Project Zora In review
Developer controls roughly 1,200 acres of reclaimed mine land in northern Warrick County; the preliminary concept would develop about 300 acres and leave 900 as buffer. County officials met the Project Zora development team on July 30, 2026, emphasizing no votes, commitments, or NDAs were signed and that the developer's capacity/cost claims are unverified. The end user is expected to be publicly identified by end of 2026, with no permit applications before January 2027; commissioners held an Aug 11, 2026 special meeting on data-center zoning-code amendments.
Key facts
- Size
- 300 ac
- Location
- Warrick County (reclaimed mine land), Indiana
- Stage today
- In review
Source
read 2026-08-14
What to do next
Next step: An application is in the record. Ask the planning office for the next hearing date and request formal notice.
What has happened so far (10 events)
- 2025-12-06coverage
Local media reported that Sourcecolo, a Utah-based data center consulting firm, was scheduled to present an informational presentation on data centers to the Warrick County Area Plan Commission on December 8, 2025; the company had already contacted CenterPoint utility about energy generation capacity, and a 'Just Say No to Data Centers' Facebook event drew nearly 80 interested attendees. · source - 2025-12-08hearing
The Sourcecolo data center presentation to the Warrick County APC was postponed from December 8 to February 9, 2026, to allow board members and county officials time to conduct their own research and prepare questions; APC Executive Director Molly Barnhill said the February meeting would be informational only. · source - 2026-05-21hearing
The Warrick County APC scheduled a public hearing for June 8 to discuss proposed ordinance regulations establishing definitions and regulations for small, medium, and large data centers; background noted the Sourcecolo presentation had been postponed multiple times since late 2025. · source - 2026-07-13hearing
Nearly 200 residents attended a 3.5-hour Warrick County APC public hearing on a proposed data center ordinance classifying facilities as small (under 10,000 sq ft), medium (10,001-40,000 sq ft), and large (over 40,000 sq ft), with large data centers not a permitted use; the board voted 5-2 to table the ordinance for four months. · source - 2026-07-13moratorium
At the same APC meeting, the board voted 4-3 to draft an additional ordinance placing a moratorium on all data center projects through December 2026, to be forwarded to the County Commissioners as a recommendation. · source - 2026-07-15coverage
Wisdom 92.1 (WZDM) reported on data center opposition in Warrick County following the approximately 200-person APC hearing, noting residents' concerns about water use, noise, pollution, and loss of farmland, while proponents emphasized jobs and apprenticeship opportunities in the construction trades. · source - 2026-07-30announcement
Warrick County officials and Economic Development representatives met with the Project Zora development team; no votes, commitments, or NDAs signed. Developer described control of ~1,200 acres of reclaimed mine land with ~300 acres proposed for development. · source - 2026-07-31announcement
Warrick County Commissioners announced a special public meeting for August 11 at the Friedman Park Event Center in Newburgh to consider the APC's recommendation on amending the zoning code for data centers; commissioners disclosed the Project Zora developer expects to identify the end user by end of 2026 and will not submit permit applications before January 2027. · source - 2026-08-10hearing
At a Monday APC meeting, Warrick County residents pushed back against Project Zora as details emerged about the proposed data center on 1,200 acres of reclaimed mine land; commissioners confirmed they refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the developers and that no formal application or site review had been submitted. · source - 2026-08-11moratorium
Warrick County Commissioners unanimously voted to enact a 180-day moratorium pausing all data center development, stating the pause would allow time for research and regulation development; residents at the meeting expressed concerns about water usage, noise, light pollution, and wildlife disruption, with some calling for a permanent ban rather than a temporary pause. · 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 Warrick County (reclaimed mine land) 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 Warrick County (reclaimed mine land) 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 38.090, -87.270 — 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
41 stories tracked since 2025-12-03 across 12 outlets. 30× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 11× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. Most recent: “Warrick County hosts data center public forum” (tristatehomepage.com, 2026-08-25).
- Warrick County hosts data center public forum
- Warrick County hosts data center public forum
- Warrick County hosts data center public forum
- Warrick County forum addresses data center concerns
- Warrick County forum addresses data center concerns
- Warrick County hosts data center public forum
- These are the decision makers on data centers in Warrick County
- Warrick County fire fighters want to join conversation on data centers
- WARRICK COUNTY PUTS PAUSE ON DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT
- Warrick Commissioners vote on moratorium to pause data center development
- Warrick County approves moratorium on data centers
- Warrick county puts pause on data center development
+29 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 41 headlines archived.
Around here
- Warrick County community briefing — Enactedexpires 2027-02-07
- Indiana briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Indiana
- Posey County data center (Boberg/Hoenert Roads) — Posey County (Boberg & Hoenert Roads, near Mount Vernon), 33 mi Awaiting decision
- Meta Jeffersonville — Jeffersonville, 84 mi In review
- Cloverdale Solar Farm (EnergyRe) — Putnam County, 101 mi Withdrawn
- Metrobloks Martindale-Brightwood — Martindale-Brightwood (Indianapolis), 132 mi Approved
- DC Blox Warren Township (Thunderbird Commerce Center) — Warren Township (Indianapolis) / Irvington, 135 mi Approved
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Project Zora”, aigridwatch.com/projects/project-zora-warrick-county-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).