In Yorkville, Illinois, a plan to transform a serene suburb into a bustling tech hub is generating some unease among the local residents.
Numerous initiatives are in various stages of approval and consideration in the area.
On Tuesday night, authorities will discuss two proposals related to zoning matters.
One of the sites under consideration, located near the Legacy River Equestrian Center, could become one of the largest data centers globally.
“Currently, the largest data center is in China, measuring 10.7 million square feet. The proposed center near us would be 17 million square feet. It’s enormous, and we don’t want Yorkville to become the data center capital of the world,” remarked John Flisk, Co-Owner of Legacy River Equestrian Center.
John and Dorothy Flisk, who have operated their equestrian business for a decade, feel that the development of these technology-driven data centers threatens their way of life.
“We were going to build a home coming up recently. I mean, coming up soon, but we just are waiting to see what happens with the data centers, because potentially we’ll have to close this business,” Dorothy said.
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Project Cardinal and Project Steel are both on the agenda on Tuesday at Yorkville’s City Council meeting.
They’re separate projects at different stages of the approval process, but together they may take up more than 1,500 acres of land in Kendall County.
Leesa Poss said her parent’s old home, where her daughter’s family currently lives may be nearly boxed in by the time these proposed data centers are built.
“The data centers will be on three sides of them. It’ll be across the street, alongside and behind them,” Poss said. “So far, I have not heard of too many data centers that have been good neighbors, and that’s what scares us a lot.”
“We tried to, you know, do our best to do as much research as possible, to, you know, throw in some pretty heavy development controls and accountability, and, you know, hopefully people at least understand, you know, that part of it,” Yorkville City Administrator Bart Olson said.
If the Yorkville City Council gives Project Cardinal a thumbs up, it would have full city approval to proceed.
Yorkville’s city council meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 651 Prairie Pointe Drive.
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