Facing strong opposition to a proposed $6 billion data center near Taylorville, a founder of Eagle Rock Partners told the Christian County Board he wouldn’t want to live next door to the center his firm wants to build.
But Ken Loeber added that the center, on farm ground two miles southwest of the Christian County seat, as well as the promise of 500 full-time jobs and the potential to generate $85 million a year in new property taxes for local schools and governments, would result in a “greater good.”
Loeber said it’s “for all of you to determine as leaders in the community” whether the benefits would be worth any noise, disruption to the serene rural environment and other downsides, proven or unknown.
“My hope and my prayer is that this doesn’t divide the community, and that you can make an informed decision,” Loeber said. “This is an emotional issue. Change is scary to people.”
Loeber, from the North Carolina-based development company, made his first official appearance in front of the County Board on June 16. Eagle Rock hasn’t yet submitted a formal land-use request for Meridian Technology Park data center to the county, and it’s uncertain when that might happen.
Also in attendance in the cafeteria of Taylorville High School was a crowd of about 400 people, almost all demonstrating opposition to the project.
Loeber said the proposed data center would require between 1,000 and 1,100 megawatts of electricity and consist of 10 75-foot-tall buildings that would be constructed in phases over a five- to seven-year period along Illinois Route 48 in rural Bear Creek Township.
Maureen Tarrant, 67, a retired registered nurse, said she lives with her husband, Doug, in the family home they built 38 years ago that is just over a mile north of the proposed 475-acre site for the data center.
She said doesn’t know how noise and traffic might increase but is worried.
“I love the place we live,” Tarrant said. “I don’t want it changed. It’s a fairy tale, and I don’t want it turned into a horror story.”
Loeber said Eagle Rock would consider compensating nearby residents for any inconveniences or discomfort.
Formal consideration of an Eagle Rock Partners proposal by the board and other county officials is months away, County Board Chairperson Bryan Sharp told Illinois Times.
Because of the potential economic benefits, county officials have a duty to listen to Eagle Rock’s proposal, Sharp said. But he added, “I don’t want this to be hurried.”
Sharp said it’s unclear whether county officials, after they solicit advice from outside consultants, would be able to make final decisions on any land-use request in less than a year and satisfy Eagle Rock’s apparent timeline.
Eagle Rock said in a statement that the earliest construction could begin is 2028.
It’s also unclear whether Eagle Rock would be able to carry out its plan to obtain all of the power required for the data center from the proposed and long-delayed natural gas-fired Lincoln Land Energy Center in unincorporated Sangamon County near Pawnee.
Loeber said Eagle Rock has worked out a purchase agreement with the power plant’s owner. But construction hasn’t even begun on the power plant, which would cost $1.5 billion or more.
Julie Friedberg, a spokesperson for the Lincoln Land Energy developer, New Jersey-based Kindle Energy LLC, declined to speak with Illinois Times by phone and said the company would respond only to written questions. The newspaper emailed questions to Kindle on June 17 and followed up with a phone message but hasn’t received a response.
Loeber told the Christian County Board he hopes Kindle can begin delivering power by 2029.
The Christian County proposal is the third plan for a large-scale data center to emerge in Illinois Times’ coverage area.
CyrusOne’s 630-megawatt data center, to cost $500 million and be built in southwest Sangamon County’s Talkington Township, was approved by the Sangamon County Board in April.
Hut 8 Corp.’s plans to build a 500-megawatt, $5 billion data center near Latham in Logan County has been stymied by the Logan County Board’s recent vote to establish a one-year moratorium on consideration of data center requests.
Loeber’s estimate of $85 million a year in new property tax revenue would result in $47 million in new funding for the Taylorville school district, which currently operates with a $30 million budget.
But Chad Coady, Christian County’s supervisor of assessments, thinks the company’s estimates are too high. The Eagle Rock data center would be one of the largest in the state.
Based on Coady’s initial investigation of assessments in Illinois counties with data centers and similar-size construction projects, Coady said it’s more likely that the Eagle Rock project would result in up to $22 million in total new property tax revenue for the county, with $12 million of that going to the school district.
An influx of $12 million still would be monumental for Taylorville public schools, he said.
Like the CyrusOne and Hut 8 data center proposals, the Eagle Rock plan would call for a closed-loop cooling system that would continuously recirculate water and not require frequent refilling.
But area residents questioned whether any water wells drilled by the company for sinks and toilets to be used by data center employees would cause other wells for homes in the area to dry up. That wouldn’t happen, Loeber said, adding that Eagle Rock has commissioned a study backing up his assertion.
Loeber said noise created by the data center wouldn’t exceed 55 decibels at the property line – louder than a refrigerator and softer than a normal conversation.
But nearby residents said they don’t want any additional noise disturbing their environment and disrupting existing businesses.
Caleb May, 44, a farmer who lives within a mile of the proposed site, told the County Board, “Nobody wants to live next to a 480-acre industrial site – nobody. I hope you don’t trade local families for revenue.”
What’s the world coming to ? It’s bad enough that people like you are destroying the earth it bad enough cars motorcycles and all this other s*** is polluted the air but now you want to put it in industrial center outer the destroy people’s lives why can’t it go back to the old days with just buggies and horses the Earth was fine now you got all this oil drilling war going on fighting over oil fighting over fuel and then you get a data center in there how much radiation is that thing going to put out people that don’t know that these little meter boxes that we got on our electric meter that we got on our house they put small amount of radiation out that was a proven fact now you got this data center wanting to come up how much radiation is it going to kill plants life animals wildlife nobody thinks about that please people let’s not let this happen people think about the future of our kids grandkids if they build one center . It’s not going to stop all we’re doing is making the rich people richer and the poor people poorer . Taxes food bills water bills gas bills and everything thing else is so high now there is a lot of people work hard so hard and still can’t afford to live there is so much to think about people like them is going to destroy.. the very earth we live on its bad enough our government presidents president we’re going to go to war over what power of control of our oil or fuel it’s happening now let it vote no me and my family are poor we barely make ends meet every month why because of President the government is raising everything a high prices look at our water bill went up look at the electric bill going up look at the gas that’s going up if everything keeps going up we’re going to be homeless millions of people are going to be homeless why because of Rich want more money the rich want to get richer the president wants to control everybody what are they going to do build robots walking up down the street to control people what they can and can’t do but it’s bad enough being in control of what we can do in our own yard if we build something our property just what property tax go up if we put a fence up property tax go up they’re already saying that we can’t have chickens in town we can’t have this in time we can’t do this in time what’s next they are going to put control collars on human beings to control what they can and can’t do this is just the beginning with this control center let’s put a stop to it