Residents urge council to resist data center at hospital site and adopt immigrant-protection ordinance

Residents urged the Blue Island City Council to oppose a proposed data center near the city’s downtown hospital site and to adopt local protections for immigrants during public comment at the June 24 meeting.

Marie Vindiman, a Blue Island resident, said the city "does not need a data center" and warned that a project would replace small businesses, generate nonstop truck traffic, increase noise and heat pollution, and burden water and power supplies. She asked the council to adopt an ordinance requiring single-use industrial sites — including data centers — to post financial assurances such as bonds or escrow to cover decommissioning and site restoration if the facility fails or is abandoned.

Alex Del Santo, another resident, told the council that data centers shift infrastructure costs to utilities and, ultimately, ratepayers. He argued that private-credit pressure on developers creates a risk of incomplete projects and local disinvestment, and urged the city to align ordinances with Illinois public-health and environmental standards before permitting any such development.

Several speakers also called for stronger local protections for immigrant residents. Anna Perez, an immigration organizer with Centro de Trabajadores Unidos (CTU), described community members who have been detained and asked the council to enact a welcoming-city municipal ordinance to reduce fear and protect families. Testimony read on behalf of Carlos Penagos recounted a detention that left his family separated and urged council support for local protections.

Mayor (Speaker 1) said the city has not received a formal proposal for a data center and that fairness requires the council to review any offer through proper process. He stated a preference for development that maximizes jobs and long-term community benefit and said the downtown hospital site is not, in his view, best used for a data center. The mayor said he will update the council and public if a formal proposal is submitted.

The public comment period did not produce a formal council action on the data center that evening. Several commenters asked the council to begin ordinance work now — including a decommissioning financial-assurance requirement and explicit incorporation of state public-health and environmental standards into local code — before any application is filed.

The council did not take immediate action on those requests; the mayor reiterated he would share new information if a proposal is filed.