Plainfield village trustees have unanimously approved placing a temporary moratorium on data center proposals until guidelines regarding their construction are approved.

They approved the moratorium at the Monday Plainfield Village Board meeting. The move comes following an outcry against data centers in neighboring communities like Joliet and Yorkville.

“There’s been just this mad rush for data center approval everywhere,” Plainfield Mayor John Argoudelis said during discussion of the moratorium. “Everyone wants to make millions of dollars with these things. I’m sure we’re going to find out that we don’t need what’s being proposed and built. And they’re going to get more efficient so they won’t have to be so big and not use as much energy.”

He also noted there are discussions among state legislators about requiring data centers to supply their own power.

“Let’s not jump into the mad rush that so many other communities are,” Argoudelis said. “And let’s see what makes sense for our community.”

The moratorium places a 180-day pause on any applications for data centers and warehouses primarily used to store computing infrastructure.

“This temporary measure is intended to allow sufficient time for the village to prepare and adopt a new Unified Development Ordinance that addresses the unique land use, infrastructure and regulatory considerations associated with data centers,” Plainfield Village Administrator Joshua Blakemore said in a memo to Argoudelis and village trustees.

As a home-rule community, Plainfield has the authority to enact such an ordinance. Blakemore said data centers present distinct challenges and impacts.

“The current zoning and development regulations do not fully account for these factors,” he said. “As a result, proceeding with new data center proposals under the existing framework could lead to outcomes that are inconsistent with the village’s long-term planning goals.”

The moratorium notes that there is legislation pending before the Illinois General Assembly that, if enacted, would establish environmental, water and energy regulations for data centers.

During the moratorium, the village plans to monitor and interpret state legislation affecting the regulation of data centers and to research, evaluate and propose a comprehensive set of land use regulations of data centers for consideration by the village.

If the UDO update is not completed within the initial 180-day period, the ordinance allows for the moratorium to be extended as needed by formal action of the village board.

“This flexibility ensures that the village is not pressured to adopt incomplete or insufficient regulations,” Blakemore said.

Plainfield village trustee Richard Kiefer thought the moratorium was a good idea.

“I would be interested to see how we change our language with the UDO moving forward,” he said.

Village trustee Vanessa Sula agreed.

“I think that when you know better, you do better,” she said. “I think there really needs to be a hard look into these. And I think that the 180 days is appropriate.”

While data centers are being proposed in surrounding communities, Oswego Village President Ryan Kauffman has said it is not likely that data centers will ever be built in the village.

“We are not close enough to an electrical substation, a focal point on the grid,” Kauffman said. We’re just not there. We don’t have the infrastructure. Yorkville happened to be close enough to the grid, so that they have the power from which to draw from.”

At a recent Yorkville City Council meeting, Yorkville Mayor John Purcell said there’s “no more appetite” from the City Council for data center proposals outside of what’s already been approved.