Champaign County Board to vote Thursday on data center moratorium
The Champaign County Board is set to vote on a 90-day moratorium on large data center developments. This pause is intended to allow time to create new zoning ordinances that account for the massive scale and water usage of modern data centers, particularly concerning the Mohamad Aquifer.
The Champaign County Board is scheduled to vote on Thursday regarding a moratorium on large data center development for at least 90 days. Current zoning ordinances in Champaign County are designed for smaller facilities and do not adequately address the enormous scale of modern data centers, which can be the size of industrial parks.
Andrew Ren of the Prairie Rivers Network explained that this moratorium would allow the county to develop new ordinances appropriate for large-scale data center projects. A data center task force is already working on these new rules. A key concern is the significant water consumption by data centers for cooling, especially in Champaign County where the Mohamad Aquifer is the sole source of drinking water. New ordinances would aim to ensure data centers do not overdraw from this vital resource.
The vote will take place at 6:30 PM Thursday night at the Bennett Administrative Center in downtown Urbana.