Naperville data center vote delayed after opponents flood commission meeting

​A decision on a proposed data center to be built on former Alcatel-Lucent land was postponed until next month after more than dozen people spoke against the project at a Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission meeting that didn’t end until 11:15 p.m.

Residents remained negative to the development even with Karis Critical Member announcing ​that plans had been scaled back to just one 211,000-square-foot, 36-meg​awatt data center ​b​eing built on the 40-acre property, rather than the two initially requested.

“This is an opportunity to find investment in the (Interstate 88) corridor that has been lacking,” Karis attorney Russ Whitaker said at the Wednesday night meeting.

Data centers are a critical component of modern day society, Whitaker said, comparing its development to ​the need for water infrastructure. The revised proposal includes a stewardship pledge ​that would be a guiding document ​and ensure the center does not put undue stress on the city or environment, he said.

Naperville residents opposed to the project said they were skeptical of the pledge and argu​e​d that the data center does not belong in close proximity to residential areas.

As proposed, the building is about 1,000 feet from the nearest home in Naper Commons subdivision and about 400 feet from the nearest home in the Indian Hill Woods.

“It’s not an efficient use of the land, and it doesn’t really benefit the community,” said Sarah Baugh, a resident of the Fairmeadow subdivision. “We don’t want it here. Karis, we can happily welcome you in other places — it doesn’t belong right here.”

Wednesday’s meeting follows a similar contentious commission hearing in September, where dozens of residents aired their grievances against the proposal. An online petition circulating since August has garnered more than 2,300 signatures.

Karis’ decision to scale back the project comes after city staff said Naperville did not have sufficient electrical capacity to support two data centers. The new plan with just one center won staff backing, but only if a number of provisions were included in the approval.

Most notably, while a third-party engineer assessment found the noise levels generated by the center were compliant with Naperville’s standards, city staff would like the developer to complete an additional noise study to ensure it meets with standards set by the Illinois Pollution Control Board.

If the additional noise study finds that the data center’s noise levels do not meet board standards, Karis would need to put additional noise mitigation measures in place, according to the city staff report.

Noise has been an issue with other data centers in Illinois. In Aurora, residents have complained about noise from the city’s CyrusOne data center’s back-up generators. Last month, Aurora put a temporary pause on the approval of data centers and warehouse proposals following an increased number of applications and resident concerns with preexisting facilities.

The idea of a similar moratorium for data centers in Naperville has been suggested. Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force member Barbara Benson told the commission Wednesday that her group supports a six-month moratorium on data center approvals.

“The purpose of a pause, or a moratorium, is to provide city departments time to assess the fiscal implications to businesses and to residents, including impact to electricity rates, property vales and long-term infrastructure maintenance for services like increased water usage and electricity distribution,” Benson said.

Data centers have popped up across Illinois in recent years as Gov. JB Pritzker has pushed the state to become a major hub for such facilities with programs like the Illinois Data Center Investment Program, in which Karis plans to participate. At the same time, environmental experts have raised concerns about the impact the surge in data centers could have on the Great Lakes region.

Karis’ stewardship pledge contains five key commitments to oversight and accountability, renewable power sourcing, responsible operations, local investment, and environmentally conscious design and operations.

As part of that plan, Whitaker said Karis wants to enroll in Naperville’s green energy certificate program to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) to “offset 100% of its IT load.” A REC represents the “environmental attributes of one megawatt of electricity produced from renewable resources such as wind or solar,” he said.

“We are committed to buying RECs attributable to solar and wind power. We are committed to buying RECs that were developed in the last three years and we are committed to buying RECs from Illinois or Midwest region projects that would feed into our grid,” Whitaker said.

He also noted that Karis plans on investing $250 million into the data center, with future tenants of the building expected to spend “hundreds of millions of dollars more outfitting the interior of the building with their computer equipment.”

Naperville resident Marilyn Schweitzer said what’s been proposed by Karis doesn’t resolve opponents’ concerns.

“The 15 conditions by (Naperville city) staff are mind boggling. They illustrate how risky and still open ended this development is,” Schweitzer said. “Eliminating phase two without a plan for the remaining acreage is not comforting. It seems like the nose of the camel is still going to be under the tent.”

Discussion of the project will resume at the commission’s Nov. 5 meeting.

cstein@chicagotribune.com