‘This is a hot topic’: Lake County panel to consider data center impacts

A Lake County Board committee plans to discuss the potential impacts of data centers and possible ways to slow their development.

“This is a hot topic right now,” said Marah Altenberg, a Lake County Board member from Buffalo Grove and chair of the board’s planning, building, zoning and environment committee.

She said with the aggressive emergence of artificial intelligence, county officials “need to be prepared and understand the ramifications of bringing data centers into our area.”

The subject was raised Wednesday by committee member Paul Frank.

“It’s really disturbing to me these centers are popping up and having such an impact on energy usage,” he said at the end of meeting.

“It’s coming up all over the country,” Altenberg replied. “It’s something we should look into.”

County staff is in the early stages of researching issues and how other areas are handling the emergence of the new technology. The topic is expected to be put on a committee agenda for discussion in early to mid-2026, Altenberg said Friday.

“The environmental issues alone that (data centers) can bring are worrisome and need to be addressed,” she said. Among them is the carbon footprint, which the county has been working to decrease, Altenberg added.

In committee, Frank asked about a moratorium but learned the county only can defer action on applications for 120 days.

Lake County only has jurisdiction in unincorporated areas. A project under construction in Grayslake is the only data center project in the county the committee is aware of, according to Altenberg.

In Grayslake, the first of potentially up to 18 data center buildings totaling more than 10 million square feet on more than 400 acres are being built in the Cornerstone business park at Peterson and Allegheny roads.

“It’s a huge draw on resources no matter how you look at it,” said county board and committee member John Wasik, a Grayslake resident.

Last month, the village posted a frequently asked questions document on its website regarding the approved T5 data center project.

Questions about water and electricity use, noise and other considerations about proposed data centers have been raised throughout the region.

Such concerns, for example, led Aurora’s city council in September to enact a six-month temporary zoning moratorium on data centers as well as warehouses to ensure the proper regulations are in place.

According to the watchdog Citizens Utility Board, data centers can result in increases on the delivery part of electricity bills if ComEd has to build infrastructure to support them.

CUB says it tries to limit those types of costs but suggests other reforms such as creating separate rate classes and other measures to ensure the costs of upgrades to serve data centers don’t fall unfairly on everyone else.