A large, animated crowd waving “No Data Centers” signs filled the PCC gymnasium on Thursday night.

Yet it wasn’t enough to change the minds or the votes of the Hobart Plan Commission.

A majority of the plan commission voted ‘yes’, approving a request by petitioner Todd Leeth for a fill permit at an 168-acre parcel located south of the 61st Avenue and Arizona Street intersection.

Leeth, an attorney representing Hobart Devco, LLC., proposed a data center to be built on the site.

Plan Commission president Maria Galka said at the end of the meeting that the vote count was 8-1 in favor, on the nine-member board.

Due to the noise and confusion at the end of the meeting, the exact numbers — and a possible abstention by one member — were still being checked via the Zoom video, a planning depa

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