South Bend City Councilman At Large, Dr. Oliver Davis calls for one year data center moratorium in new proclamation
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Dr. Oliver Davis, South Bend City Councilman At Large, called for a one-year moratorium on data centers in the City of South Bend.
Dr. Davis says he chose Earth Day to make this proclamation, citing his concerns for water and energy use if a data center were to come to the city. He tells ABC57 News he will file his proclamation on Monday before the City Council meeting.
Marshall County has placed a permanent ban on data centers.
Now, Dr. Oliver Davis is pushing for a 12 month pause on data centers in the City of South Bend.
"I know some people say that we need to go case by case, but what we need to do is study the whole impact of what data centers are doing in terms of our zoning laws. I’m the chair of the zoning board and also, we need to look at what data is doing in terms of our utilities, our rates, what the potential impact could be in our environment," Davis shared.
He says the one-year pause provides time to have different studies done while the City isn't under the pressure of a proposed data center now.
"Let’s come back, let’s hear from all sides. Let’s look at our unions, let’s look at our farmers, let’s look at the people. Let’s look at our environment.”
St. Joseph County resident and environmentalist, Steve Sass, says he lives out in what he calls 'data center alley,' the western part of the county. He too wants to weigh the best options for the environment and the taxpayers.
"I hope that the city council will give consideration to at least enacting a moratorium so we can pause. We can wait and find out what all the implications are going to be and also come up with a better plan for if we are to approve these things, make them so that they have a minimum amount of environmental and ecological damage and provide the greatest benefits to the taxpayers who live in the city," said Sass.
In his proclamation, Dr. Davis acknowledged South Bend sits directly on a major hydrological boundary known as the St. Lawrence River Divide.
The North-South Continental Divide is the reason the St. Joseph River flows north into Lake Michigan and other waters flow south toward the Mississippi River and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.
"They’re coming at rapid speed, so fast that our laws may not even match up to their issues. We’ve seen the situation that’s happened in the County where this whole issue regarding the sound was not even thought about until afterwards," Davis said.
Sass says be careful where you get your information on data centers.
"There's some good information out there where you can learn more about it. You need to make sure that you're getting your information from an objective source, which is somebody who doesn't stand to profit from the information they're giving you," he explained.
Dr. Davis shared he is also planning public meetings about data centers.
"That's the whole goal. I have already reached out to our utilities chair to make sure that we can have these kinds of meetings our utility committees. So, we have a zoning committee, we have utilities meetings. We have other committees where we can have public discussion," Davis explained.
ABC57 reached out to Mayor James Mueller, but he wasn't available for an interview. However, he did send us a statement.
It reads:
"South Bend residents should not pay for the data center boom through higher bills or irresponsible uses of our natural resources. The decisions that matter most to protect families from rising electric rates are at the state level, where I hope to see continued progress. My position is simple: South Bend ratepayer money should not subsidize trillion-dollar tech companies. That's why the City intervened at the IURC on the generation plan filed to serve these new data centers. The final order provides ratepayer protections: no upfront charges to residents during construction, mandatory public disclosure of residential bill impacts for every new resource, and a new program to cut residential energy costs. A city moratorium can't deliver that kind of progress or protection."
Below is Dr. Davis's proclamation released Wednesday morning: