A data center proposed for 20 acres in South Elgin is to be reviewed by the village’s Planning and Zoning Commission next month, with opponents already gearing up for a fight.
An online petition has been signed by more than 4,700 people as of Thursday afternoon who don’t support the Whiterose Partners proposal to annex the northwest corner of Kenyon Road and Route 25 into the village for the construction of a 200,000-square-foot data center facility.
Kenyon Brothers Co., a Dallas-based developer that owns the property, submitted a conceptual plan for review at the commission’s Wednesday night meeting. The presentation was postponed, however, out of concern there would not be enough parking to accommodate those coming to the meeting and those attending a concert in the area at the same time.
The commission’s next meeting is set for Aug. 19.
In addition to the annexation, the developer would need the site’s zoning changed from agriculture to industrial and a special use permit issued.
South Elgin resident Anthony Saccomanno, president of a nearby homeowner’s association for a subdivision adjacent to the proposed location, started the online petition, change.org/p/stop-the-planning-of-a-data-center-in-south-elgin-illinois. In just two days, it had been signed by thousands of people, including residents of Elgin, South Elgin and Bartlett.
“The support has been fantastic,” Saccomanno said. “The petition just started snowballing as more people shared it.”
His opposition is centered on the facility’s proximity to his neighborhood and several schools as well as the amount of electricity and water it would require, he said.
“I’m personally not against a data center or AI, but I just don’t want it so close,” he said. “They state it will use 48,000 (megawatts) of electricity. Most people don’t realize that 48,000 MG of electricity would power every home in South Elgin and Bartlett. It’s a lot of electricity.”
In addition, South Elgin’s east side relies on a fragile water system and draws its water from a well, Saccomanno said.
Whiterose submitted a power request application to ComEd for 48 megawatts of utility power. The utility indicated the Bartlett substation has enough capacity to serve the site, the company’s application said.
The data center facility would use between 247 and 342 gallons of water a day, which is less than the water usage of a typical South Elgin home, according to documents submitted to the village. The data center would use a closed-loop cooling system to help reduce daily water usage, documents said.
Saccomanno said he’s committed to making sure village officials know there’s opposition to the proposal. In addition to the online petition, he’s exploring the idea of having yard signs printed, he said.
“I’ve been happy to keep pushing this forward,” he said. “I’m very hopeful that, by the fact that we are jumping on this so early in the process, village leaders will realize we as the commune don’t want this.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.
