Champaign County could put a moratorium on 'big data centers'

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — The Champaign County Environment and Land Use Committee could put a year-long moratorium on "big data centers."

Three items on the ELUC agenda would establish new regulations for "big data centers," which have at least 10,000 ft² of processing area and are rated at 10 MW or more.

It would create a public hearing for a year-long moratorium on big data centers, a public hearing on an amendment to add regulations for big data centers, and a recommendation for a task force to refine ordinances on big data centers.

"If you have more than 10,000ft², there will be a moratorium on that for the next 12 months, and everything will have to be put on hold while we develop permanent standards," said John Hall, planning and zoning director for Champaign County.

Now, there are already four data centers in Champaign County, including the National Petascale Computing Facility at the University of Illinois and Colocation Plus, a.k.a "The Fortress" in Rantoul.

"None of them were more than 2000ft² in area. So we're anticipating a new hyperscale data center could be easily, 50,000ft² of processing area." Hall said.

For now, there are no applications, but Hall is prepared for a possible lead.

"I am anticipating one. I don't know when we're likely to get an application. There's never been a suggestion of when that might happen, but I think it is a serious inquiry." Hall said.

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