The Sangamon County Board defended its April zoning approval of the county’s first hyperscale data center in court on Sept. 11, as Circuit Judge Adam Giganti set the stage for an Oct. 9 hearing about a motion to dismiss.
Several Waverly residents who live approximately a mile or less from the site filed a lawsuit July 6 against Sangamon County and the County Board, seeking to overturn the county’s April 7 approval of the project. The Sangamon County Board approved a conditional permitted use for a data center to be constructed on 280 acres of farmland by a vote of 17-10, with one board member abstaining.
Chloe Russell, a Plainfield lawyer, filed the case on behalf of members of the Caruthers family, who have farmed land in southwest Sangamon County for close to two centuries, and Cathy Bettis, owner of Joette Kennel. The initial filings claim the county’s approved resolution from April 7 is misdated as March 23, the prior month’s meeting, when the proposal was actually tabled after hours of public comment. It also claims allowing a data center on agricultural land without knowing all the impacts could be detrimental to nearby farms, residences and Bettis’ nearly 20-year-old dog kennel business.
Lawyers hired by the county argued the complaint filed by residents should be dismissed with prejudice.
Lawyers from Champaign law firm Webber & Thies argued the decision was sound as “the county proactively researched potential issues and engaged in a careful process prior to reaching the result that it did.” The county also said the complaint’s claims of “alleged oversight or procedural violation in the county’s consideration of the conditional use permit… is (not) sufficient, individually or collectively, to call into question the rationality of the County Board’s decision.”
The filing claims the project would have little environmental impact but positively impact real estate values and provide enough tax revenue to “strongly impact the county’s general welfare.”
Tax codes (Y06 and Y08) for the proposed parcels of land the project would be built on show a vast majority of property tax receipts, near 70%, would go to North Mac School District, which has schools located in Macoupin County. Sangamon County would be second in the pecking order, and could expect to see about 9% of the property tax revenue from the project.
However, no local sales tax will apply to any of the “‘minimum $500 million investment,’” since CyrusOne secured a tax break before Gov. JB Pritzker used executive authority to pause a state program providing deals to developers.
“The proposed data center project would have minimal environmental impacts on surrounding land while generating substantial job opportunities and economic investment, as well as nearly $100 million in tax revenue,” the filing states. “Once construction is complete, the data center is expected to employ 100 permanent full-time employees on campus.”
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The filing, which makes no mention of the project’s planned 420 backup diesel generators, also cites a 2024 decision from the state’s Fourth District Appellate Court, which includes Sangamon County. That ruling found that a wind farm in Knox County would have “limited impact” on nearby areas – even though this lawsuit is about a hyperscale data center that would pull power, not generate electricity like a solar or wind farm does.
Specifically, it states CyrusOne “is taking environmentally-conscious measures to have a limited impact on the surrounding area’s use and enjoyment. This evidence also contributes to a rational basis for the decision, just as did similar evidence in Erickson (v. Knox County), where the zoning board found that a wind farm project would have ‘limited impact to the use and enjoyment of the surrounding land.’”
In early June, the state’s Fourth District Appellate Court issued a ruling that grants counties “some discretion” when considering commercial renewable energy projects. The case was filed by two solar companies seeking to develop nearly 150 acres of land in Winnebago County.
The appellate court interpreted a section of the state’s 2023 law about renewable energy project zoning as having “language (that) allows counties to codify and consider factors not expressly enumerated in the section and that give them some discretion when approving or denying applications. Accordingly, the trial court properly dismissed plaintiffs’ complaints” asking for a court order to grant project permits.
That decision disputed a March ruling from the state’s Third District Appellate Court, which ordered Grundy County to issue permits for a pair of commercial solar projects. Grundy County plans to appeal the decision, according to the Morris Herald-News.
Still, these cases did not pertain to approval or construction of data centers but other large, grid-associated projects.
The Webber & Thies lawsuit response states: “Sangamon County’s zoning office first started researching issues related to data center development in spring 2024,” referencing the county’s staff report from spring 2026. “Thus, the county proactively researched potential issues and engaged in a careful process prior to reaching the result that it did.”
But an internal zoning memo obtained through FOIA by The Coalition for Springfield’s Utility Future, a group of Sangamon County residents opposed to the project, starts the timeline of the County Board’s Zoning and Land Use Committee directing “zoning staff to research the increasing interest in data centers” in March 2025.
Emails obtained by The Coalition for Springfield’s Utility Future through FOIA show CyrusOne was communicating with county officials in February 2025, before the county committee began discussing zoning guidelines for data centers, according to the county’s zoning staff memo.
Illinois Times first reported the memo and email in June.
Plaintiffs have until Sept. 25 to file a response, then the county will have until Oct. 2 to respond to any plaintiff filings.
See the court filings here:
Click here to see the full original complaint, which has nine exhibits of evidence.
