Campus will feature four buildings
Google has had the green light from the Metropolitan Development Commission for a data center campus in Franklin Township, Indiana.
The commission voted 8-1 in favor of allowing the project to progress on Wednesday, August 20, reports Mirror Indy.
It will now go to the City-County Council for a final decision, expected in September.
The project is being pursued by Google-affiliated Deep Meadows LLC, with the proposal being submitted in March of this year. Google was confirmed to be behind the project in July 2025.
Dubbed "Project Flo," the campus is proposed for 468 acres of land along I-74 and Post Road. Site plans suggest that four buildings will be developed.
In addition to voting to approve the rezoning request, city staff also voted to approve property tax cuts for 10 years.
Despite the approval, the project is not without its critics. At the meeting, City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart compared the data center to manufacturing plants.
"They have brought, combined, 500 jobs and have abatements for less than seven years, take up a fraction of the space,” said Hart. “In comparison to this proposed data center, which would bring about 50 jobs, consume far more energy, and provide far less in return, both in jobs and tax revenue as a benefit to the community.”
Local residents have expressed concerns about the impact on energy prices, noise pollution, and potential dust caused by the construction.
Franklin Township is located in Marion County, southeast of Indianapolis, where most of the state's data centers are located.
A number of data centers are under construction in Indiana, including Google's $2bn data center campus in Fort Wayne. Rival Amazon Web Services is building a colossal $11bn data center campus in the state.
Source: DCD
