Joliet Planning Director Jayne Bernhard has family with a stake in the land sought for a future data center, but is not involved herself in the prospective land transaction or in staff planning for the project, city officials said this week.

Questions about Bernard’s involvement in the project were raised at a City Council meeting this week by one of many area residents voicing opposition to the proposed data center.

“I can attest that she has not been involved at all by administrative direction with any matter regarding that development,” Joliet Community Development Director Dustin Anderson said after the meeting on Tuesday.

Anderson is Bernhard’s direct supervisor.

The Joliet Technology Center is proposed for 795 acres largely owned by Bernhard Farms Inc. in the area at Rowell Avenue and Bernhard Road.

HW Technology Park Development, a division of Texas-based Hillwood, wants to annex what is mostly farmland into Joliet and get city approval for the data center.

Bernhard alerted supervisors of her family involvement in the project, according to city officials.

“The city is aware that Joliet City Planner Jayne Bernhard’s family owns farmland included among the properties under consideration for the Joliet Data Center project,” city spokeswoman Ann Sylvester said in a statement emailed Wednesday in response to Shaw Local News Network inquiries about the situation.

“Jayne brought this matter to the city’s attention immediately upon learning that these properties were being considered and has not been involved in conversations regarding the project,” Sylvester said.

“While her father is a stakeholder in the associated entities, Jayne Bernhard is not involved in the finances of Bernhard Farms, Inc. or the Bernhard Family Land Trust,” Sylvester said. “The city appreciates her transparency and her proactive efforts to disclose this information.”

Bernhard was named planning director in June. She has been with Joliet since 2017 as a city planner.

Andrea Baumhardt, whose house is on the edge of the prospective data center, called on city officials to disclose whether Bernhard had ties to the Bernhard land.

“Let’s be clear,” Baumhardt said to the council. “Let’s make this transparent. Is the city director or her family on that land trust?”

Council members and city officials did not comment on the matter during the meeting.

Baumhardt was one of 11 people to speak against the proposal during the public comment segment of the meeting.

The project was not on the council agenda that day nor at any time previously. But opponents of the project have been speaking out at public meetings since the data center was put on the agenda of the city Plan Commission in October.

City staff had the matter tabled until November and then tabled it indefinitely.

City Manager Beth Beatty said staff still is looking into some of the same issues raised by opponents, including the potential impact of a 795-acre data center on local water supplies and electricity usage.

“We’re in the early stages of planning,” Beatty said after the Tuesday meeting. “We’re just in the fact-finding phase.”

A few of the people speaking at the council meeting, however, indicated they suspect the city is inclined to approve the project.

“I believe many of you already have your minds set on this project in our community,” Abraham Martinez of Joliet told the council. “Whatever you believe you will gain from this is not worth the damage it will cause.”

One speaker said the city should develop a model ordinance that would set standards for any data center project before considering the proposal for the Joliet Technology Center.

Another said the city should pass an ordinance banning data centers altogether from Joliet.