Snow, Culp Speak Out on Data Centers
Published: Friday, March 28, 2025
As data centers and solar farms advance across the Hoosier landscape, state lawmakers are concerned about the loss of prime farmland.
Indiana has lost almost 350,000 acres of farmland since 2010. That's almost 29,000 acres per year.
During a legislative breakfast last Wednesday at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Rep. Craig Snow (R-Warsaw) and Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer) offered their viewpoints on how to balance economic development with agricultural production.
Both Snow and Culp believe prime farmland is worth protecting, but the reality is that data centers and solar farms are coming; Indiana has to adapt.
Earlier this year, Snow introduced HB 1628, which would have shifted control of major infrastructure projects, like data centers and solar farms, from local to state government. The idea was to locate such projects in areas that would minimize the loss of farmland. However, the bill failed to get a hearing.
"We never got it to the point where we could have meaningful conversations around it, because it was so negative right out of the gate," Snow said.
Rep. Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso) offered an amendment that would have prohibited data centers from being built on land with the most productive soil types, thereby steering them toward marginal soils.
"Everybody was so against the thought of loss of local control," Culp said. "That amendment didn't really get seen."
Culp said that bill, while not likely to be considered again during this legislative session, might have another chance next year.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on a proposal to rezone over 500 acres of land for a data center in northern Kosciusko County. The area plan commission could vote as early as next Wednesday on a petition to rezone the land near Clunette from agriculture to Industrial 3.
"We've got a decision to make that's on the table right now," Snow said, "and our county commissioners, county council—they're all talking. I've been thinking about them a lot, trying to figure out what they're going to do and how they're going to handle this. I would advocate to say that we don't want to take up prime farm ground for data centers or any kind of energy generation operation."
Snow said he's not against data centers and solar farms, but he expressed concern with the amount of energy they require.
"I'm not against energy-generation-type projects," he said. "I don't like the renewable stuff, I'll be honest. But we've got to figure out what are the needs of Indiana by the way of electricity. Right now, we generate about 80% of our required needs in the state of Indiana, so we pay to import energy."
He said the goal of any possible state legislation would be to balance four things: private property rights, local control, a statewide energy plan and economic development.
Culp believes private property rights are paramount.
"If you're the farmer who wants to put a data center on your farm and you sell your property, I think we all have to ask ourselves, what's the role of county government? To say yes or to say no to that. Where do property rights start and stop, and where does local control enter into it? Those are the two things that, if they work together, we have zoning. That's what zoning is."
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