The data center fight in Warrick County, Indiana
As of October 1, 2026, Warrick County, Indiana has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Aug 11, 2026; documented end date 2027-02-07).
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
180-day moratorium, unanimous vote by the three-member Board of Commissioners on Aug 11, 2026 at the Friedman Park Event Center after expected turnout outgrew the usual meeting room. Originated as a recommendation from the Area Plan Commission's Jul 13 hearing, where the APC tabled its own draft ordinance (which would have barred data centers over 40,000 sq ft) for further study and instead recommended a temporary halt. No permit application had been filed for Project Zora as of the vote, and commissioners had declined to sign an NDA with the developer
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
Project Zora — In review
Acres: 300
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.
Next: An application is in the record. Ask the planning office for the next hearing date and request formal notice.
Latest in the record
- 2026-08-11 — 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
- 2026-08-10 — 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
- 2026-07-31 — 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
- 2026-07-30 — 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
- 2026-07-15 — 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
- 2026-07-13 — 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
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-08-14.
Recent news
40 stories tracked since 2025-12-03 across 12 outlets. 30× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 10× 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
+28 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 40 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
Warrick County Board of Commissioners — Zoning/land-use policy including data-center ordinances and moratoria; the Area Plan Commission (APC) and Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) handle permanent zoning text and case-by-case variances/special exceptions, subject to Commissioner approval on ordinance matters.
Meets: Regular meetings on a recurring schedule; specific 2026 meeting dates are posted as a downloadable PDF on the county site rather than a fixed weekly/monthly cadence confirmable here.
Where: Historically held at the county administration building in Boonville, IN; the Aug 11 2026 special moratorium-vote meeting was held at the Friedman Park Event Center, 2700 Park Blvd, Boonville, IN, due to expected turnout.
Public comment: Not explicitly published on the Commissioners page as of this access; the page references an ADA Complaint Procedure document but no standing public-comment rule for regular meetings. The Area Plan Commission's rules of procedure (linked from warrickcounty.gov/area-plan) may govern comment periods for zoning hearings specifically.
info@warrickcounty.gov · 812-897-6120 · 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sarah Seaton | County Commissioner, District 1 (Board President as of the July 2026 APC hearing per news report) | info@warrickcounty.gov | 812-897-6120 | At the July 13 2026 Area Plan Commission hearing, warned against an extended moratorium, saying an overly long pause could cost the county future opportunity because "two years is a lifetime" in the technology sector. |
| Terry Phillippe | County Commissioner, District 2 | terry@warrickcounty.gov | 812-897-6120 | not recorded |
| Stacey Franz | County Commissioner, District 3 | info@warrickcounty.gov | 812-897-6120 | not recorded |
| Chris Whetstine | County Council Member, District 1 | cwhetstine@warrickcounty.gov | 812-453-0531 | not recorded |
| Richard Reid | County Council Member, District 2 | rreid@warrickcounty.gov | 812-455-2525 | not recorded |
| Greg Richmond | County Council Member, District 3 | grichmond@warrickcounty.gov | 812-573-9085 | not recorded |
| Robert Dimmett | County Council Member, District 4 | rdimmett@warrickcounty.gov | 812-305-2749 | not recorded |
| Pat A. Brooks | County Council Member, At-Large | pbrooks@warrickcounty.gov | 812-455-6033 | not recorded |
| Brad Overton | County Council Member, At-Large | boverton@warrickcounty.gov | 812-204-5262 | not recorded |
| Ron Bacon | County Council Member, At-Large | rbacon@warrickcounty.gov | 812-618-5019 | 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
- New Albany (80 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-16
- Clarksville (84 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Jeffersonville (85 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-04
- Clark County (87 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Putnam County (111 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-17
- Vermillion County (122 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Indianapolis (Marion County) (131 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-12-31
- Boone County (142 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-15
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.