Revised editor’s note: In addition to an update that includes the decision by Latham village officials to cancel the Village Board’s scheduled Aug. 3 meeting, the story now reflects confirmation from Logan County officials that they won’t consider or vote on Hut 8 Corp’s zoning requests in August.
It appears there aren’t enough votes to approve a zoning and annexation request that would pave the way for construction of a $5 billion data center, but Hut 8 Corp.’s proposal remains pending in front of the Latham Village Board.
Village officials said for several days that the Village Board was on track to consider the request at an Aug. 3 meeting. Then Village Attorney Jim Jankowicz informed Illinois Times at 6:07 p.m. July 28 that the Aug. 3 meeting had been canceled. An email from Jankowicz didn’t cite a reason for the cancellation.
“Meeting has been postponed,” he wrote. “Application has not been withdrawn. New date and time yet to be determined.”
Village President Theodore Allen said he would vote for the Miami-based company’s proposal to have the Logan County village of 350 people annex property set aside for the data center, then classify the agricultural land in a business zone for that purpose.
But Allen told Illinois Times on July 23 that he informally polled village trustees and determined the plan would fail if called for a vote. When informed about board members’ leanings by phone, Hut 8 officials agreed to withdraw their application and focus on winning zoning approval at the county level, Allen said.
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Hut 8 officials wouldn’t comment to the newspaper about the status of the company’s applications to the Village Board or at the county level.
Opponents of the proposed 500-megawatt Logan Prairie Data Center, on 200 acres of farm ground in unincorporated Logan County a mile west of Latham, said they have been frustrated by a lack of clarity and transparency surrounding the company’s plans since information began to be released in December 2025.
At the county level, Hut 8’s applications – for either a zoning change to industrial or a conditional permitted use in an agricultural zone – were scheduled for potential consideration for votes by the Regional Planning Commission on Aug. 5, and by the Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 6. Those votes would be nonbinding and would be forwarded to the County Board, which has the final say on zoning requests.
But on July 31, Logan County officials announced that the Aug. 6 ZBA meeting would be canceled. When Illinois Times asked Logan County Zoning Officer Allan Green why the meeting was canceled, Green said in an email that the Hut 8 applications have been “tabled.”
Green said the Regional Planning Commission won’t discuss the Hut 8 proposals at its August meeting, either, and the County Board won’t take a final vote on the company’s zoning requests at the board’s scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 18 in the rotunda of the Logan County Courthouse in Lincoln.
When asked whether the Hut 8 applications might be considered and voted on by Logan County officials at public meetings in September, Green said, “We will see where it goes.”
State’s Attorney Bradley Hauge, Logan County government’s legal adviser, has determined that technical mistakes in Hut 8’s applications disqualified them from consideration at the August meetings, Green said.
Hut 8 disagreed with Hauge, Green said. Hauge hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
Hut 8 could fix the technical errors and resubmit the applications, allowing them to be considered in September at the earliest, Green said.
“There has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding this from day one, and if anything, we have learned that isn’t going to change,” said Amanda Maxheimer, a Mount Pulaski resident and a founder of Sustain Logan County Communities, which opposes the proposed data center.
Hut 8, a publicly traded company, has promised to give Latham, a village with annual revenues of $291,000 per year, between $8 million and $11 million annually for a 15-year period through a community benefit agreement if the data center becomes operational. The agreement would take effect if the village agreed to annex the property after owners of property in between the village and the data center also petitioned for annexation.
But Village Trustee Ryan Virden said concerns raised by area residents about potential noise and light pollution confirmed his opposition to the plan, no matter the potential financial impact on the village.
“People move out to the rural areas for peace and quiet,” said Virden, 42.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.
We moved here to get away from noise and all the industrial pollution. We want to be able to sit in our backyard and see the stars and hear crickets. Not the loud droning sounds that data centers produce. We want our well water to be clear. We can barely pay electric bills now. All these years building equity in our homes we don’t want it all destroyed just because some billionaire don’t see the value in our small lives. OUR LIVES HERE MATTER! So absolutely NO! To data centers on our farm land!