Elgin council seeks 1-year moratorium on data center development

Despite not yet receiving any interest in building data centers in Elgin, the city council gave preliminary approval to a one-year moratorium on their development.

Council members Tish Powell and John Steffen raised the issue for discussion during a committee of the whole meeting last week.

The council’s preliminary vote on the proposed moratorium was unanimous. Members will take a final vote at a future city council meeting.

Last week, Powell said that while she wasn’t against data centers, “I have some serious concerns.”

“Data centers are, fortunately or unfortunately, part of our economy, and they can bring significant investment, construction activity, and tax revenue to communities, and I don't think we should minimize those potential benefits,” Powell said.

But she said the council has a duty not to be short-sighted about the consequences of data centers. It should consider “not only the immediate investment but the long-term impacts on our residents, our infrastructure, environment and on our community,” Powell said.

“The goal of this moratorium is to give us an opportunity to understand this rapidly changing industry, make deliberate decisions about where these facilities belong in our community, what protections Elgin should have in place before any projects move forward,” Powell said.

Though Elgin has yet to receive an application for a data center, neighboring communities have rallied against them, including an application in South Elgin that the village board denied following an uproar by residents.

Last year, Aurora enacted a 180-day moratorium on new data center and warehouse developments until the city could create a new ordinance package, which was passed in March.

The Aurora ordinance updated zoning standards and required city council approval for all new data centers. It also requires prospective data centers to conduct sound level studies and resource consumption reports, while also lowering maximum sound levels.

“Seeing what Aurora did and the comprehensiveness of what they did spurred me to want to put some guardrails in place,” said Steffen, adding the city should “try to have some rules and processes and requirements in place before we get our first application, then we're trying to scramble and figure out what’s going on.”

Mayor David Kaptain said he supports a moratorium simply because “technology is outstripping us as human beings, and we can’t keep up with it.”

“We’ve got to slow things down a little bit,” Kaptain said. “It would give us time to see what the state’s going to do, what may come from the federal government or other communities.”

Powell said the pause could end sooner than 12 months if an ordinance is crafted and agreed upon.

“A moratorium is not a ban,” Powell said. “And we may not necessarily be able to outright ban data centers. But we can and should regulate them.”

rwest@dailyherald.com