Meta Jeffersonville data center, Jeffersonville, Indiana

Jeffersonville's city council voted 8-0 on August 3, 2026 to ban new data centers in the city for one year, but the ban does not reach Meta's $800 million data center already under construction at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Clark County. That site sits on former Indiana Army Ammunition Plant land, where federal and state military reuse law gives zoning authority to the River Ridge Development Authority instead of the city.

"River Ridge has the ultimate say in the uses that go in that district," said Chad Reischl, Jeffersonville's planning and zoning director, and city attorney Les Merkley said the moratorium would not reach the commerce center because its own board approves its own development.

Talks with Meta began before the pandemic and resumed in late 2021 under the code name Project Slugger, said Marc Hildenbrand, the development authority's executive director. In 2022 the city council approved a development agreement with a company called Blocke LLC and a 35-year exemption from personal property tax on Meta's equipment, networking systems and generators, and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation added a 35-year sales tax exemption that can grow to 50 years as Meta invests more.

The land sale closed in 2023 and Meta announced the project in early 2024; Jeffersonville's own development ordinance leaves permitted uses in the River Ridge district to whatever the authority approves, so there was never a city public hearing.

Residents told the council in August 2026 they felt bamboozled by those closed 2022 negotiations, which produced a promise of about 100 permanent jobs and a heavy call on local infrastructure. They described generator testing loud enough to count as noise pollution and heat from the site affecting their air conditioning. Some said contracts give Meta's water supply precedence over residential supply in a disaster; WAVE, the station that reported the meeting, said it had seen no such contract and was seeking clarification.

The organizing had started the previous fall: Hoosier Action and Clark County Moms brought residents together in early October 2025 to go through what the project would consume. "When they just hear how much water this could be using, like up to five million gallons of water a day," said Hoosier Action's Laxmi Mpalde, "people are usually really concerned and frustrated."

Alyssa Holland of Clark County Moms said it was alleged there would be 1,200 construction jobs, but "all those employees are from other regions," and the groups pointed to Newton County, Georgia, where residents say data centers strained the water supply and raised energy bills.

Rachel Wurfel, who lives in Jeffersonville, told a public meeting that Meta's construction had damaged homes in her neighborhood; Hildenbrand said Meta had followed the blasting permit rules and that monitoring showed impacts well below the threshold. The city put the wastewater department's upfront capacity fees from Meta at $4 million and expected sewer revenue at $300,000 to $400,000 a month once the site operates.

Council member Jackie Snelling stretched the proposed six-month ban to a full year, running to August 3, 2027, so the planning commission can write permanent rules before the state legislature returns, and council member Dustin White has proposed a special overlay district requiring berms and buffers between data centers and homes. Hildenbrand said it is highly unlikely the commerce center will take another large data center, and the Meta site is expected to be operational by the end of 2027.