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‘Are we going to sell our souls’ former alderman asks Yorkville City Council while denouncing data centers · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Are we going to sell our souls? Former aldermen asks
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  Speaker 1: Yorkville City Council while denouncing data centers. 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. As city officials have sought to
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  Speaker 1: bring multiple data centers to Yorkville, several residents opposed to
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  Speaker 1: the warehouses literally in their backyards have been asking why
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  Speaker 1: Yorkville data The quick answer is the city's proximity to
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  Speaker 1: the COMMAD transmission station line along the Eldermain Corridor makes
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  Speaker 1: the area attractive to those developers. From a closer policy perspective,
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  Speaker 1: city administrator Bartoleson said the city's pursuit of the developments
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  Speaker 1: underscores rapid changes within the city over the past decade.
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  Speaker 1: As the city's population has grown, commercial tax revenues lagged
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  Speaker 1: behind residential, said Olson. Provided equalized assess value EAV figures
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  Speaker 1: for the city during the February tenth City Council meeting.
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  Speaker 1: He said, the tax burden has been shifting from commercial
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  Speaker 1: and industrial to residential, which is inn't good. That's not
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  Speaker 1: something we want. The equalized assessed value is typically one
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  Speaker 1: third of a fair market value on property. That value
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  Speaker 1: is then applied to the local tax rates set by
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  Speaker 1: local taxing bodies to determine a property owner's tax bill.
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  Speaker 1: The developers of the five oh two acre eighteen building
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  Speaker 1: Project Steel Data Center told the city each one of
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  Speaker 1: their buildings will be worth around twenty six million dollars
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  Speaker 1: in taxable value. If Project Steel builds out the entire
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  Speaker 1: property over fifteen years, they anticipate a total eav of
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  Speaker 1: around four hundred and sixty eight million dollars, Olsen said.
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  Speaker 1: Since he started working with the city, Olsen said the
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  Speaker 1: residents concerns of high taxes have been a constant narrative.
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  Speaker 1: He said easing the tax burden on residential through the
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  Speaker 1: addition of data centers should be a net positive for
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  Speaker 1: the city. Several residents attending the meeting disagreed with his assessment.
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  Speaker 1: One resident demanded the city prove that residential property values
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  Speaker 1: of homes located near the data centers will not decline.
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  Speaker 1: Another resident said the city should not move forward with
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  Speaker 1: any data center plans until independent health and environmental studies
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  Speaker 1: are conducted. Former alderman Joe Besco said he will likely
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  Speaker 1: sell his property and move from Yorkville if the city
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  Speaker 1: becomes just a wave of data centers. I'm totally one
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  Speaker 1: hundred percent against the data centers, Besco said during the meeting.
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  Speaker 1: From the research I've done, I see no other benefit
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  Speaker 1: other than dollars. Are we going to sell our souls
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  Speaker 1: for a dollar? I'm very concerned about what's happening to
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  Speaker 1: our city. In twenty fifteen, the total eav of the
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  Speaker 1: city was seventy six point two percent residential and twenty
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  Speaker 1: point one percent commercial, and by twenty twenty four that
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  Speaker 1: shifted to eighty seven point two percent residential and just
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  Speaker 1: ten point two percent commercial. Olson said across that same period,
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  Speaker 1: eav from industrial decline from three point one percent the
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  Speaker 1: total to just one point nine percent. With every one
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  Speaker 1: percent swing from commercial to residential values, there is an
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  Speaker 1: extra fifty dollars one hundred dollars tax burden on the
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  Speaker 1: average homeowner annually. He said. What this means is homeowners
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  Speaker 1: are taking more of the property tax burden for the city,
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  Speaker 1: for the school district, for any other governmental entities that
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  Speaker 1: have property taxes at a rate that exceeds what I've
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  Speaker 1: seen with growth and utility building or new construction. Olsen
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  Speaker 1: said during the meeting. He said home values in the
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  Speaker 1: area are appreciating faster than industrial and commercial property. The
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  Speaker 1: city has had limited success with developing commercial properties and
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  Speaker 1: minimal success with industrial properties, Olsen said. Elson previously said
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  Speaker 1: each data center warehouse could generate between five hundred thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars and one million dollars annually in taxes. During a
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  Speaker 1: previous meeting, several residents asked the city why none of
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  Speaker 1: the sound pollution studies factored in the cumulatid noise levels
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  Speaker 1: of so many data center projects close together. The city
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  Speaker 1: required independent data center developers to only study their individual
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  Speaker 1: project to ensure the noise level was not in violation
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  Speaker 1: of the city's noise ordinance. The studies did not measure
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  Speaker 1: construction noise pollution, but the city said it will be monitored.
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  Speaker 1: During his presentation February tenth, Olsen said the city is
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  Speaker 1: looking into its sound engineers conducting a study with cumulaid
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  Speaker 1: noise figures for Project Steel, Project Cardinal, the Meyer Data Center,
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  Speaker 1: and the Cyrus One Data Center. He said the city
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  Speaker 1: is also requiring the data centers to monitor for three
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  Speaker 1: years after operation date to prove they are not violating
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  Speaker 1: the city's noise ordinance.