The city of Aurora is developing new regulations for data centers after a 180-day construction moratorium ends March 25. City officials held an open house to gather public feedback on the proposed rules, addressing resident concerns about energy consumption, water usage, and noise pollution, especially near existing facilities like the Cyrus One data center.
There's a 180-day moratorium on data center construction for the city of Aurora . However, that temporary pause expires March 25.On Thursday, city officials invited the public to an open house at the public works facility on Liberty.
This was an opportunity for people to review proposed rules for data centers moving forward. Alison Lindburg, thedirector of sustainability for the city of Aurora, told Fox Chicago city officials heard several concerns from residents about the growing demand from data centers. Some are concerned about the amount of electricity and water data centers demand to operate. Others are concerned about the harm they could bring to their personal health."We realized here in Aurora, we did not have requirements that adequately addressed some of the concerns we hadfrom our citizens," said Lindburg. "We also didn't even have the definition of a data center, so we needed to take a pause. There are not really standardized requirements at the national level for data centers, so we had to look up some best practices, learn from other municipalities to get an idea of what we wanted to propose ourselves."Laura Evans is worried about the expansion of data centers in the city. She lives near the Cyrus One data center, which city council approved in 2017. Back then, she was skeptical about how this new business would impact her life. In 2026, she finds that the current data center has already had a negative affect on her life and her family."I can hear the fans running right now, it sounds like constant traffic, but it's the fans running," said Evans. "It never stops, it will get louder, it might get softer, but it never stops. Sometimes it will wake me up in the middle of the night because it's so quiet and all i hear are the fans it will wake me up out of a sleep."Fox Chicago also spoke with residents who attended Thursday's open house. Marcy Kersh also lives next to the Cyrus One data center, who feels it was a bad decision for the city to allow them to build."The city of Aurora is no place for data centers, actually, no community is a place for datacenters," said Kersh. "It has such a negative impact on residents and driving utility costs. The city has already admitted that there have been rising utility costs due to the data centers."Grant Dixie is also concerned about the rise in electrical costs, and wonder if expanding data centers in Aurora will impact his utility bills even more. However, he felt there is a place for data centers in Aurora, with limitations."I would say yeah, to a limit, we can't have hundreds of them around here," said Dixie. "But yeah, sure, why not?"The city may consider proposed changes that are about protecting residents quality of life. One proposal is having each new data center will have to be approved through city council's "conditional use process."Regulations may also include data centers being required to adhere to the Illinois Pollution Control Board, regarding noise standards. That includes a city constant minimum noise threshold as a tougher standard with easier enforcement.There's also proposals surrounding vibration, and the distances generators can be from residential lots.
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