County Board votes to table data center proposal

After a nearly three-hour public hearing where constituents largely opposed the plan, the Sangamon County Board voted 15 to 13 to table a CyrusOne data center proposal. The project, which would occupy more than 280 acres of farmland, drew over 700 residents to the March 23 meeting at the BOS Center, where speakers detailed various reasons against the development. Initially, a motion to table the proposal failed, but following extensive public comments, District 7 board member Craig Hall called for a second vote, which then passed. County spokesperson Jeff Wilhite stated that a board member would need to motion to bring the proposal out of committee for it to be reconsidered at the next County Board meeting, scheduled for April 7. CyrusOne had projected the project would generate $98 million in property taxes for Sangamon County over 20 years and offered roughly $20 million in community investments. The proposed hyperscale data center would have a 634-megawatt capacity, significantly larger than CyrusOne's existing data centers in Aurora and Lombard, Illinois. This capacity could power between 250,000 and 570,000 homes annually, a substantial amount compared to Sangamon County's fewer than 100,000 housing units, though officials claim no impact on consumer electric rates.