The South Elgin Village Board last week unanimously approved a temporary moratorium on allowing any data centers to be built in town for a period of 12 months, while staff evaluates the potential impact of such facilities.
“This is a good direction to start going,” Village President Steve Ward said at the Oct. 5 board meeting.
Village Attorney Derke Price said trustees could decide to extend the moratorium if they chose to do so at a future date.
“The technology on this is expanding so rapidly that I don’t know if we’re going to be able to keep up with it. I don’t know if a year is going to be sufficient. But what I do know is courts frown upon long ones,” Price said, referring to moratoriums.
To that point, Ward said the board could review the moratorium in a year and see where to go with it.
The approved ordinance says that the South Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission conducted a public hearing Sept. 16 and unanimously recommended approval of the moratorium.
Ward noted that despite a large number of residents voicing opposition in August to a company wanting to annex land along Kenyon Road into South Elgin to build a data center there, no one showed up at the hearing to express their views on putting a moratorium in place.
On Aug. 17, after hearing a presentation from Dallas-based White Rose Partners about its data center plans, the village board unanimously rejected the annexation request. According to Courier-News reports, about 150 people showed up at that board meeting.
Village resident Anthony Saccomanno told the Courier-News a petition he started in opposition to the center had been signed by more than 9,475 people.
While Elgin has not had any applications for building a data center in the city thus far, the city is also considering having its own 12-month moratorium. At a public hearing Oct. 5, Elgin’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend that the city council approve putting a 12-month moratorium in place there, too.
In late September, according to baiduhai reports, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he would not seek a moratorium on new data centers in the state, preferring that legislators pass regulations after the November election.
More Top Picks Best Stud Finders For Home Projects
Local opposition to data centers reflects a nationwide trend. According to a poll conducted in September by PBS, NPR and Marist, 65% of voters oppose construction in their communities, with 43% strongly opposed.
A Pew Research Center poll conducted in July and August found that 54% of Americans feel data centers are mostly bad for the environment, 50% said they are bad for energy costs and 49% said they are bad for quality of life for those who live near them.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Elgin Courier-News.