County Council passes Amazon development agreement 7-2

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Saint Joseph County Council passed the vote 7-2 in Tuesday’s meeting for the development agreement, allowing the 11-billion-dollar Amazon web services data center to officially be built.

“You know, this is an 11-billion-dollar project. You hope to have some questions, but we’re excited about where we are today and again, new construction going to start, then new people are going to start to be employed, great for the community,” said Bill Schalliol, SJC Economic Development Director.

The community also brought up concerns of the community enhancement agreement, a deal that requires Amazon to provide at least 400 jobs, give fees back to the county, invest in water, sewage, and road improvements, among other agreements. Some New Carlisle residents, like Dan Caruso, worry that money will not go back into the New Carlisle community.

“It seems only right to me and 3 or 4 of the council members agreed with me that if we’re the ones that will be the most impacted, it doesn’t make sense to take money that’s coming as part of an enhancement agreement for our community and spending it in some other community in the county,” said Caruso.

Amazon has already started construction on the buildings, mandated to have four of them completed by the end of the year.