By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
LEESBURG — Weeks of speculation about a proposed data center northwest of Leesburg came into focus Tuesday night at a large meeting held at Clunette United Methodist Church.
What’s now apparent is that the plan would involve some 500 acres of farmland and that the Kosciusko County Plan Commission will consider some kind of plan at a meeting at the Kosciusko County Courthouse at 1 p.m. April 2.
Based on what was said Tuesday, the plan commission is being asked to rezone a large chunk of property to industrial.
The church was packed with nearly 200 who were nearly unanimously opposed to they plan.
The meeting was organized by a group called Keep Leesburg Rural, which has a page on Facebook.
There is also an online petition against the data center on change.org with nearly 1,000 signatures as of early Wednesday morning.
The group is driven by a desire to protect farmland and voiced specific concerns Tuesday about what some believe would be a vast amount of water and electricity needed to operate the data center.
At least one plan commission member and a few elected officials attended the meeting.
News Now Warsaw was not in attendance and relied on a source who provided details.
