Champaign County Board to vote Thursday on data center moratorium

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) - The Champaign County Board is set to vote Thursday on whether to approve a moratorium on large data center development in Champaign County.

The Climate Police Director at Prairie Rivers Network, Andrew Rehn, will attend in support of the moratorium.

It will be held Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Shields-Carter Meeting Room in the Bennett Administrative Center, 102 East Main St. in Downtown Urbana.

The original duration for the proposed moratorium was for 12 months. That was amended to 9 months at the April 9 Environmental Land Use Committee meeting. It can be restored to 12 months by the full board.

If passed by the full Champaign County Board, Prairie Rivers Network said the moratorium will allow time for the board to research and adopt an ordinance regulating the development of data centers within county borders.

Two data centers were recently approved by Illinois county boards, a 600+ MW facility in Sangamon County and an 1800 MW facility near Joliet.

Aurora recently completed a 180-day moratorium, leading to the creation and passage of some of the strongest regulations for data centers in the country.