Joliet Residents Sue City and Developers Over Massive Data Center Project
Joliet-area homeowners and the Joliet Residents for Responsible Growth (JRRG) have filed a lawsuit against the City of Joliet and developers PowerHouse Hillwood Holding LLC and HW Technology Park Development LLC. The suit challenges the city's March 2026 approvals for a large data center campus, alleging violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act, arbitrary rezoning, and lack of environmental review. Plaintiffs seek to halt construction, citing concerns about noise, traffic, and strain on the region's water supply.
A group of Joliet homeowners and the advocacy organization Joliet Residents for Responsible Growth (JRRG), including individual residents Craig and Rhonda Doorneweerd and Pedro Garcia, have initiated legal action against the City of Joliet and developers PowerHouse Hillwood Holding LLC and HW Technology Park Development LLC. Filed in the Will County Circuit Court on May 17, 2026 (Case No. 2026CH000108), the lawsuit seeks to invalidate the City Council's March 19, 2026 approvals for the proposed PowerHouse Hillwood data-center campus and halt construction.
The four-count complaint alleges several violations, including that the City Council breached the Illinois Open Meetings Act by not providing sufficient public input opportunities during deliberations and voting. Furthermore, the plaintiffs contend that the Council's approval of rezoning and annexation for industrial data center use was "arbitrary and capricious" under Illinois zoning law, citing unaddressed concerns regarding noise, traffic, and water consumption, as well as the absence of specific "data center" use in the city's zoning ordinance.
The lawsuit also claims that the City and developers proceeded without necessary environmental review, despite warnings from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' EcoCAT system about threatened and endangered species in the project area. Residents are requesting a declaratory judgment to void the approvals and both a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop construction until legal and environmental deficiencies are resolved. The proposed project involves annexing and rezoning hundreds of acres, constructing large data center buildings with significant noise output, and consuming substantial water in a region already facing aquifer depletion.