| January 2026 |
If you learn of a data center near you, please email hoi@illinois.sierraclub.org.
By Joyce Blumenshine
One week before Christmas Eve, 2025, the Fulton County Zoning Board of Appeals meeting was packed, with many people standing. The last agenda item took two hours and was a data center zoning proposal for west of Canton. Across the Illinois River in Tazewell County, way back in April of 2025, the Pekin City Council planned sale of 320 acres for a new technology park before most of the public realized what was happening. The sale includes a large, proposed data center. Data centers can bring multiple local area problems including needs for huge amounts of electricity and the potential for adding energy rate increases due to demand; harmful public health impacts from air, noise and light pollution; potentially large amounts of water use affecting local water rates and supply; and other issues affecting quality of life and potentially local home values.
In Fulton County, Donato Solar requested the Fulton County Zoning Board of Appeals approve a change of property from Agriculture Conservation to Industrial zoning. The plans were to develop 32 acres within a much larger property parcel. The company said they would have two pole buildings for the data center, which would be surrounded by ground-mount solar panels to provide all the energy needed and a closed-loop cooling system. The location is not far from Spoon River Junior College, which has on-site residential buildings. Residents from the surrounding area, including Lake Wee-Ma-Tuk, spoke about property value concerns, potential increased electricity costs, noise, air and water impacts. During the hearing the company was asked repeatedly about water withdrawal and noise levels. Donato Solar did not have a lease or ownership of the property and replied to questions saying that negotiations for the land were moving forward. That resulted in the Zoning Board voting no on the request.
Months ago, the Pekin City Council sale of 320 acres for a new ‘technology park’ is to include a large data center planned by Western Hospitality Partners on what was farm land along state route 98 north of Pekin. What appeared to be completely lacking was any consideration by the Pekin Council of the collateral damages that such a data center could mean to area residents, the area electrical power demand, water withdrawal, and a host of other issues. Groveland Township, where the large data center would be built, could see significant problem impacts from loss of tax revenue to greatly increased costs for township road maintenance, fire protection, and other issues. Pekin was included in a national environmental news article about the boom in data centers in the Midwest, listing concerns about the large amounts of energy and water use required.
The Midwest is seeing more and more data center projects.
Please let your HOI Group know if you have heard of any data centers coming to your area. HOI Group covers all or parts of the following counties in Central Illinois: Bureau, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, La Salle, Lee, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, Peoria, Putnam, Schuyler, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, and Woodford. For a rough map see your HOI Group website. The Wisconsin Chapter Sierra Club has a convenient tool kit for data center concerns that is well worth looking at.