META Accused of Being Rotten LEAP Neighbor

The LEAP District is an area in Lebanon that the state of Indiana created to attract large corporations in tech, life sciences, and biotech. The state did this through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. They’ve spent huge amounts of money—your money—on the LEAP District. It’s difficult to get complete information because a lot of the details are somewhat shrouded by the IEDC, but I tried to piece together as much as I could. I’ve also reached out to the mayor of Lebanon, Matt Gentry. He was upset about something I said the other day regarding the water situation tied to Eagle Creek. I invited him to come back on the show to talk about it. We record interviews, and I told him he’s welcome to come on. I haven’t heard back yet, but he’s absolutely invited. If I’ve gotten something wrong, he can come explain it. The article focuses on Meta—Facebook—building what is reportedly about a $10 billion campus in the LEAP District. The story highlights neighbors who have lived in the area for years and now say their lives are being disrupted by the construction. The biggest issues are the noise and the lights. Meta has massive lighting arrays that are apparently on around the clock. One resident said you could probably cover 100 football fields with the number of lights they have set up. Between the constant noise, the lights, and the sound of helicopters, people say they’re getting no sleep. Imagine being in that situation. Say you bought a farmhouse 20 years ago or built a house in a rural field. You might expect development eventually, but you probably didn’t imagine a massive Lilly campus and a giant Meta facility going up nearby. Now there are enormous lights running constantly and nonstop noise. One of the biggest frustrations for residents is that this “progress” is being subsidized by taxpayers. These corporations appear to have little regard for how their projects affect the people who already lived there. People feel like these mega corporations aren’t good neighbors. They don’t feel respected by companies that have moved into areas where families have built their lives and communities for generations. Change is inevitable. But there’s a difference between change and what we’re seeing here. I think about my own experience in Brownsburg. One of my major priorities there was completing Ronald Reagan Parkway from Avon to Brownsburg. The goal was to ease traffic and improve transportation through the area. We also believed the new corridor would encourage quality development—restaurants, shops, businesses that would give people reasons to stay in town and build pride in the community. Instead, the road largely ended up surrounded by bland warehouses, apartment complexes, and giant industrial buildings. The people who came later didn’t care about the original plan or the character of the area. They saw available land and built whatever was profitable. If you drive that road now, it’s mostly warehouses and large buildings with no character. They contribute tax revenue, and I don’t want to dismiss that, but many of those taxes are abated or captured through tax increment financing districts anyway. When I drive that road, it makes me sad. I know what it was supposed to be, and I know what it became. If I had known that outcome, I would never have supported the project. That’s why I can sympathize with people living near the LEAP District. When you take pride in the character of your area and see it change rapidly, it can feel like everything that made the place special is disappearing. These corporations didn’t choose Lebanon because they love the community. They chose it because it offered the best deal. Look at the scale of the Meta complex. According to WTHR, the campus will cover about 1,500 acres and include 13 buildings—ten of them data centers—plus additional facilities for logistics, warehousing, networking, and administration. Think about how large that is. If you picture typical suburban homes built in the 1980s on about a third of an acre, you could fit roughly three homes per acre. Now imagine 1,500 acres of development. That’s enormous. It’s essentially the size of multiple city neighborhoods. Now consider what the public is giving up to make this project happen. From what I’ve been able to gather, Meta received a 35-year state sales tax exemption for at least $1 billion in investment. That exemption could extend to 50 years if certain investment benchmarks are met. So when you buy something, you pay sales tax. Meta doesn’t—for potentially half a century. The city of Lebanon also granted property tax abatements: a 10-year, 50% abatement on real property taxes and a 35-year, 100% abatement on personal property taxes, meaning the equipment and assets inside the buildings won’t be taxed. Combined city and county incentives are estimated at roughly $110 million over 25 years. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation also spent around $60 million in state funds purchasing land and building infrastructure for the district, including about $33 million for water, wastewater, and road projects. And remember, the IEDC also bought large amounts of land to assemble the district in the first place. In addition, the city and county waived about $1.35 million in park fees and building permit fees. That’s a huge amount of public support for a company that can afford to build a $10 billion campus on its own. Then there’s the water issue. Millions of gallons of water are being pumped from Eagle Creek into the district to support these facilities. Residents who rely on wells asked whether they could tap into that water if their wells run dry. The answer was no. Meta and Lilly need it. There’s also a major power demand issue. The facilities require so much electricity that new power infrastructure had to be arranged outside the region. All of this adds up to a government system that seems to prioritize mega corporations over the people who already live in the area. And I genuinely feel bad for the residents whose lives are being disrupted by it.