Just months after Gary residents packed a Common Council forum to raise alarms about the prospect of data centers in the city, Mayor Eddie Melton has issued an executive order to pause new data center development in the city for one year.
Gary currently has no data centers that operate within its city limits. The moratorium, he said, will give the city the opportunity to set terms of any future development before a project begins.
“This is not about being against technology or innovation,” Melton said in a statement announcing the order. “It is about making sure Gary does not make a permanent decision about a rapidly evolving industry before we fully understand its long-term consequences.”
Wednesday’s executive order pauses approval of new data center projects while the city studies the industry’s potential effects on the electric grid, water resources, infrastructure, economic development, and residents’ quality of life.
The scope notably extends beyond the city limits and applies to any data center, wherever it is located, that would connect to or increase demand on infrastructure or utilities owned or operated by the city.
The moratorium echoes a proposal raised in March and June, when Gary Advocates for Responsible Development member Carolyn McCrady urged city officials to adopt a one-year moratorium during a Common Council forum on data centers.
“We just don’t have enough transparency right now,” McCrady said at the time.
Melton connected the moratorium explicitly to concerns about electricity demand and grid reliability in the wake of the Aug. 11 derecho that knocked out power across Northwest Indiana. Gary recording the highest outage count of any community in the region.
NIPSCO’s parent company, NiSource, has signed multi-gigawatt contracts to power data centers for Amazon and Google. This comes as concerns rise about whether NIPSCO’s grid, which was severely damaged last month, can handle the load of a data center.
Gary now joins a fast-growing list of Indiana cities and counties that have made moves to restrict or pause data center development this year. With a 23-1 vote last month, Indianapolis’ City-County Council issued a binding moratorium through the end of 2027. The Elkhart City Council also passed a pause on data centers and battery storage applications last month.
Despite issuing the moratorium in Gary, Melton struck an optimistic note about the possibility artificial intelligence offers.
“AI has enormous potential to transform our economy and improve our lives,” he said. “But the speed at which this technology is advancing demands that we ask serious questions about safety, accountability, infrastructure, energy consumption, privacy, and the broader impact on our communities and workforce.”
