Bloomington-Normal: County Passes Strict Data Center Rules as Cities Set Hearing Timeline Before November Moratorium Expiry

McLean County Approves 13 New Rules for Data Centers

The McLean County Board approved 13 new regulations for data centers on June 11, making the county one of the most restrictive in Illinois for the industry. The rules took effect without public debate as part of the board's consent agenda, according to WGLT.

The regulations require future data center applicants to provide detailed plans covering water use, electricity consumption, noise limitations, landscaping screens, battery capacities, and decommissioning costs. Facility owners must also identify potential impacts on roads, emergency services, and utilities, and list specific measures to address those impacts.

"It's going to provide some of the strongest regulations in the Central Illinois region," said Alex Duffy of District 6, according to WGLT.

Michele Blatzheim of Normal, an organizer with Illinois People's Action, thanked the board but warned that state-level protections remain missing. She noted that the POWER Act, which would have regulated data centers across Illinois, failed to advance during the spring legislative session.

Bloomington Sets Timeline for Public Hearings

The City of Bloomington shared a general timeline for its six-month moratorium on hyperscale data centers on June 16, according to WGLT. The moratorium applies to facilities with a capacity greater than 5 megawatts and was approved unanimously by the Bloomington City Council on May 26.

City Manager Jeff Jurgens said the city is identifying experts in areas affected by data centers, including water and electricity. A special meeting of the Planning Commission is expected in late August at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

The first public hearing on proposed data center regulations would likely occur at the Planning Commission meeting on October 1. The second public hearing would likely take place on November 5. The moratorium expires in November.

"I think we're ready for difficult questions and that's why we're going to be having something like this," Jurgens told WGLT. "We want to have the difficult questions, and we want to have the difficult conversations."

Jurgens said the city is working on a system for citizens and council members to submit questions ahead of the special meeting.

Normal Consultant Seeks Community-Driven Approach

Harrison Meece, owner of Harrison Meece Consulting, LLC in Normal, spoke on WGLT's Sound Ideas program on June 22 about how he believes the community should approach data center development.

Meece has helped develop hyperscale data centers across the country. He previously assisted with a small data center at Rivian in Normal and is currently working on a 500-megawatt facility in Denton, Texas.

"Normal is my home. It's always been my home and I love this place more than anything else," Meece said. "[Data centers] is a field I enjoy being in, but I also have a strong vested interest in my community and my state."

Meece said he supports the moratoriums as a first step but wants the conversation to focus on separating real concerns from misinformation. He pointed to a viral moment at a U.S. House hearing in which Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez displayed a jar of muddy water from near a data center in Morgan County, Georgia.

"Because every facility that I'm working on, there's almost no way for us to pollute the water," Meece said. "The chemicals that we use are all EPA-approved, they can be released back into the groundwater without any effect to the wildlife that's there."

Meece said he advocates for legislation like the POWER Act, which would require data centers to pay for and supply their own renewable energy. He said municipalities should demand that developers fund infrastructure upgrades, such as expanded water capacity, before construction begins.

Voters Already Sent a Message

More than 100 residents at a City of Bloomington Township meeting on June 1 voted in favor of nonbinding referendums to prohibit data centers, end the city's 1% grocery tax, and oppose U.S. weapon sales to countries that violate human rights, according to the Pantagraph.

The data center referendum will appear on the November ballot alongside the other two questions.

Both the Bloomington and Normal moratoriums expire in November. The outcome of the referendum and the regulations developed during the moratorium period will shape whether McLean County's largest municipalities allow data centers, block them, or set new terms for their arrival.