MARTINSVILLE The proposal for a large data center in rural Morgan County moved one more step towards reality on Monday morning, despite the objections of people in the community.

Two of the three Morgan County commissioners voted in favor of rezoning 158 acres of agricultural land near State Road 42 in Monrovia for an anonymous tech company's data center project. Commissioners approved rezoning 390 acres of the same site for the data center earlier this year.

Before the vote, commissioners heard from more than 20 people in Morgan County who are opposed to the data center. That included the chair of Morgan County's Soil & Water Conservation District, who told commissioners the company behind the data center excluded his department from development meetings.

Kenny Hale, who represents the

See Full Page