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Questions left unanswered on extension request for Yorkville’s Project Cardinal data center · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Questions left unanswered on extension request for Yorkville's Project Cardinal
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  Speaker 1: Data Center. Written by Joey Weslow. This article is being
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  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of questions remain regarding the developer's requests for
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  Speaker 1: an eighteen month property closing extension for the one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: thirty four acre Project Cardinal Data Center in Yorkville. The
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  Speaker 1: city held a public hearing with no discussion by or
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  Speaker 1: further explanation from city staff during the June ninth City
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  Speaker 1: Council meeting. With millions of dollars in potential tax revenues
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  Speaker 1: and a fifty million dollars development agreement on the line,
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  Speaker 1: substantial concerns were voiced by residents who found no answers.
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  Speaker 1: The city's posted agenda said the developers, Matt McCarran and
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  Speaker 1: Pioneer Development LLC, requested the eighteen month extension due to
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  Speaker 1: unforeseen consequence. The current deadline to close on the property
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  Speaker 1: without an extension is July first. If the extension is
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  Speaker 1: granted and the developers cannot close by December thirty one,
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven, the already approved annexation agreement Planned Unit Development,
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  Speaker 1: Utility and Infrastructure Agreement, and the fifty one million dollars
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  Speaker 1: Development Agreement would all become null and void, according to
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  Speaker 1: city documents. City administrator bart Olsen told Shoal Local the
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  Speaker 1: developers have not told the city which parcels they have
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  Speaker 1: not yet acquired or why they are having difficulty closing
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  Speaker 1: on the land purchase. While the city's posted agenda for
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  Speaker 1: the meeting stated the implications of the possible extension and
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  Speaker 1: its impact on already approved agreements, nothing on the matter
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  Speaker 1: was discussed by city officials or explained to residents who
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  Speaker 1: did not read the agenda during the actual meeting. The
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  Speaker 1: only statement made prior to the opening of the city
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  Speaker 1: council meeting was by Mayor John Purcell, who said, I
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  Speaker 1: am now opening the public hearing for Project Cardinal Annexation
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  Speaker 1: Agreement amendment. If anyone would like to speak, please step
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  Speaker 1: to the microphone and of course state your name. One
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  Speaker 1: resident summed up the frustrations of residents in attendance, saying,
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  Speaker 1: not sure I understand what exactly is going on yet
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  Speaker 1: with this request. The resident asked city officials the reason
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  Speaker 1: why there is a request for an extension and what
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  Speaker 1: are the ramifications of not getting this funding. The question
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  Speaker 1: was asked if there is a resident who is refusing
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  Speaker 1: to sell, and if so, is the entire project at
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  Speaker 1: risk of ever materializing. Several residents were more pointed with
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  Speaker 1: their criticisms of city officials handling of the process of
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  Speaker 1: reviewing and approving data centers. A common thread was residents
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  Speaker 1: requesting that any data center approval be put on an
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  Speaker 1: upcoming election ballot to give the residents back their voice
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  Speaker 1: in the town's future. Seeing the developers requested extension as
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  Speaker 1: a bargaining opportunity, residents asked the city to renegotiate a
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  Speaker 1: smaller project footprint and to issue a moratorium on construction
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  Speaker 1: until all comprehensive health, environmental noise and light pollution studies
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  Speaker 1: are completed. One resident said, the fact that you think
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  Speaker 1: you can silence an entire town to force through the
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  Speaker 1: data centers disgusts me. Shaw. Local News has reached out
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  Speaker 1: to McCarran for comment, but has not received a response.
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  Speaker 1: While the one thousand and thirty four acre site consists
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  Speaker 1: of several properties, the annexation agreement specifically pertained to seven
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  Speaker 1: individual farmland parcels stretched across a total of three hundred
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  Speaker 1: and five acres. Project Cardinal's fifty one million dollars development
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  Speaker 1: agreement was bundled with forty million dollars by the developers
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  Speaker 1: of the five hundred forty acre Project Steel data center.
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  Speaker 1: The city and developers of both Project Cardinal and Project
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  Speaker 1: Steel have since been sued by residents forming a community
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  Speaker 1: based organization, Preserve out Yorkville and Community LLC, who argue
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  Speaker 1: the city failed to properly notify area residents. The lawsuits
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  Speaker 1: also argue the sound, traffic, environmental and property values studies
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  Speaker 1: were not comprehensensive in taking into account the lengthy period
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  Speaker 1: of construction and the close proximity of the other data
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  Speaker 1: center projects approved by the city. Resident calls data centers
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  Speaker 1: water hogs. Within the city's posted agenda was also a
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  Speaker 1: memorandum of understanding with new water usage penalties to be
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  Speaker 1: enforced by the city. While the regulations were not discussed
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  Speaker 1: at all by city officials during the meeting. One resident
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  Speaker 1: called the city's actions hypocritical for telling residents to conserve
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  Speaker 1: water as it switches to Lake Michigan water while also
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  Speaker 1: inviting the water hogs to the city. The city is
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  Speaker 1: looking to impose penalties if Project Cardinal exceeds seventy one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred gallons of water on any particular day, or
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  Speaker 1: if it exceeds an average of forty two thousand gallons
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  Speaker 1: per day across an entire billing cycle. During an April
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  Speaker 1: City Council meeting, Purcell said there's no more appetite from
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  Speaker 1: the City Council for data center proposals outside of what's
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  Speaker 1: already been approved. The city was at one point entertaining
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  Speaker 1: about a dozen different data center proposals stretched out across
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  Speaker 1: more than three thousand acres of the El Domain Corridor
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  Speaker 1: for Yorkville's own data center alley. The city already has
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  Speaker 1: approved the two hundred and twenty eight acres Cyrus one
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  Speaker 1: Data Center, the Project Cardinal Data Center, and the five
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  Speaker 1: hundred and forty acre Project Steeled Data Center,