This and that: At the close of September
Zoning codes suggested for data centers in Tippecanoe County. LPD releases body-cam report after man arrested a week ago dies. West Lafayette downtown plan about to expand. And more.
Support for this edition comes from Songwriters Association of Mid-North Indiana and McTavish Productions, presenting an evening with ATLYS and the KASA Quartet on Monday, Oct. 6, at The Arts Federation, 638 North St. in Lafayette. Lafayette native Jinty McTavish returns home with her string quartet ATLYS and friends KASA Quartet, joined by local Indiana artists Scott Greeson, Vickie Maris, and Michael Kelsey for an unforgettable, high-energy evening that you don’t want to miss. Brace yourself for a genre-bending concert that fuses classical mastery with pop, rock, folk and beyond. It’s going to be an epic night, and they can’t wait to share it with you. For tickets, here’s the link or click the flyer below.
This and that at the close of September …
LPD RELEASES VIDEO AMID DEATH INVESTIGATION AFTER MEDICAL EMERGENCY DURING ARREST: The Sunday afternoon death of Lennis Mitchell, 36, of Lafayette, prompted an investigation by the Tippecanoe County coroner and the release by the Lafayette Police Department of a body-cam review of his arrest and subsequent medical emergency nearly a week earlier.
On Monday, police reported that Mitchell was arrested on Sept. 22, after officers responded to a report of a battery in progress at a home in the 1000 block of South Fourth Street. Audio of a 911 call released by LPD indicated that someone reported that a woman had been on a porch calling across the street for someone to call police. Police say they arrested Mitchell on the porch of a nearby home after he ran through several yards, hopping fences as he went.
Mitchell was arrested for domestic battery, confinement, residential entry and resisting law enforcement, accused of breaking into the victim’s home, dragging her by the hair into a yard and beating her.
According to police accounts and from body-cam footage released Monday, Mitchell had complained while being handcuffed and when he was being questioned while seated in the back of a squad car that he was having trouble breathing. Police say officers followed department policy and started driving him to a hospital for a medical evaluation when he became unresponsive. Police say the officer pulled over, took Mitchell from the squad car and gave him CPR until an ambulance arrived. According to police, Mitchell was admitted to the hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. He died at the hospital six days later.
Coroner Carrie Costello reported that an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday.
The Lafayette police released this video with the department’s account of what happened the day of the arrest “to remain open and transparent with our community by sharing the details of what occurred and the actions taken by our officers.”
A FIRST LOOK AT PROPOSED ZONING CODES FOR DATA CENTERS: As Tippecanoe County digs into a review of zoning codes covering utility-scale solar projects – part of a one-year moratorium stirred up in the wake of controversy of the 1,700-acre Rainbow Trout Solar proposal that failed this summer on the western edge of the county – a request went to planners in early September to review other big tech uses. Namely, battery storage facilities and data centers.
The APC Ordinance Committee will get its first look Wednesday at proposed language for how data centers would fit into zoning decisions in the county.
The proposal would define large data centers as networked computer server farms in a grouping of buildings of 5,000 square feet or greater. According to a staff report, large data centers under the current zoning codes “would likely be pigeonholed as ‘computer programming, data processing and other computer related services.’” Those, the report says, are permitted in eight different categories in the current Unified Zoning Ordinance.
The proposal would limit large data centers to I2/industrial zones, with a special zoning exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals and compliance with “industrial performance standards” laid out in the current zoning codes, covering a range of ways to eliminate hazards and nuisances.
Data centers have become a flashpoint in other communities, including one Google proposed and then withdrew a rezoning request for nearly 470 acres on the southeast side of Indianapolis after neighbors protested what was touted as a $1 billion project. The company backed away from the request Sept. 22, as it faced shaky prospects before a City-County Council meeting, where council members headed toward a crucial vote with concerns over electricity and water consumption and limited land left in Marion County, according to reports in the Indianapolis Star.
If the APC Ordinance Committee moves the proposed definition of large data centers to the full Area Plan Commission, it could be considered as soon as the APC’s Oct. 15 meeting.
Also before the APC Ordinance Committee this week …: The committee will hold a public hearing on a proposed expansion of West Lafayette’s Downtown Plan, last updated in 2020, to include additional land south of the city’s Village area near Purdue’s campus.
