Yorkville considering 8th data center proposal

A stretch of property along the Eldamain Road and Route 34 corridor has seen the Yorkville City Council approve seven data center projects across 1,011 acres. The city council is set to vote on another 53.7 acres of farmland for demolition and development at their upcoming April 8 meeting.

The rezoning request comes from familiar faces, the Daniels Malinski Yorkville Family, LLP, who already received city approval for annexation and rezoning for data center use of 267 acres at the ‘Daniels (South)’ site, north of U.S. 34, west of Beecher Road and Kendall Marketplace, and adjacent to Eldamain Road.

The new ‘Daniels (North)’ site, dubbed the DMYF-Loftus, Malinski Yorkville family, LLLP data center, is located at the north end of Faxon Road, and east of Beecher Road, and south of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

City council must approve rezoning the property to manufacturing from its current agricultural and residential zoning.

The site plan includes a minimum 100-foot landscaped buffer with an eight foot tall berm due to the proximity to the future residential development of Whispering Meadows. The developers have also agreed to a minimum 100-foot buffer along the site’s eastern and southern boundaries.

The plan also contains a 400-foot setback from any of its buildings to the nearest homes in the neighboring residential subdivisions, including, Kylyns Ridge, Kendall Marketplace, Caledonia, and Whispering Meadows.

Throughout the year, several residents have voiced opposition to data center developments near their residential areas, telling city council they would rather move away from Yorkville than live next to data center buildings. City council increased the setbacks of data center buildings in proximity to residential areas, but moved forward despite resident opposition.

The city is seeking a maximum 60-foot building height if located within 1,500 feet of a residential area. The developers are requesting the city to permit a 70-foot height maximum, including rooftop mechanical equipment.

Along Yorkville’s data center alley, previously approved projects include the CyrusOne data center campus, which will feature nine massive data center buildings on 228 acres at the northeast corner of Faxon Road and Eldamain Road. The campus will be developed over 10-20 years with each building expected to generate about $1 million in tax revenue for the city when completed.

The area also includes the Kelaka and Hagemann Annexation project which involved rezoning 286 total acres to manufacturing to allow future data center developments.

In addition to those, the city approved 50 acre site for Green Door, approved a 138 acres site or Hagemann and Green Door, and approved another 154 acre site for Kelaka and Green Door.

To cap it all off, a few miles from the CyrusOne data center development, Yorkville is considering the city’s largest-ever proposals, ‘Project Cardinal,’ at 1,037 acres, and ‘Project Steel,’ at 540 acres.

Project Cardinal would house 14 warehouse buildings and two electrical substations, located at the northwest corner of Galena Road and Bridge Street.

Project Steel would feature 24 data center warehouses, built across three phases, and three electric substations, located at the southeast corner of Galena Road and Eldamain Road.

The projects are so massive, the city is approving a sound pollution study to try to mitigate the negative affects on neighboring residential areas.

City administrator Bart Olson previously said the city has 3,000 acres currently slated for data center development with more than 100 new large data center warehouses to be built over the next few decades.