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Lawsuit against Yorkville to halt 1,037-acre data center likely heading for settlement · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Lawsuit against Yorkville to halt one thousand, thirty seven acre
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  data center likely heading for settlement. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett
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  while a residence lawsuit filed against the City of Yorkville
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  to halt the one thousand thirty seven acre project Cardinal
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  Data Center project began with a lot of fanfare, The
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  litigation appears likely headed for a quiet settlement. During a
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  hearing at the Kendall County Courthouse in front of Judge
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  Robert Pilmer on December thirtieth, the lawyers representing all parties
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  said they are working on a settlement. All parties agreed
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  to a next court date of January sixteenth. Neither side
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  disclosed a possible monetary amount, where specific details of the
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  settlement or if the amount would be revealed during the
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  January sixteenth hearing. John Bryan's lawsuit argues the data center
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  campus and its construction with fourteen two story warehouses built
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  over a decade or more, will negatively impact his property
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  values and quality of life. Brian filed his initial lawsuit
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  against the city to stop the project from going through
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  on October twenty eighth. The City Council approved the planned
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  unit development for Data Center on November tenth. At a
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  December nineteenth hearing, Pioneer Development LLC requested and was granted
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  permission to join the case as a defendant. Project Cardinal
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  is lined up to be the city's largest ever manufacturing undertake.
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  The project plans include a six hundred and twenty five
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  foot setback from the warehouses to Bristol based subdivision and
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  a twelve hundred foot setback from Equestrian. The states its
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  location is northwest of Illinois Route forty seven and Galena Road,
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  south of Baseline Road, and east of Ash Road. Bryan's
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  legal team is claiming the city's comprehensive plan slates the
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  area solely for residential and not for manufacturing. The lawsuit
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  calls the city's actions to rezone the property to manufacturing arbitrary, capricious,
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  and illegal. During a city council meeting earlier this year,
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  Brian demonstrated the expected noise pollution generated from the Data
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  Center campus by blaring the decibels through a speaker. City
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  administrator bart Olson previously said data centers will be required
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  to keep their noise pollution under the city's ordinance the
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  city is making the developers of each project undergo a
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  sound engineering and noise pollution study. However, so far, the
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  sound studies have not included information related to the lengthy
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  periods of construction. City officials and aldermen have previously said
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  they envisioned three thousand acres of former agricultural land along
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  the Eldemain Corridor becoming Yorkville's own data center alley. The
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  city has moved forward several data center projects outside of
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  Project Cardinal, including the five in two acre Project Steel.
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  At several city council meetings over several months, many residents
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  voice their opposition to the projects. Some residents said they
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  would rather move away from their Yorkville neighborhoods rather than
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  live next to manufacturing behemoths. Several residents claim that the
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  construction alone will negatively impact their quality of life for
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  more than a decade to come. Several members of local
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  trade unions spoke at a city council meeting in favor
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  of the project, saying it will create construction jobs. This
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  city has argued that tax revenues generated by data centers
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  will be a game changer for the community. Olsen said
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  at full buildout the Project Cardinal development is projected to
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  generate between thirty five million dollars and seventy million dollars
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  in property taxes annually for Yorkville School District one point fifteen.
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  In addition, each individual warehouse will generate between one point
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  four million to two point nine million in utility taxes.
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  This translates to twenty million to forty million at full buildout.
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  Mayor John Purcell has asked some of the developers to
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  write an upfront check to the school district before full
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  city approval is granted. After hours of debate spread across
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  multiple city meetings, the PUD for Project Cardinal was passed
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  unanimously by City Council