Bloomington will release draft versions of its regulations on data centers next week, ahead of the first of two planning commission meetings on the topic.
City Manager Jeff Jurgens said the drafts will be available to the public on Oct. 9. The planning commission will meet at 4 p.m. on Oct. 16 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. Another meeting is planned for Nov. 16 at the same time.
Jurgens said two listening sessions on data centers, combined with a panel discussion on the subject hosted by the Town of Normal and Bloomington, helped inform some of the regulations.
“We heard a lot of feedback on things like noise, vibrations, water usage, energy usage, screening, all kinds of different things,” Jurgens said. “I think that the community will see that the regulations that are going to be rolled out are really are designed to protect the community the best that we can.”
The Town of Normal recently voted to extend its moratorium to May 2027. Council and town staff pointed to possible impending legislation from Springfield as the reason why.
“At this point, we don't want to go in and craft a bunch of regulations and deal with a bunch of issues, and then three months from now, the General Assembly comes in with something entirely different, which puts us back to square one,” Normal’s Assistant City Manager Brian Day said to the council in September.
Jurgens seemed to take the opposite approach. He said he didn’t want to delay drafting regulations to see what lawmakers would do.
“We don't necessarily want to wait and then maybe nothing happens, or maybe something happens and we want something different,” Jurgens said.
Jurgens said the council could extend the moratorium if they feel like they need more time, but he does not currently anticipate it.
Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Springfield in mid-November for what is known as veto session. It’s unclear if they will take up the POWER Act, which was introduced during the most recent spring session.
State law would likely supersede municipal ordinances or county regulations.
“I think there will be a lot of overlap,” Jurgens said.
The POWER Act addresses multiple areas of data center regulation. One provision requires data center companies pay for and supply their own clean energy. The bill would also require companies to report their water usage, and submit a water management plan to the Illinois Water Survey.
Other provisions address transparency surrounding data center negotiations, and would require community benefit agreements between companies and the municipalities hosting a data center.
