Council approves consultant change order for data-center study; residents press for public engagement

Council approved a change order to the village’s comprehensive-plan contract to add a research study on data-center development, impacts and best practices. The study will synthesize peer-reviewed literature, regulatory guidance and industry practice and is intended to support future policy decisions, planning initiatives, zoning and community engagement — not to serve as a site-specific engineering or environmental-impact analysis.

A consultant representative, Brandon, told council the team would assemble credible information and recommended practices and that the report would be public and could be used to craft defensible local policy. Some council members and residents asked for more explicit public-engagement steps; Brandon said the current change-order scope is a research synthesis but that additional engagement (steering committee, open houses, email inbox) could be added via a subsequent change order and provided an email address for public submissions. After discussion about scope and possible community input, council moved to waive further readings and adopted the resolution authorizing the change order on a roll-call vote.