Aurora has temporarily paused the approval of data center and warehouse proposals to give staff the chance to create new guidelines around these types of developments.
The temporary moratorium was approved by the Aurora City Council at a specially-called meeting on Thursday after city officials made their case for why it was needed at the regularly-scheduled City Council meeting Tuesday.
Citing an increased number of applications and residents’ concerns with existing facilities, staff said the moratorium would give them time to research ways to mitigate the various impacts of data centers, which are currently classified as warehouses under the city’s code, then report recommendations back to City Council.
Aurora Mayor John Laesch said at the Thursday meeting that he took a number of phone calls from those potentially looking to bring data centers to the city, as well as from organized labor, and he assured them that “we are not against data centers as a whole,” the city just needs guardrails to protect residents and to make sure the facilities aren’t “contributing to the climate crisis.”
The now-approved temporary moratorium will be in effect for 180 days, so until late March 2026, but could be extended an additional 30 days. Laesch said Thursday that the moratorium could also be shorter if a code change is drafted before the end of the six-month pause, and city staff members said they will be presenting an update in 90 days.
During the moratorium, the city will not be accepting or approving applications for new data center or warehouse developments or expansions of existing facilities, according to a staff report about the proposal.
However, staff noted in the report several exemptions to the temporary moratorium, including projects with completed applications filed before the ordinance went into effect, routine maintenance or repairs at existing data centers that do not increase capacity and public safety or emergency facilities operated by government bodies.
There is also a conditional processing of new applications for developers with time-sensitive projects, but those applications will need to be modified to fit any new regulations that may eventually be passed by the Aurora City Council, Corporation Council Yordana Wysocki said at the Thursday meeting.
Plus, there is a hardship appeal process for those who have already made substantial investments into a development but weren’t able to apply in time, she said.
Aurora Chief Development Services Officer John Curley told the Aurora City Council on Tuesday that there are currently five data center developments attempting to get approval. At the same time, staff is working to address residents’ concerns about existing facilities, which include concerns around noise, traffic and environmental impacts, he said.
The Beacon-News has previously reported on noise concerns raised by those living near the CyrusOne data center, located at the corner of Eola and Diehl roads on Aurora’s far East Side near Interstate 88.
Repairs made to that data center in April required the use of backup generators for many days straight, which caused consistently loud noise in the surrounding area that residents called “unlivable” and “horrible.” That prompted community meetings between residents, CyrusOne and city officials.
Since then, CyrusOne has put in place temporary measures and is working on permanent solutions to block sound coming from those generators as well as from rooftop chilling units that neighbors also say create noise pollution in the area. With the temporary measures up, residents have said recent repairs have been less impactful but that the generators were still so loud they could hear them inside their homes.
In addition to concerns about noise, staff also pointed out potential issues around the amount of energy and water data centers often take to operate, air quality due to diesel backup generators and greenhouse gas emissions.
A number of residents spoke at the meeting Thursday, raising similar concerns to those presented by staff earlier in the week.
One of those speakers was Mavis Bates, who is a Kane County Board member, chair of the local Sierra Club group and chair of the Mayor’s Sustainable Aurora Advisory Board. She advocated on behalf of the temporary moratorium, noting environmental concerns as well as those around noise and vibrations, and said she was glad Aurora will be “a leader in sustainable data center hosting.”
The city of Aurora is not alone in its concerns or its challenges around warehouses and data centers, and many communities have taken action to understand how to address the impact of these facilities, according to Aurora Director of Sustainability Alison Lindburg, who presented Tuesday alongside Curley.
The ultimate goal of the temporary moratorium is to clarify the data center and warehouse development process while making sure that long-term community and environmental impacts are addressed before construction, according to staff’s presentation Tuesday.
Wysocki said Thursday that any new rules eventually adopted would not apply to those developments with applications submitted before the moratorium was approved.
After discussion, the Aurora City Council voted 10-1 to adopt the temporary moratorium. Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, was not in attendance at the meeting and so did not vote, and voting against the moratorium was Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward.
Before the vote was taken, Franco said he didn’t think the council was presented with enough information to justify the moratorium. The council should stop them being developed near neighborhoods until more information is gathered, he said, but it seems there are many good reasons to have data centers in the city.
Laesch at both the Tuesday and Thursday meetings said data centers help the city through property taxes and significant utility taxes. City staff also said on Tuesday that data centers create less traffic and can fill vacant space if done correctly, though they create few jobs once open.
Franco also advocated for the city to work with those in the data center industry, which Laesch said will happen.
Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, said he thinks people are looking at the moratorium wrong, as it just gives the city time to change its ordinance that doesn’t currently meet proper standards for data centers and warehouses. It is fantastic that some data centers are doing innovative things that the city can learn from, but the city needs to take the time to create minimum standards, he said.
The temporary moratorium was approved by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, but otherwise did not pass through the Aurora City Council’s committee structure that ordinances are usually approved through. Instead, the item went directly from the Planning and Zoning Commission to City Council for final approval at the specially-called meeting Thursday.