Joliet Technology Center Vote By City Council Goes 8 To 1, Audience Claps With Approval

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet City Council reconvened at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to take a final vote on the data center project. Monday's meeting included seven-and-a-half hours of public audience comment and discussion from city staff, the developers' representatives and Council members. Once the meeting went past midnight, city staff indicated the data center vote needed to be moved to a different calendar date.

Thursday's vote went 8 t0 1. Only Suzanna Ibarra voted against the data center. The yes votes were Pat Mudron, Juan Moreno, Mayor Terry D'Arcy, Joe Clement, Cesar Cardenas, Larry Hug, Sherri Reardon and Jan Quillman.

After the meeting, Joliet Patch received the following email remarks on behalf of Hillwood, the Ross Perot Jr. company responsible for bringing the data center to Joliet, along with PowerHouse.

"Tonight’s vote reflects the City’s thoughtful consideration and strong support for this project. We appreciate the engagement and input from residents, organized labor, business leaders, and educators throughout the process. We look forward to being a good neighbor and delivering lasting economic benefits and jobs for the Joliet community," announced Don Schoenheider, executive vice president, Hillwood.

One of the comments on the Joliet Patch Facebook page stated, "this is satire right?"

"The union literally had every single seat filled upstairs and basically everyone downstairs," another Joliet Patch reader replied back. "They had to create more seats for the residence so that they could sit. It’s sad to know that a lot of those seats are paid for and don’t live in the community. That’s gonna be directly affected, but I do."

From Joliet Patch's earlier story:

As more and more data center projects are being approved throughout Illinois, it's now Joliet's turn to consider a project. The proposed data center would be built on the city's far southeast side out near the Chicagoland Speedway NASCAR track.

The land belongs to Bernhard Farms, which is the family of Joliet city planning director Jayne Bernhard. At previous meetings, audience members have suggested that Bernhard's family will make tens of millions of dollars by selling off their 795-acre farmland to build the data center on its property.

Meanwhile, in preparation for Monday's 4:30 p.m. meeting, Dustin Anderson, Joliet's director of community development, has prepared a lengthy Council memo addressing the pros and cons of the data center project.

At the very end of Anderson's memo, he wrote, "Staff concurs with the recommendation of the Plan Commission and recommends the Mayor and City Council adopt the following, subject to the same conditions approved by the Plan Commission: Resolution to Approve an Annexation Agreement for the Annexation of Approximately 795 Acres Surrounding S. Rowell Road and Bernhard Road."

According to Anderson's memo, PowerHouse Hillwood Holding, LLC, intends to annex the 795 acres and develop a Data Center campus in four future phases.

"Data Center facilities are buildings that are used for the storage, management, processing, and transmission of digital data, which house computer network equipment, systems, servers, appliances, and other associated components related to digital data operations," Anderson explained.