The city is contemplating adding 82 acres to a block-by-block, 262-acre downtown land use plan, adopted in 2020. The new area includes what the city dubbed the Oakwood Village Neighborhood, which is largely south and west of the Village and Levee areas in the current downtown plan and is seeing increased interest for development.
The proposed plan, requested in April 2024 by the West Lafayette City Council, would lay out guidance on building height, density and uses as rezoning or planned development requests crop up.
For a look at the proposed update to the downtown plan, here’s a link.
If you go: The Area Plan Commission’s ordinance committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.
LAST CALL: In case you’ve been putting it off, the Fall 2025 Sale ends today/Tuesday. Get 20% off your first year of the Based in Lafayette reporting project here …
OTHER READS …
From Associated Press reporters Ben Finley, Konstantin Toropin and Evan Vucci: “President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces, with U.S. military might being deployed against what he described as the ‘invasion from within.’ Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military’s role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to ‘woke’ culture and announced new directives for troops that include ‘gender-neutral’ or ‘male-level’ standards for physical fitness. The dual messages underscored the Trump administration’s efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but enlist military resources for the president’s priorities and in everyday American civic life, including by quelling unrest and violent crime on city streets.” Read more here: “Trump calls for using US cities as ‘training ground’ for armed forces in unusual speech to general.”
On the federal shutdown front, this is from a team of Washington Post reporters: “The federal government is on track to shut down just after midnight Wednesday, as lawmakers in Congress remain at an impasse over dueling funding proposals with no signs of compromise ahead. Republicans have proposed keeping the government funded at current levels through Nov. 21. Democrats insist they cannot support the GOP legislation until Republicans agree to health care policy changes, which Republicans have rejected as a part of a short-term funding extension. President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday morning that the government may fire “a lot” of federal workers if a shutdown goes forward, and later said the shutdown empowered the administration to cut social benefit programs. He blamed Democrats for the possible disruption.” For more: “Government shutdown set to begin overnight as Congress hits impasse.”
Meanwhile, a federal judge ripped into President Donald Trump in a ruling that an effort to deport pro-Palestinian academics is a deliberate attack on free speech meant to “strike fear” into non-citizen students and chill campus protests. Via Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, on a case the centered on pushback by pro-Palestinian activists: “‘The effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day,’ U.S. District Judge William Young concluded, in a scathing, 161-page opinion that he described as the most crucial he’s delivered in his 30 years on the bench. … Perhaps more remarkable than the blistering ruling is Young’s assessment of President Donald Trump himself, condemning him as a bully who “ignores everything,” engages in “hollow bragging” and uses his power and gifts of communication to strip away constitutional rights.” Read the rest here: “Judge excoriates Trump in blistering decision calling efforts to deport pro-Palestinian academics illegal.”
Regarding research funding for universities, including over in West Lafayette, Washington Post reporters Laura Meckler and Susan Svrluga had this over the weekend: “The White House is developing a plan that could change how universities are awarded research grants, giving a competitive advantage to schools that pledge to adhere to the values and policies of the Trump administration on admissions, hiring and other matters. The new system, described by two White House officials, would represent a shift away from the unprecedented wave of investigations and punishments being delivered to individual schools and toward an effort to bring large swaths of colleges into compliance with Trump priorities all at once.” For the rest: “White House considers funding advantage for colleges that align with Trump policies. The proposal could transform the government’s vast research funding operation, which has long awarded university grants based on scientific merit.”
Indianapolis Star reporter Cate Charron had this at the end of a federal fiscal year, as Indiana public radio and television face federal and state cuts: “On the eve of the Trump administration’s Oct. 1 cutoff of support for public media, the question remains: How hard are Indiana’s NPR and PBS stations going to be hit? ‘Things are going to get real in October,’ said Alex Curley, a former NPR staffer who developed a public media finance database, Semipublic, that’s hosted on Substack. As of Sept. 26, at least 18 layoffs have been announced in Indiana, including reporters on a statewide reporting team and at Evansville’s WNIN and South Bend’s WNIT. In June, Lakeshore Public Media also said it would likely need to lay off or reduce the hours of staff, though the number of employees affected is not yet known.” Read the rest here: “’Going to get real’: Indiana public media see layoffs, program cuts as federal money dries up.”
Thanks, again, for support for this edition from Songwriters Association of Mid-North Indiana and McTavish Productions, presenting an evening with ATLYS and the KASA Quartet on Monday, Oct. 6, at The Arts Federation, 638 North St. in Lafayette. Get tickets here.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.