CHICAGO () — Chicago City Council members were preparing to take up several major proposals Wednesday, including competing renter protection plans, updated workplace safety standards for employees working in extreme temperatures and a proposed freeze on new data center construction.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is also urging the council to temporarily suspend data center development in Chicago through the proposed Data Center Moratorium Ordinance.
The measure would block new data center projects and significant expansions at existing sites while the city works on a broader regulatory framework for the rapidly growing industry.
The proposed 12-month pause would allow Chicago’s Data Centers Task Force, created under Johnson’s August 2026 executive order, to examine the facilities’ effects on clean air, clean water, energy consumption and the health and quality of life of city residents.
The proposal describes the moratorium as the latest effort to update Chicago’s rules and impose stronger safeguards on future data center development.
The council is also scheduled to weigh two competing renter protection packages: Johnson’s Protecting Renters Ordinance, or PRO, and an alternative known as the Fair and Accountable Rental Ordinance, or FAIR.
Both proposals include several similar provisions, but they take different approaches to tenant safeguards, move-in fees and security deposits. Council members could approve one plan, merge elements of both or combine them into a single measure. Passage would mark the first major update to Chicago’s renter protections in more than four decades.
Alders are additionally considering new safety requirements for workers exposed to extreme heat and cold, both inside buildings and outdoors. Backers say the revisions are increasingly important as heat waves and other severe weather events become more frequent, while business groups have raised concerns about the cost of compliance.
“In a city like Chicago, over decades and decades, we have been getting warmer and having hotter days. Our residents, and our workers in particular, are vulnerable in this changing climate to heat exhaustion and other heat illnesses,” said Ald. Maria Hadden of the 49th Ward.
Anthony Driver of SEIU said extreme heat must be recognized as a serious danger on the job.
“We should be clear: Extreme heat is not simply uncomfortable; it is a serious workplace hazard. The workers most exposed are often the Black and brown employees who keep the city running. No worker should have to choose between their health and protecting their paycheck,” Driver said.
The council is also expected to consider a proposed expansion of Francis Parker School in Lincoln Park and plans to redevelop the former Ford City Mall.
The proposals were slated for debate as part of the full Chicago City Council agenda Wednesday.
