Residents express concerns about data centers at meeting in Aurora

More than four dozen Fox Valley residents, including nearly 20 from Aurora, gathered this week at the Santori Public Library in downtown Aurora to discuss the impact of data centers in the area.

Residents expressed frustration with rising utility costs they believe are tied to data centers and an alleged lack of transparency in the development of the facilities, among other concerns raised at the Monday, Sept. 14, event hosted by the Sierra Club Valley of the Fox Group.

Kane County Board member Mavis Bates, chair of the Sierra Club Valley of the Fox Group, said attendance at the event — one of the highest Bates has seen at a meeting of the group — reflects the spike in resident concerns about data centers this year.

“You can tell by the folks who showed up today that data centers and the impact on our communities are on their minds,” said state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, a Democrat from Batavia, who attended the meeting. “Everyone’s energy costs are going through the roof right now.”

Proponents of data centers have spoken in favor of the potential jobs and property tax revenue data centers can bring. Officials in Robbins, Illinois, for example, recently said they are open to data center development in their area due to the tax revenue it could bring in.

The Fox Valley has OK’d several major data center facilities, including the CyrusOne data center at the corner of Eola and Diehl roads in Aurora, and the planned Batavia DC Corp. development in Batavia.

In response to resident complaints, the city of Aurora adopted strict new regulations on data centers in March, which set standards around energy and water use plus noise and other emissions.

The Monday event included speakers from the Sierra Club, Citizens Utility Board, Prairie Rivers Network and the Illinois Environmental Council, who asked residents to support state legislation called the POWER Act aiming to regulate data centers, which Aurora Mayor John Laesch said would be similar to Aurora’s own regulations but at the state level.

Residents asked questions at the meeting about the impact of data centers, why utility costs are rising, how to protect their land from data center development and more.

Aurora resident Mary Goetsch said she is concerned about the increased power usage data centers have brought to the region and wondered if she could make a difference by changing her own energy use.

Batavia resident Silvia Pelech said she was “shocked” by how quickly Batavia city officials approved the new data center development at 1780 Hubbard Ave.

Speakers at the event discussed how they believe data centers impact air, water, land, climate, public health, utility bills and communities in general.

Jizelle Torres, from the Prairie Rivers Network, said the growing use of artificial intelligence has drawn water-intensive data centers to regions where the resource is abundant, such as the Great Lakes, but said that communities do not have the capacity to support the industry sustainably.

Zoe Huspen, the Carbon Free Coordinator with the Citizens Utility Board, and Aaron Wang, with the Illinois Environmental Council, said data centers use massive amounts of energy, which drives up electricity rates for neighbors and nearby residents.

Bates and Laesch, who attended the event, both said utility rate costs have been the number one complaint they hear from residents about data centers.

“It’s about affordability because people can’t afford to pay those rates as they’re going up,” said Bates.

Laesch said rising energy costs are the number one concern he hears from Aurora residents about data centers, along with noise complaints.

He said, in response to rapidly increasing energy demands in the region, the city has been considering measures to protect residential energy.

In addition to his public support for the POWER Act, Laesch said he is working, outside his role as mayor, to put a referendum question on a future election ballot to ask residents whether the city should build and maintain a city-owned electrical grid powered by renewable energy.

Laesch also advocated for additional artificial intelligence regulations.

“We are … probably a decade behind in where we should have started regulating AI and limiting its use,” Laesch said. “It is driving all of these data centers coming into everybody’s backyards, consuming our power.”

awright@chicagotribune.com