People Power Wins: Forests for All Helps Lead Uprising to Stop Pike Township Data Center

The news broke yesterday—and it's a big win: American Tower Corporation, a nearly $82-billion corporate giant, has withdrawn its petition to rezone land in northwest Indianapolis for a medium-sized data center. After three months of relentless organizing, Forests For All helped build the people-powered coalition that stopped the rezoning and protected Crooked Creek forest.

In November, Forests for All Co-Directors Mike Oles and Jeff Stant—alongside Pike Township Trustee Annette Johnson and veteran environmental organizer Megan Anderson—met with American Tower Corporation lawyers over Zoom. We didn't mince words. We warned the out-of-towners that Indianapolis was already in open rebellion against data centers and that even a “smaller” project—especially one proposed in the middle of a forest—would face fierce local resistance.

ATC didn't really understand what we were talking about, it seems.

With few resources but a lot of heart, the grassroots campaign sprang to life. Our petition drove more than 1,000 residents to contact Mayor Joe Hogsett and their respective City Councilors. Several hundred constituents each flooded the offices of Leroy Robinson—the councilor whose district includes the proposed data center—and Carlos Perkins, whose district borders the site, with emails.

Two large public meetings were held, both reaching standing-room-only capacity. Both meetings also received significant local media attention. At the second meeting, held in mid-January, ATC presented its case. They were nearly booed off the stage and jeered as they left.

We tried to warn them that this wasnt going to be popular.

The proposed rezoning site is near Crooked Creek, directly across from a stretch of forest that had already been heavily cleared for an unpopular subdivision. Crooked Creek is designated as a Marion County conservation corridor, and the land slated for the data center is explicitly listed as "environmentally sensitive" in the city's comprehensive plan. Just last year, the city refused to rezone a plot of land that had similar forest, located two miles downstream from here.

This is a massive victory for our city's environment, forests, and neighborhoods.