Champaign County task force launches to study data‑center impacts, names vice chair

Champaign County officials on March 23 convened a task force to review data center activity and its potential impacts — particularly water use, energy demand and land use — and to prepare recommendations for the county’s Environment and Land Use Committee and full county board within roughly three months.

The panel, assembled by the county board and staff, will review the county’s existing data‑center ordinance, examine outside examples (notably Sangamon County and the City of Aurora) and hear from technical experts. "The purpose of this committee of course is to review data center activities and its impacts within our county and...prepare recommendations," the chair said as the meeting opened.

The task force heard a presentation and packet prepared by John Hall, the county’s director of planning and zoning, who described Sangamon County’s application materials and a commissioned impact analysis. "In the Sangamon County example...there’s over 400 backup generators at the Sangamon County site. If you can imagine the sound, the noise, and the pollution from 400 backup generators if they ever had to be on," Hall said, describing generators, substations, detention basins and other infrastructure in that very large application.

Members and staff…