Sentinel Data Center: Project Shirley, Hebron, Indiana

The Lake County Council voted 6-0 on June 9, 2026, to rezone a 162-acre farm site near Hebron and Lowell in unincorporated Eagle Creek Township, Lake County, Indiana, for Sentinel Data Centers' proposed $5 billion data center, known as Project Shirley. The site lies on the south side of State Road 2, just east of Clay Street and nearly two miles east of Interstate 65.

The New York-based company plans a 500-megawatt center of four buildings, in a township of about 1,700 people. Much of the argument has been about the utility: regulators approved a NIPSCO subsidiary, NIPSCO Generation LLC, that negotiates data center contracts confidentially and has funded new gas generation for Amazon projects.

Opposition organized fast, with a Facebook group passing a thousand members within weeks, and after a February hearing Sentinel postponed the rezoning vote to May. "The reason I think people are so skeptical and have pushed back with such fervor is because they've been lied to so many times," said Randy Niemeyer, a Lake County councilmember who sits on the plan commission. In May the plan commission took the unusual step of sending the rezoning to the council with "no recommendation."

Opponents packed the council meeting in Crown Point, but the vote passed before many in the standing-room audience realized it. Sentinel must still win a special exception and site development plan approval under the county's data center ordinance, which sets noise limits, setbacks and electricity and water rules, before it can build.