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Yorkville could approve 2 more data center projects, including 540-acre Project Steel · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Yorkville could approve two more data center projects, including five
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  Speaker 1: hundred and forty acre Project Steel. Written by Joey Weslow.
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  Speaker 1: This article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by Everlett. The City of Yorkville has two
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  Speaker 1: more large data center projects on the agenda for its
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday meeting. This coming on the heels of a near
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  Speaker 1: six hour meeting over the of the the odds so
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  Speaker 1: of it of one thousand, thirty four acre Project Cardinal
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  Speaker 1: Data Center. Both the five hundred and forty acre Project
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  Speaker 1: Steel Data Center and the recently downsized eighty acre Meyer
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  Speaker 1: Data Center Campus could take significant steps forward with city
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  Speaker 1: council approval. The Planning and Zoning Commission on January fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: unanimously voted to not recommend the Meyer Data Center for approval.
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  Speaker 1: City council can override this recommendation. At the meeting for
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  Speaker 1: Project Cardinal, several residents said they would rather move out
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  Speaker 1: of Yorkville than raise their families next to giant manufacturing
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  Speaker 1: warehouses that the city wants to stretch along three thousand
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  Speaker 1: acres of the Aldemain Corridor. Top of the residents' concerns
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  Speaker 1: were light and sound pollution, potential health impacts, and the
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  Speaker 1: lengthy ten to twenty years of heavy construction in the area.
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  Speaker 1: Residents said the charm of life in Yorkville was sold
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  Speaker 1: out by the city. On the agenda is the necessary annexation,
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  Speaker 1: rezoning and PUD for Project Steel. Also included is the
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  Speaker 1: Infrastructure and Development Agreement, which includes the developers potentially paying
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  Speaker 1: forty million dollars up front of the city if the
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  Speaker 1: project receives full approval. City Administrator bart Olsen has said
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  Speaker 1: the money is being sent by the city to the
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  Speaker 1: school district for expanded facilities, the fire District, city projects,
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  Speaker 1: and charitable community organizations. A similar agreement was re acquired
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  Speaker 1: before approval of Project Cardinal, with the developers offering fifty
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  Speaker 1: one million dollars upfront, including thirty eight thousan two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars straight to the schools. Of the
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  Speaker 1: forty million dollars, about thirty million dollars is being pledged
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  Speaker 1: by the city to the Yorkville School District one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifteen after feedback from commet the developer's prologic lpror
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  Speaker 1: increasing the number of new electrical substations from three to
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  Speaker 1: four To make room. The original number of eighteen warehouses
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  Speaker 1: is being reduced to sixteen two story warehouses. The remaining
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  Speaker 1: warehouses will be slightly larger than the original plan, meaning
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  Speaker 1: the total square footage remains about six point eight million
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  Speaker 1: square feet. The developers once wanted to build twenty four
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  Speaker 1: warehouses before downsizing plans. With the updated site plans, the
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  Speaker 1: distance between the nearest data center building and a residential
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  Speaker 1: area to the southeast a long Corneil's road has increased
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  Speaker 1: from seven far and forty two feet to six hundred
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  Speaker 1: seventy feet. According to city documents, The project is expected
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  Speaker 1: to reach cross sixteen individual land parcels centered around the
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  Speaker 1: southeast corner of Galena and Elde Main Roads on unincorporated
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  Speaker 1: Kendall County land. The city is requiring each of the
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  Speaker 1: data center campus warehouses to have a minimum five hundred
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  Speaker 1: foot building separation between them and the nearest residential or
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  Speaker 1: commercial structure. Many residents have argued at city council meetings
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  Speaker 1: that the projects are still too close to their homes.
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  Speaker 1: Construction will be in three phases over twenty years. The
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  Speaker 1: developers are aiming to begin construction by the summer of
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven. Once each individual warehouse is up and running,
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  Speaker 1: city staff believe they can each generate between five hundred
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars one thousand dollars into annual tax revenues for
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  Speaker 1: the city's coffers. A significant portion of the project is
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  Speaker 1: within the Plano School District eighty eight's boundaries. The city
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  Speaker 1: is making the developers build the first ware houses within
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  Speaker 1: Yorkville fifteen's boundaries. On the agenda is the rezoning and
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  Speaker 1: a development agreement for the Meyer Data Center by developers
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  Speaker 1: Yorkville Nexus VLC Greendor Capital. The project, south of Corneils
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  Speaker 1: Road and east of Beecher Road started with a thirty
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  Speaker 1: acre footprint before being downsized to ninety one acres. The
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  Speaker 1: downsizing was to create a large buffer area between nearby
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  Speaker 1: residential areas, primarily the Caledonia Subdivision neighborhood. City officials and
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  Speaker 1: nearby residents previously urged nothing east of rob Roy Creek
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  Speaker 1: to give them space from the project. The developers are
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  Speaker 1: requesting to rezone two western parcels totaling ninety one acres
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  Speaker 1: to manufacturing for data center usage. The developers said they
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  Speaker 1: only plan on building on eighty per cent of those acres.
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  Speaker 1: The developer has agreed to leave the thirty seven acre
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  Speaker 1: eastern parcel near the subdivision zoned for multi family residents.
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  Speaker 1: Within the site plans, is eleven hundred foot set back
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  Speaker 1: to the nearest residential structure in Caledonia, and an agreement
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  Speaker 1: not to develop east of the creek. The eastern thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven acre parcel is being donated by the developers to
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  Speaker 1: the city. Also updated in the plans, the developers have
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  Speaker 1: committed to a ten million dollar impact fee for the
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  Speaker 1: eighty acres of development. The developers have agreed to pay
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  Speaker 1: a non refundable pre payment of one million dollars at
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  Speaker 1: the recording of the proposed rezoning. According to city documents,
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  Speaker 1: The petitioner is Matt Gilbert, who is representing Greendor Capital
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  Speaker 1: with other data center projects in town, like the already
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  Speaker 1: approved two one hundred eight acre Cyrus one data center
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  Speaker 1: with nine two story warehouses,