Data Centers are getting a lot of attention in Bloomington. In Normal, not so much — both in inquiries by business and concerns from the public.
Mayor Chris Koos said during a Sound Ideas interview, as in the City of Bloomington, the amount of land needed for a large-scale data center makes it unlikely any site inside town limits would be suitable.
“It lends itself more to a rural setting,” said Koos.
He said the issues the town would be concerned about are the ones everyone looks at: the amount of electricity needed, the effect on the cost of power for existing ratepayers, the amount of water use, and quality of life issues.
He said the town has some extra capacity in its water supply, but might want to reserve that for new commercial or residential growth on the west side of Normal.
“Water seems to be less of an issue than it was before. Data centers are getting more thoughtful about how to do it with less water, and doing it with like cooling with effluent water from treated water from the water reclamation district, things like that. But the power is a big issue,” said Koos.
As an aside, Rivian gets most of its water from the City of Bloomington. When the Mitsubishi auto plant was built in the 1980s, the land fell under the now-defunct Metro zone agreement and Bloomington contributed water as part of that pact.
The Town of Normal does supply water to Rivian's new R2 facility, but Koos said the R2 area uses much less water than the Rivian paint shop, which is in the original structure. He said Rivian is unlikely to change where it gets its water because the paint shop is calibrated to use water that has the chemical characteristics of Bloomington's water and it would be expensive to alter the operation.
Koos acknowledged the community water treatment plant in southwest Bloomington makes it an unlikely pipeline to push gray water to a location near Normal for a data center because it would not be cost effective.
Not an urgent matter
He said he has not heard of any data center contacts with the town expressing interest. And so far, it has not been an urgent matter for residents.
“There is an awareness right now because it's a big issue in the country, and I do hear from citizens from time to time that they want to know if we're considering anything and to be cautious and they're concerned what it might do to their consumer electricity pricing,” said Koos.
He said the town would be transparent if there were to be any serious interest in such a project.
“It might require a special use permit, depending on where it is, and might need to go through the planning commission process,” said Koos, adding residents would certainly put in their 2 cents worth.
“We have a culture where we're going to hear from people on just about anything that they want to talk about. We don't like a closed-door policy on that, but we will analyze it, and we will recommend moving forward based on the benefit to the community and the benefit to the residents,” said Koos.
He declined to say what the town might want in revenue sharing or a community benefits agreement with a data center company.
“We judge projects on the value of that project, not with a one-size-fits-all approach. It would depend on what we felt the impact to the community was…Property tax would be the first one, which would be obvious, but in terms of revenue sharing, we'd have to better understand what that particular project was,” said Koos.
