SPRINGFIELD — In a sequel to an emotional three-and-a-half hour meeting a little more than two weeks ago, the Sangamon County Board voted to grant Dallas-based CyrusOne a conditional use zoning permit, a key step in paving the way for construction of a controversial $500 million data center in the southwest part of the county.
The 17-10 vote in favor came after board member Greg Stumpf moved to bring the item off the tabled agenda. The move to table the proposal came at a March 23 meeting.
A motion made county board member Craig Hall, whose district the data center could land, proposed to postpone the April 7 vote, but it failed 17-11.
Voting for the permit were Sam Cahnman (District 18); Casey Constant (District 2); Justin Davsko (District 26); Jennifer Deaner (District 25); Tony DelGiorno (District 23); Tom Fraase Jr. (District 1); Annette Fulgenzi (District 17); Tim Krell (District 15); Gina Lathan (District 22); Tom Madonia Jr. (District 9); Kevin McGuire (District 28); Brad Miller (District 13); Tom Rader (District 8); James Schackmann (District 11); Greg Stumpf (District 16); Joel Tjelmeland Jr. (District 14) and Paul Truax (District 10).
Voting against the permit were Marc Ayers (District 12); Pam Deppe (District 5); Linda Douglas-Williams (District 20); Abe Forsyth (District 27); Reggie Guyton (District 21); Hall (District 7); David Mendenhall (District 3); Cathy Scaife (District 29); Tracy Sheppard (District 6) and Vera Small (District 20).
Jeffrey A. Thomas (District 4) abstained.
Emotions ran high during the public comment section when several people were escorted from the room. Opponents shouted “shame” following the vote.
More than 1,300 people had signed a petition via Change.org against the data center.
While the vote was music to the ears of its supporters, like the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance and the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce and laborers from the various union locals who filled the basement hall of the Bank of Springfield Center on April 7, opponents vowed to take the fight to the very site of the construction, just outside Thayer.
Construction on the 280-acre site, which includes four main buildings, each roughly 450,000 square feet, could start as early as this summer. Overall, the building of the facility was expected to take four to six years, said Bradd Hout, the location and power strategy director for CyrusOne, and would employ 500 skilled construction workers.
The economic impact over that time period, Hout said, would be a minimum of $500 million “but it could very well be much more than that.”
Like at the March 23 meeting, organized laborers packed the room, with several of its business managers and leaders speaking. Ahead of the meeting, a leaked email sent out by IBEW Local #193 business manager David Wells and provided to The State Journal-Register urged union members to sign up for speaking spots at the meeting.
Board member Marc Ayers directly asked CyrusOne President John Hatem if union members signed up to speak “to silence the opposition.”
Hout replied “No comment.”
“These men and women (here) have built these data centers,” said Aaron Guernsey, president of the Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council. “We know what they’re about.”
Ed Fedor, who lives in rural Waverly, three miles northeast of the proposed site, said he has been told that CyrusOne targeted locals and referred to them as “‘cornbillies’ because they think we won’t get organized, we don’t know enough about it and we don’t care enough to do anything, so we’re an easy mark.
“They’re selling us a bill of goods.”
Hout said CyrusOne wanted to make sure its campuses were “well located and that we are learning from other issues we’ve had in the past,” including noise mitigation.
It has done noise modelling to confirm that the design for the site will meet county and Illinois Environmental Protection agency noise standards, Hout said.
The project will generate $6 million annually in property tax revenue, Hout said. CyrusOne would additionally voluntarily contribute $15 million in community benefits.
Once the data center is operational, some 100 people would be employed “from entry level to highly technical roles,” he said.
Lori McKiernan of the Coalition for Springfield’s Utility Future cautioned board members, in a letter shared with local media before the vote, that taking action so quickly after voting to table it “would be a slap in the face to all who attended (the March 23 meeting) and make your actions…seem almost duplicitous.”
The coalition’s letter to board members urged creation of legally binding agreements around schedules for testing diesel backup generators, schedules for construction work and training and equipment for all emergency management services across the county to deal with potential disasters at the site.
The letter further questioned potential higher electric and water bills for residents in the area and how the company would mitigate higher temperatures on land around the site.
Keegan Otwell of Springfield said the vote demonstrated that “these boards and councils have more the interest of capital in mind than they do their own citizens.”
Truax said he felt comfortable that the situation leading up to Tuesday’s vote was transparent.
“It was all done very publicly, but nobody came into the room to listen,” he said. “We make a website, but we can’t force anybody to go to our website to read what we created. Everything was done as open as we could possibly make it open. That’s the frustrating part.”
Ayers, making his final votes at Tuesday’s meeting, saw the vote as “a Trojan Horse.”
“This is the foot in the door for data centers in Sangamon County,” he said.
Cecilia Wendler of Springfield, speaking during Tuesday’s said she was concerned that “we are rushing through an important decision. I’m worried about the rural lifestyle (with this data center.)”
Dr. Julia Rozier of Springfield 50501 and the Land of Lincoln Democratic Socialists of America said there would be opposition “every step of the way (going forward).
“It’s not a done deal. It’s not over and if we have to camp on the land where they’re about to build it, I’m sure there’s a lot of people who have time on their hands who will be willing to oppose it because this has to stop.”
(This story has been updated to add a new video, new photos and new information.)
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie. Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@usatodayco.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Sangamon County Board approves permit for proposed $500M data center
Reporting by Steven Spearie and Claire Grant, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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