KEY POINTS
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Developments in Chicago, Colorado, and Massachusetts, highlight growing pushback against data centers.
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Chicago has ordered tighter interim reviews for data centers and is pursuing a temporary moratorium on new facilities and material expansions.
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Douglas County, Colorado, approved more than $19 million in county tax rebates over 35 years for a Parker data center expected to create 16 jobs.
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A Massachusetts judge temporarily blocked installation of four additional backup generators at a Lowell data center as the city moves to restrict new construction and expansion.
Developments in Chicago, Colorado, and Massachusetts, highlight growing pushback against data center expansion, adding permitting, cost and schedule risk to a construction growth story.
Residents and local officials are challenging the data center industry’s demands on power, water and land, as well as public incentives and expansion plans. The swell of opposition creates uncertainty for developers, contractors, and suppliers while spending on data centers has surged.
Chicago Strengthens Regulatory Review, Calls for Moratorium
On Aug. 11, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order establishing enhanced regulatory review for data centers and creating an interdepartmental task force.
The order directs city agencies to strengthen review of air pollution permits, establish data center-specific noise rules and assess electricity demand, water use, generator impacts, cumulative environmental burdens and neighborhood effects in planned developments.
[Read more Data Center Report: Construction Starts Total $22.3 Billion, Second Highest on Record]
The Chicago mayor’s office announcement says the city is also working with the City Council on a temporary moratorium covering new data centers and material expansions. The moratorium remains a proposed legislative action, while the executive order and interim review provisions are in effect.
Chicago has about 39 data centers, according to the mayor’s office, and the city says many were approved under rules that did not address the scale, energy intensity and resource demands of newer facilities.
An aerial view of the Prime Data Centers campus expansion building at the intersection of Higgins Road and Busse Road in the northwest Chicago area of Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Image: Shutterstock
Parker Tax Break Puts Incentives Under Scrutiny
In Parker, Colorado, a nearly 250,000-square-foot Flexential data center is under construction. Douglas County commissioners unanimously approved a 100% rebate of the county’s share of business personal property taxes for 35 years, worth more than $19 million, according to CBS Colorado. The facility is expected to open in 2027 and create 16 jobs.
The tax agreement has become a point of opposition because residents and other critics are weighing a decades-long public subsidy against the project’s expected employment and infrastructure benefits. The county incentive is separate from the Town of Parker, which says it is not providing tax incentives for the project.
Flexential says the facility will use a closed-loop water system, consume less than 600,000 gallons of water annually and draw up to 22.5 megawatts from CORE Electric Cooperative. The company also says it will pay for electric substation upgrades. Parker’s project FAQ says the facility is not expected to significantly affect traffic or emit pollution affecting nearby residents, while acknowledging that backup generators could produce higher noise during outages.
The competing claims put water use, power demand, noise and pollution alongside tax policy in the local review. The project has already received approval from the Parker Town Council, leaving Douglas County’s rebate as the latest major public action tied to the development.
Lowell Expansion Hits a Court-Ordered Pause
In Lowell, Massachusetts, a Superior Court judge ordered a stay on enforcement of an air permit for four backup diesel generators that had not yet been installed at the Markley data center, according to a WGBH report. Four previously installed generators may continue operating under the permit’s conditions.
The order followed a legal challenge from community members who argued that the expansion did not adequately account for the neighborhood’s existing pollution burden.
The CBS Boston report describes the Markley facility as a 350,000-square-foot data center located near homes in the Sacred Heart neighborhood. Community concerns have focused on generator emissions, mechanical noise, water use and the effects of additional industrial infrastructure in a residential area.
Lowell’s City Council voted in favor of a 360-day moratorium on new data center construction and expansion while the city reviews zoning, infrastructure capacity, public safety, water and sewer systems, power demand, noise, enforcement and possible community benefit requirements.
The city’s proposed ordinance treats the pause as a planning period for developing rules specific to data centers.
The court order and moratorium create separate constraints: The court action affects four uninstalled generators under an air permit, while the city action addresses future data center development and expansion through zoning and permitting.
Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Data Centers
The Chicago, Parker, and Lowell cases show US data center opposition taking different forms.
One question that unites the opposition is whether local governments can capture the economic benefits of data center construction while limiting long-term costs tied to power, water, emissions, noise, infrastructure and neighborhood change.
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