners agendas & packetsThe meeting packet carries the staff report, site plan and conditions — verified page for this locality.
- Search Boone County 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 Boone County 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 40.049, -86.464 — 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 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.
Around here
- Boone County community briefing — Enactedexpires 2027-06-15
- Indiana briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Indiana
- Metrobloks Martindale-Brightwood — Martindale-Brightwood (Indianapolis), 25 mi Approved
- DC Blox Warren Township (Thunderbird Commerce Center) — Warren Township (Indianapolis) / Irvington, 32 mi Approved
- Cloverdale Solar Farm (EnergyRe) — Putnam County, 41 mi Withdrawn
- Recore Digital AI data center inquiry — Grant County, 53 mi Rumored
- Project Riverjump (Marion) — Marion (Grant County), 53 mi Withdrawn
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Meta Lebanon / LEAP Data Center Campus”, aigridwatch.com/projects/meta-leap-lebanon-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).