After a five-hour-plus public hearing on Monday, judgment day finally arrived as the Joliet City Council on Thursday voted to approve the conditional annexation of the proposed data center campus that would be on approximately 795 acres of property currently outside the city’s boundaries.
Because the meeting went past midnight Monday and municipalities cannot hold meetings on Primary Day, the Joliet City Council recessed the meeting until Thursday.
Voting in favor of the project were Council members Larry Hug, District 1; Pat Mudron, District 2; Sherri Reardon, District 3; Cesar Cardenas, District 4; and Joe Clement, Juan Moreno and Jan Quillman, council members at large. The only member to vote against the project was Suzanna Ibarra, whose 5th District the project is located.
Cardenas said he voted based on what he thought was best for the city.
“My decisions come from what I believe is right,” said Cardenas.
“My loyalty is to the residents of District 5 for first and always,” added Ibarra. “The voices of the people have not been accurately reflected. Residents I see you and see your concerns.”
The project would consist of 24 buildings on nearly 800 acres of farmland east of the Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR racetrack, and the 200,000-square-foot project in District 5 would be one of the largest type of data centers in the Chicago region.
Data centers are a dedicated physical facility housing computing infrastructure like servers, storage and networking. It also stores, processes and distributes an organization’s critical data and applications that are essential for modern digital services. They are considered the backbone of the digital economy, enabling everything from social media and online banking to advanced AI.
The project in Joliet is owned by Hillwood, and the data center development campus would be located on Schweitzer, Ridge and Millsdale roads. Hillwood has yet to say which companies would be located on site.
During the lengthy public hearing, residents’ concerns were over high electricity rates, jobs only for lower-wage workers like landscapers and environmental issues associated with the project such as noise and water pollution from the data centers as 150,000 gallons of water usage will be capped per day. Many of the residents urged the council to postpone a decision for the sake of transparency and oversight.
On Thursday, Union members came early and filled the council chambers nearly to capacity in a show of support for the project.
Doc Gregory, president of Will-Grundy Building Trades, which has about 25,000 members, said “union jobs matter to the community.”
Residents who will live near the project are extremely concern how it will impact their lives. Abby, who didn’t give her last name from Elwood, said the city cannot put a price on people’s lives that could be impacted by possible health issues.
“What happens to people’s wells in Elwood or Manhattan?” she questioned, wondering if the aquifers will dry up from the data center usage.
Joliet resident Brandi Galena urged Mayor Terry D’Arcy to carefully consider his constituents before voting.
“I believe this is war for everything we stand for,” she said. “They are going to use us up and turn around and use (the data center) against us.”
Bonnie Larson of Joliet said she too is concerned about possible air, water and noise pollution.
“I get so scared for the people,” she said, adding residents’ concerns have been placed at the wayside.
Sean Miller of Bolingbrook said since AI is a speculation bubble, why utilize valuable land for a product that will not bring return on investment.
“In Bolingbrook, a developer in 2023 built warehouses across the street from my sister’s school,” he said. “To date, there are no tenants. You may sit on land where you don’t see compensation for years.”
As part of the zoning process, developers are studying land use matters such as building size, traffic impacts, noise mitigation, environmental considerations, and infrastructure capacity.
The developer will be required to obtain City Council approval of a final planned unit development plat for each phase of development, before building permits for data center buildings are issued, according to city officials.
They insist the city is also negotiating an annexation and development agreement that would bring the property into the city. This agreement will address infrastructure responsibilities and roadway improvements; water and sewer service, including usage limits to protect city resources; community benefit contributions to offset impacts on public services and infrastructure; development fees and charges; traffic study requirements; emergency services planning; construction standards and timelines; and ongoing maintenance obligations. ComEd representatives reassured the audience that grids are sufficient for continued reliability of the system.
Hillwood financial projections state the city could generate $305.7 million in new property taxes reflecting taxes generated by the general and fire protection tax rates from 2028 to 2057. Also, the project has the potential to generate more than $2 billion in sales tax revenues for the city, according to developers.
