It was standing room only Monday night as dozens of DeKalb residents turned out despite the snowy weather to share their thoughts on a proposed 560-acre Endeavour Energy data center.

The public hearing was in front of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which advises the City Council on development projects. Residents expressed their views and interests both for and against plans for what the city called “Project Vector” and last week announced would be Endeavour operating as its subsidiary, Edged.

The data center received the commission’s positive backing with an addendum, but City Council approval still is needed.

DeKalb developer Jerry Krusinski of ChicagoWest Business Center spoke at the hearing. Krusinski is petitioning for city support to rezone and annex 560 acres of land on the city’s south side for Endeavour Energy to build a major, four-building, 3 million-square-foot data center. ChicagoWest owns most of the land in question.

“We’re very excited to make this introduction here,” Krusinski said, introducing representatives from Edged. ”We’re not hiding behind a project codename. They want you to know that they want to be part of the community as well."

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James Feasey, senior director of AI Infrastructure at Endeavour, answers a citizen’s question Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, during public comment, about the proposed 560-acre Endeavour Energy data center at the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing at the DeKalb Public Library. (Mark Busch)

While it’s true the public knows the company behind the project’s codename – a common strategy in major development and often mandated by nondisclosure agreements signed by public officials – it’s not yet known what company will be using the data center, however.

If approved by the DeKalb City Council, Endeavour Energy – which also has a data center in Aurora – plans to rent out its data center servers to other large-scale users. The city hasn’t announced who that user might be.

The data center campus would be built just south of Meta’s DeKalb Data Center, with fewer buildings but more land. Edged would have four data center campus buildings and two electrical substations, on about 560 acres of land on both east and west sides of Illinois State Route 23, north of Keslinger Road and west of Crego Road, records show.

In 2005, the city adopted a comprehensive master plan, which laid the groundwork for encouraging industrial development in and around the ChicagoWest Business Center. That planning document would later be updated in 2022.

Since 2020, ChicagoWest has brought significant industrial growth to DeKalb, securing developments from Ferrara Candy Co. to Kraft Heinz, Meta’s DeKalb data center and Amazon.

Project leaders credit that success, in part, to the rise of the DeKalb County enterprise zone.

An enterprise zone is a geographical area in which businesses may receive tax benefits and other incentives to help spur new economic growth.

An expansion of the DeKalb County Enterprise Zone was previously granted by DeKalb city leaders with unanimous support in both March 2024 and September 2025, city documents show.

Krusinski said he’s been working with Endeavour for about six months now. The company’s CEO has been in town on multiple occasions, he said.

“The reality of it is these data centers are very high-value facilities and the layout is very similar to Meta,” Krusinski said. “We want this done responsibly, sustainably and really to let it fit in with the harmony of the area.”

Krusinski touted local tax revenue as a positive for the project. He said the data center build – expected to take up to 8 years – would bring in “good-paying union construction jobs for many years,” support local businesses and suppliers and, when online, bring 100 full-time high-paying jobs to operate.

Jake Constance, a member of Laborers’ Local 32 who lives in Rockford, expressed support for the project.

“The way we see it is when you need jobs, it needs community vision,” Constance said. “Everybody wins. It’s not just about jobs, it’s about doing it sustainably and responsibly.”

Not everyone was sold on the benefits of allowing the proposed development.

DeKalb resident Elizabeth Maldonado said she believes the city could lose its way over developers’ promises to spur economic growth.

“We’re effectively subsidizing these companies in exchange for a handful of jobs, while they extract enormous value from our community, our land, our resources,” Maldonado said. “That’s corporate welfare. It’s not economic development in my opinion.”

DeKalb resident Michelle McGill expressed reservations about the community and the direction it’s headed.

She said she has concerns about losing the sense of peace and tranquility in her neighborhood.

“If or when Project Vector passes, the whole area is going to change,” McGill said.

DeKalb Mayor Cohen Barnes and City Manager Bill Nicklas also were present at the hearing, as were DeKalb aldermen Andre Powell and Justin Carlson, and DeKalb School District 428 Board members Christopher Boyes and Mark Charvat.

City staff said they had received several letters of support for the project in advance of Monday’s council meeting.

Local developer Brian Grainger, who used to own property in the South Pointe Greens neighborhood, expressed his support for the proposed development.

He said it is a luxury that the city is positioned where it is to improve residents’ quality of life.

It hasn’t always been that way, however.

“That job growth has drastically diminished,” Grainger said. “In those opportunities, they created opportunities for us to build homes and support our families. [It’s] just not here anymore. NIU is here, but the job growth is nothing like it was in the 90s.”

Jamie Walter, president at Whisky Acres Distilling Co., said he’d like to extend “cautious support” for this proposed project.

“Right now, we’re sitting at this nexus, this confluence between both the city, which we’re not against, but also protecting our agricultural character,” Walter said.

Some residents expressed concerns about another major data center’s environmental impact. Data centers typically use massive amounts of water and energy to keep its 24/7 servers operating.

Endeavour Energy has said it plans to use natural gas-powered generators to cool its servers instead of water. Meta’s data center in DeKalb, comparatively, is limited by the city to 200,000 gallons of water per day, documents show.

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Krusinski also addressed energy consumption.

Endeavour Energy markets itself online as a maker of sustainable data centers, providing “carbon-neutral, zero water” data centers for major cloud companies.

“This facility here will not impact the city of DeKalb’s utility power costs,” Krusinski said. “What does do that is more of a national impact and what’s happening with the industry with transmission and power generations.”

It remains unclear, however, how much electricity is going to be used from ComEd at this time.

DeKalb resident Emily McKee said something has to give.

“I have concerns about sacrificing really valuable land, really valuable community space for unproven technology,” McKee said.

Commissioner Trixy O’Flaherty said she felt she needed more information from project leaders.

She ultimately voted to support the proposed development, however.

“I do have real concerns about sound, any kind of environmental impact,” O’Flaherty said.

The Planning and Zoning Commission previously came under fire in recent months for not adhering to the objective of the advisory panel.

The proposed development is expected to come before City Council for consideration at its Dec. 8 meeting.

Chairman Max Maxwell expressed appreciation to community members who turned out for the meeting.

“I appreciate everyone coming out,” Maxwell said. “Obviously, you want to have your voices heard.”

This story was updated at 5 p.m. Dec. 2, 2025.

Shaw Local’s Kelsey Rettke contributed.