MARTINSVILLE — The proposal for a large data center in rural Morgan County moved one more step towards reality on Monday morning, despite the objections of people in the community.
Two of the three Morgan County commissioners voted in favor of rezoning 158 acres of agricultural land near State Road 42 in Monrovia for an anonymous tech company's data center project. Commissioners approved rezoning 390 acres of the same site for the data center earlier this year.
"This thing has immense possibilities for what this county can become, and you'll just have to trust us," said Morgan County Commissioner Don Adams before casting a yes vote on the rezoning. "Even if you don't trust me, you'll have to."
Before the vote, commissioners heard from more than 20 people in Morgan County who are opposed to the data center.
"We need housing, we need community, we need all of those things, but we do not need data, said Carrie Syczylo of Martinsville.
"I may spend the rest of my life looking across the street at a massive berm and a 65-foot-tall industrial building," added Sean Walker, who lives next to the proposed data center site.
The opposition included Doug Peine, the chair of Morgan County's Soil & Water Conservation District. Peine told commissioners the company behind the data center excluded his department from development meetings.
"All the questions these folks are asking, we would have asked as a government entity," Peine said. "We were not included in any of the meetings where any of this limited information was brought to bear."
Kenny Hale, who represents the area where the data center would be built, was the lone commissioner to vote against the rezoning. Hale told the crowd he voted against the addition so the unnamed company could prove they could be good neighbors to the people who live next to the potential data center site.
The commissioners' vote follows the Morgan County Plan Commission's approval of the additional rezoning last week.
There is no known timeline for when construction could begin.
