A Seattle-based corporation (Sabey) is looking to build a 900,000 sq. ft. data center in our community, Decatur Township. We are fighting it with everything we have, now including legal action.

Donate today to support the costs of legal retainer. Our legal counsel will support in sorting through Sabey’s lawyer-written, carefully-worded documents and will help us take any further steps needed to fight this proposal. Neighbors have taken on financial responsibility to hire this lawyer, and they need your financial support in bearing the costs. It’s up to us to support our community and fight Sabey with everything we have.

It’s time that our community fights back with legal action, following in the footsteps of the dozen other communities that have recently successfully defeated data centers in Indiana. This company thinks we are powerless, and it’s time to show them that Decatur is strong and never backs down from a fight.

This facility would consume 250 megawatts of electricity, and is the largest data center Sabey has ever proposed. The increasing use of AI is driving companies to pollute small, residential communities like ours with massive buildings that house servers to store, manage, and process large amounts of data. These out-of-state, out-of-touch companies are coming in to our town with zero regard to the impact on the lives of the people that live here.

Research shows that data centers increase local electric utility rates by driving up overall energy demand, which can strain grid capacity and force utilities to invest in costly infrastructure upgrades. These costs are passed on to residents through higher rates. Read more: https://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu/sites/stpp/files/2025-07/stpp-data-centers-2025.pdf

There are additionally increasing concerns about pollution and the severe health impacts that may result from air and water pollution from this data center through power usage and chemical emissions.

Protect Decatur Township is a community-based group that has spent over two months knocking on doors, giving out “no data center” signs, and informing the community through social media and our website protectdecaturtownship.org.

Sabey filed this as a variance (they want to bend the zoning rules) rather than a rezoning (which would have made new zoning rules for the area). This means that our City-County Council gets no vote on this matter. We believe Sabey filed this way intentionally to bypass our elected officials and mow over our community having a say.