St. Joseph County Council candidate petitions for pause on data center permits

St. Joseph County Council candidate Jan Cervelli has made data centers a central issue in her campaign, presenting a petition to the council calling for a temporary pause on hyperscale data center permits larger than 5,000 square feet within the county. Cervelli, who is challenging former County Council President Dan Schaetzel, stated the need to "take a pause and look at what we've already put together and what's under construction, and look at the impact of those projects on our environment, on the economy, on the people here." The petition additionally advocates for the establishment of a special public utility commission. This commission would be tasked with studying the environmental and economic impacts of data centers and publishing its findings for public consumption. Cervelli's objective is to allow the county time to develop governmental policies that offer greater protections against the heavy industrial use presented by hyperscale data centers.