Naperville Kills Karis Data Center After Resident Revolt

Naperville slammed the brakes on a proposed data center this week, rejecting a project that had become one of the most contentious land use fights the Chicago suburb has seen in years.

After months of organized opposition from nearby residents, the City Council voted 6 to 1 to block Karis Critical’s plan for a data center near Naperville and Warrenville roads. The Daily Herald reported that neighbors warned the facility would overwhelm local power infrastructure, generate constant noise and introduce diesel emissions into an area surrounded by housing. Most council members ultimately agreed.

“All the neighbors have been exhausted by this process,” said James Butt, a nearby resident and technologist who has consulted for data center operators. “I know that everyone is relieved.”

The site sits amid a growing cluster of residential neighborhoods, a key factor in the council’s decision. Several members argued that while data centers are increasingly essential infrastructure, this location was a poor fit — particularly as Illinois grapples with grid constraints and surging demand from hyperscale users.

Council member Supna Jain cited uncertainty around future electricity availability and cost, noting that neither ComEd’s system nor the city’s municipal utility has unlimited capacity. Approving the project, she said, could crowd out other development along the I-88 corridor or saddle the city with costly upgrades.

The developer had already scaled back its ambitions. Naples, Florida-based Karis reduced the proposal to a roughly 145,000-square-foot facility and agreed to cap power usage at 36 megawatts under a negotiated development agreement. That translated to about 24 megawatts of information technology load, according to project attorney Russ Whitaker. The revision also cut the number of diesel generators on site from 24 to 16, 12 of them dedicated to backup power.

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 Elk Grove Village, and an office tower in downtown Chicago sold last year to a Virginia company planning to convert it into a 33-megawatt data center.

Whitaker asked the council to delay a vote so that updated air dispersion modeling could be presented, arguing the reduced scope materially changed emissions assumptions. Mayor Scott Wehrli supported tabling the decision, calling it premature for a project pegged as a half-billion-dollar investment. The effort failed. Wehrli and council member Nate Wilson abstained, while council member Josh McBroom cast the lone vote against rejection.

The concerns went beyond scale. Opponents argued the project conflicted with the city’s own master plan, which envisions medium-density residential development on the property. Council member Ian Holzhauer pointed to Naperville’s housing shortage, suggesting the land could ultimately have more public benefit as homes rather than servers.

Karis said it is reassessing its options. A spokesperson told the publication that the firm had committed to investing hundreds of millions into a “best-in-class” facility and is now evaluating other sites across the region.

— Eric Weilbacher