Data centers the latest proposal for Elk Grove Twp. subdivision, and homeowners are listening

Three years after plans for a trucking warehouse in an Elk Grove Township residential subdivision got tied up in litigation and the builder backed out, a new developer has proposed a data center campus there - and word is almost all of the homeowners in the tight-knit community may be willing to sell this time.

Dallas-based Stream Data Centers, which already operates two of the computer storage sites in Elk Grove Village, has petitioned village hall for annexation and a special use that would permit operation of three data center buildings and an electric substation in the Roppolo subdivision north of Landmeier Road.

That's where 57 single-family homes - along Roppolo Drive, Dierking Terrace, Richard Lane and Lee Lane - have been left unscathed since the 1950s while industrial and commercial development popped up around them. Multiple attempts by developers over the years to acquire the homes have failed.

However, now officials with Stream Data Centers have informed the village that they've struck agreements with almost all the property owners in Roppolo, and they're making plans to close on the properties in August, according to Mayor Craig Johnson.

The village board last week agreed to the developer's request for a public hearing before the plan commission, as part of the zoning and annexation process. No date for the meeting has been set.

"As we've said from day one, when Stream gets control of the property, then we'll work with them on development of the data center," Johnson said. "Until then, nothing's happening."

"We will not do anything unless they control all the property," said Johnson, though he added there could be some properties that remain on the outskirts and Stream can build beside them.

In 2019, Logistics Property Co. got 23 homeowners to agree to sell their houses to make way for a 210,400-square-foot trucking warehouse on 11.5 acres. But neighbors to the north and west sued - arguing that some properties fall under a 1957 land covenant that says only single-family houses can be built there - and the developer withdrew the proposal.

A call to one of the homeowners involved in that effort wasn't returned.

But it's believed the new developer may have significantly increased offers for the prime real estate.

For the properties Logistics had under contract, offers ranged from $239,500, for vacant land, to $750,000, according to land title documents.

Stream hasn't formally submitted plans at village hall but only conceptually described a proposal that calls for subdividing the neighborhood into four lots for the three data centers and substation serving the campus.