With 3,000 acres eyed for data center development in Yorkville, residents have raised several concerns including that a data center bubble could leave the city on the hook.

Developers of the first-approved data center campus in Yorkville told the city on Feb. 10 they are scaling-down development plans.

With large plans like the 1,034-acre Project Cardinal, and the 540-acre Project Steel, residents have questioned during city meetings whether advancing technology will make the massive-scale data center campuses obsolete over the span over their decade-or-more of construction.

Data center activity in Yorkville began with the 228-acre CyrusOne data center, in partnership with Green Door Capital. The development is located at the northeast corner of Eldamain Road and Faxon Road.

The original approved PUD included nine, two-story data center warehouses totaling 2.4 million square feet and an 800,000-square-foot substation.

The developers have since reduced the plan to eight warehouses totaling 2.1 million square feet and downsized the substation by half its original size.

Further, the developers said they will probably amend the plan in the future to reduce all remaining eight warehouses from two-stories to one-story each.

Representatives for the development told the city they are moving closer to beginning construction.

“We are moving forward,” Russ Whitaker said on behalf of CyrusOne during the Feb. 10 City Council meeting. “We will begin construction here in the first quarter of this year with the expectation of delivery of power next year so we can begin with building once we get through site development work.”

Whitaker said down-scaling the buildings’ height should not change the amount of power used for the overall project.

He said the transformer delivery and installation will be happening later this year.

CyrusOne is a Texas-based development company. Both CyrusOne and Green Door Capital are involved in another project in town, a 128-acre data center plan north of Faxon Road, south of Corneils Road, and east of Beecher Road.

City officials have said the 3,000 acres of potential data center development along the Eldamain Corridor can generate significant tax revenues for the city.