Plans for a $500 million data center to be built by Dallas-based CyrusOne in rural southwest Sangamon County could receive final zoning votes from county officials later this month and in March.
A public hearing on CyrusOne’s plan to build a 636-megawatt data center complex covering 1.4 million square feet on 230 acres of farm ground in the 13000 block of Thayer Road in Talkington Township, 14 miles southwest of Springfield, is scheduled Feb. 19 in front of the Sangamon County Zoning Board of Appeals.
The ZBA will meet at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 19 in the Sangamon County Board chambers, Room 222 of the Sangamon County Complex, 200 S. Ninth St., Springfield, to hear testimony on the plans and consider making a non-binding recommendation to the County Board.
The Sangamon County Board’s zoning and land use committee will meet, hear public comments and discuss CyrusOne’s proposal for a conditional use permit at 5:45 p.m. Feb. 19 in Room 223 of the County Complex. The committee won’t take any votes on the plan, county spokesperson Jeff Wilhite said.
The soonest that the full Sangamon County Board would take a final vote on CyrusOne’s proposal would be March 23, when the board will meet at 6 p.m. at the BOS Center, Wilhite said.
County Board Chairperson Andy Van Meter recently informed board members that the site of the March meeting was moved from the county board chambers to the BOS Center to accommodate a potential large crowd.
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Logan County proposal
Meanwhile, a similar proposal by a different company, Miami-based Hut 8 Corp., to build a large-scale data center in rural southeast Logan County two miles west of Latham could receive final votes from Logan County officials in April.
Hut 8 made its first presentation to the public during a meeting of the Logan County Board’s zoning and economic development committee on Jan. 5.
Company officials plan to host a Feb. 4 public forum on its plans. No votes will be taken, and there will be time for questions and answers at the meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Banquet Center, 201 Madigan Drive, Lincoln.
Hut 8 has temporarily withdrawn its original proposal, which would change the zoning for the site near Latham from agricultural to industrial, according to Logan County Zoning Officer Allan Green.
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Logan County is considering following Sangamon County’s example and changing its county zoning law to allow for a data center in an agricultural zone through a conditional use permit so zoning wouldn’t need to change from agricultural to industrial, Green said.
The Logan County Board’s zoning committee could discuss this proposed change as soon as March 2, with the full board discussing the change at its workshop meeting March 19 and a final board vote taking place March 24.
The Logan County Regional Planning Commission would make a nonbinding recommendation on the change in county zoning law at its March 4 meeting, with the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals making a nonbinding recommendation at its March 5 meeting.
If that change takes place, and if Hut 8 refiles its proposal, Green said votes on a conditional permitted use for Hut 8 could take place in April.
Under that schedule, the Logan County Board’s zoning committee could discuss the plan at its April 6 meeting, and the Planning Commission and ZBA could make nonbinding recommendations at their meetings April 8 and 9, respectively.
The Logan County Board then would discuss the potential conditional permitted use for Hut 8 at its April 16 workshop meeting and take a final vote at its April 21 meeting.
Hut 8’s proposed data center would require 500 megawatts of electricity, but the company has estimated it would cost $5 billion to build – 10 times as much as what CyrusOne says it would cost to establish the Sangamon County data center.
