Suburban Pushback Slows Chicago’s Data Center Boom

Data centers have become one of the hottest plays in Chicagoland’s industrial market, but some suburban communities are pumping the brakes.

Aurora’s city council approved a 180-day moratorium on new data centers and warehouses in September, citing the need to study zoning standards and environmental impacts. The pause comes after residents complained about persistent noise from diesel generators and HVAC systems tied to existing data centers, the Daily Herald reported.

“It’s just trying to give us time to make sure that we have the proper guardrails in place,” Mayor John Laesch told the outlet.

In Naperville, city officials are considering a similar step. Councilman Ian Holzhauer said the city should coordinate with peer communities to set consistent regional standards rather than “reinvent the wheel.” The Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force has called for a six-month pause, warning that a proposed data center by developer Karis Critical would consume more than 10 percent of the city’s peak electricity demand.

A flurry of data center moves in Aurora and across the Chicago area may account for the hesitancy. Five data centers have already gone up in Aurora, with five more entitled and two new applications filed just before the moratorium took effect. Developers have clustered data centers in recent years near O’Hare International Airport, especially in adjacent Elk Grove Village, and an office tower in downtown Chicago recently sold to a Virginia company planning to convert it into a 33-megawatt data center.

Karis, which plans a 36-megawatt facility on 40 acres at the former Lucent campus, pushed back. Company spokesman Patrick Skarr said Naperville already retooled its zoning in 2023 to allow the city to impose conditions on data center projects. The developer pledged to offset 100 percent of its IT power load with renewable energy credits.

Across the region, the data center debate has become a test of how far suburbs are willing to go to accommodate energy-hungry infrastructure. Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, who chairs the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus’ energy committee, said that along with the revenue and capacity data centers bring, they also stress existing resources.

Aurora’s temporary pause could be extended as officials weigh new zoning rules and long-term infrastructure costs. Developers such as CyrusOne, which operates in the city, say they’re cooperating with local leaders to install sound walls and noise-mitigation systems.

— Eric Weilbacher