Elk Grove OKs plan for data centers, pickleball courts at WGN transmitter site
Elk Grove Village officials have given preliminary approval to a plan that would add a three-building data center campus and six pickleball courts to WGN radio's transmitter site on Rohlwing Road.
The village board directed the village attorney Tuesday to prepare ordinances that would grant a special use permit, annexation and rezoning of the 100-acre property at 720 Rohlwing Road. Final approval would be a mere formality at the board's next meeting July 18.
Nexstar Media Group, owner of the 50,000-watt AM station, plans to develop 35 acres on the south end of the transmitter site, which is west of Rohlwing Road/Martingale Road and just north of Biesterfield Road in unincorporated Schaumburg Township.
To make way for three data center buildings totaling some 840,000 square feet, Nexstar plans to move the locations of WGN's two radio towers slightly to the north. The old towers themselves - the 750-foot primary structure and 250-foot backup - are set to be replaced with new ones, according to Mayor Craig Johnson.
"They're squeezing out all the available space they can for the development," Johnson said. "They have to have clear zones if the towers fall."
Nexstar, the Irving, Texas-based company that acquired the powerful AM signal in 2019, stands to gain an extra revenue source with the redevelopment. The company has been the petitioner of record during the village's zoning and annexation process, but hasn't announced a data center company for the site.
In between the first data center to be constructed along Rohlwing and the small building that houses WGN's transmitters and backup studio, a one-acre park will be leased to the Elk Grove Park District, which intends to install six pickleball courts, parking and lighting. The site initially was eyed as a dog park, but the location was deemed not to be big enough, Johnson said.
Otherwise, the plans haven't changed since proposed a year ago, said Johnson, who attributed delays to further planning for drainage improvements. The village will extend a storm sewer along the south side of the WGN property that will allow nearby residents to connect their sump pumps if they choose.
To act as a buffer between some 125 homes to the south and west, the developer will build an eight-foot screen wall and nine-foot-tall berm. Setbacks between the data center buildings and residential properties will range from 178 to 338 feet.
Construction on the berm, screen wall and two-story, 169,000-square-foot easternmost data center is scheduled to begin in the fall.
Future phases call for a two-story, 338,000-square-foot data center; a two-story, 334,000-square-foot data center; and electric substation serving the development. In total, it could take eight years to come to fruition.