It is possible the Joliet City Council as early as next month could vote on a controversial proposal for a data center campus that could consist of 24 buildings on 800 acres of farmland east of the Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR racetrack.
If this 200,000-square-foot project in District 5 comes to fruition, city officials said it would be one of the largest types of data centers in the Chicago region.
The Joliet City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, has been canceled because of the primary election. State law prohibits holding public meetings when elections are occurring in Illinois. The next council meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7. It is not known if the data center proposal will be voted on that night.
With AI technology growing rapidly a need for data centers are needed in its continued development. These physical structures house computing infrastructure like servers, storage and networking that 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 Joliet project was proposed by Hillwood, a Perot company located in Texas. If approved, the data center development campus would be located on Schweitzer, Ridge and Millsdale roads. Hillwood has not said which companies would be tenants on site.
To familiarize the community with what is being proposed Hillwood launched a Joliet Center Technology Web site called Yes to Joliet Jobs. The Web site claims the project will create between 7,000 and 10,000 construction jobs and a $20 billion investment “in the local economy that strengthens Joliet’s future.” But what they didn’t say is that once the construction is done those jobs will go away. During an informational meeting open to the community at JJC in February residents were able to voice their concerns and ask Hillwood representatives questions about the project. It was said when asked about what kind of ongoing employment they would be hiring for if project was approved it was said that most of the jobs would likely be for building and ground maintenance.
There are residents expressing environmental concerns such as increase in pollution and fossil fuel usage, possible health issues and soaring electricity costs that is required to power and cool the centers as reasons for why the project has no merit in the community.
According to Yes to Joliet Jobs Web site, Joliet Technology Center will be delivered by Hillwood and PowerHouse Data Centers, which is being described as one of the country’s foremost developers of modern digital infrastructure and a leader in delivering data centers at scale.
While Joliet Plan Commission last week gave their approval to send the data center proposal for city council vote, nearby communities like Naperville in January denied a proposed 200,000-square-foot project near residential areas because of the noise, utility cost, and environmental concerns.
Last year, Aurora, who already has four data centers, has placed a moratorium on such warehouses because of complaints from residents.
Joliet resident Juan Camacho said he wants the city council to vote against the proposal.
“There are too many unknowns, especially if our electric bills will increase dramatically,” he said. “Once these warehouses are built, there won’t be well-paying jobs as they are driven by artificial intelligence.”
Laura Jackson of Joliet worries the water supply could be compromised.
“We cannot set our community back just for some construction or janitorial jobs,” she said. “Once these developers are gone, we have to live with the problems.”
Jim Nowicki of Joliet said one cannot place a price on people’s health.
“This has so many unknowns,” he said. “What if it causes cancer? Please, please take your time on this before rushing into this. It is our quality of life that will be compromised.”
