Welcome everyone to the City of Joeyet Council meeting here on Monday, March 16th at 4 30 p.m.

Because of the number of changes, the invocation will be presented by myself.

The meeting will be presided over by our mayor, Terry Darcy.

Heavenly Father, as we gather together, we thank you for your endless goodness to us.

Thank you for all the skills and the talents you have given us and for everyone who is part of this.

Beloved team.

We pray that you will provide us with great wisdom and insight as we discuss our work plans and make the decisions about our future today.

We open our hearts to you now and invite you, the Holy Spirit, to present us with guidance.

Thank you, Lord.

Okay.

We'll begin with roll call.

Mayor Darcy?

Here.

Councilman Cardinals?

Here.

Councilman Clement?

Here.

Councilman Hugs?

Here.

Councilman Avaro?

Here.

Councilman Moreno?

Here.

Councilman Mudron?

Here.

Councilman Quilman is absent.

She did let me know due to inclement weather that she is unable to attend the meeting.

Councilman Ruden?

Here.

Next is the approval of the agenda.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda as written?

So move.

Second.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Cardinals?

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Here.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Here.

Aye.

Aye.

Councilwoman Navarro?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudron?

Aye.

Councilman Rurdin?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Next is citizens to be heard on agenda items.

If you are here to speak on the proposed data center, the public hearing on this item is at 5 30.

So you can speak on that item during that time.

Is there anyone who would like to speak on an agenda item other than the proposed data center?

Okay, seeing none.

Next is Mayor Protem.

Is there a motion to appoint Councilwoman Quillman to serve as Mayor Pro Tem for the term April 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2026?

So moved.

Second.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hudd?

Aye.

Councilman of our aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Muggren.

Aye.

Councilwoman Ridden.

Aye.

Councilman Cardenas?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Next our council committee reports.

First, we have communication technology and information systems.

Our committee met on March 4th in the executive conference room at 8.30.

We only had three agenda items to vote on.

One of them is a contract to Center for Internet Security, CrowdStrike.

Obviously, it is for our security renewal.

It's $65,142.

The second was a reward to cut of contract to UNA solutions for UNO procurement in the amount of 26,500.

26,500.

Uh this is a solution improves efficiency by digitizing our entire um sourcing lifestyle or lifecycle and reducing manual tasks.

And our last item was award of contract to cities digital ink for the laser fees document management system, annual renewal in the amount of 75,000.

We've been using laser fees for quite a while now, and we're just uh doing a renewal for our document management.

Anything else?

Good.

Well thank you.

Okay.

And that's our report.

Thank you.

Committee net here today at 330.

On the committee is Councilwoman Sherry Reardon, Councilman Larry Hug, and myself.

Um we had just a few items.

Uh the main ordinance amendments to chapter two, Article 2, the city manager's authority for succession and hiring temporary appointments.

This proposed amendment would allow the city manager to hire replacement and pro employees prior to the last day of the departing employee.

The overlap period may not exceed six months, and funding must be available.

In addition, the amendment authorizes the city manager to appoint temporary workers for a period not exceeding six months with any 12-month window of a temporary operational needs.

This amendment allows the outgoing person to help train the new hiree.

Monthly financial statements.

Um after two months, uh we have a small surplus.

Parking fund is almost $12,000 higher than funded for.

This would be December through February.

Uh the library had over 757,000 visitors uh for that quarter, 30,000 uh in the downtown, 26,000 at Black Road that checked out 81,115 items.

Additionally, 10,400 people attended 490 different programs with 91 percent of the programs being for youths.

Sherry that's very good.

That was everything.

That'd be my report.

Thank you.

And public service.

The public service committee met today at four o'clock, just a little over a half hour ago, here in the executive session council room to my right on the committee and in attendance with councilwoman Raredon, Councilman Mudrin, and myself, Councilman Hugg.

Uh we had three items under contract.

Um was uh our ongoing 23 2023 to 2027 contract to take care of uh landscaping company taking care of the landscaping on all of our sewer and water properties, and we looked at that contract and found out to be in order for about 140,000.

Then there's also the purchase of some uh flow meters for sewage for the sewage uh system.

These are portable flow meters that are used throughout the system to diagnose problems.

And uh some of them have aged out not working anymore.

If you consider what they're used for, you would understand why they have a certain life span that was for about 50,000.

Um then we looked at a professional services agreement for 104,000 with um Thailand uh engineering to oversee the improvements being made as related to the city square project on the um the engineering requirements, I should say, on the uh building modifications for the parking deck.

Um under pay estimates, we had one, it was with Austin Tyler.

It was a net deduction of the original amount estimated of 571,600,000 with a final payment closing out the project, which was the Emerald Lawns Water Main Improvement Project for $614,195 and 92 cents.

Uh we looked at a drive-through permit for Culver's out on uh shale 1301 Shale Road, found that to be in order, and um moved it forward with committee recommendation to approve.

And under ordinance and resolutions, we had two uh low interest loans that we looked at.

Um, Illinois State loan rooms for the water main replacement project as well as for the lead water services line replacement, and uh they are coming in.

Um these are Illinois State loan rooms for the water main replacement project as well as for the lead water services line replacement and uh they are coming in, I believe it was 2.4 percent, so the relatively low interest for these projects, as well as uh a memorandum of understanding between the city of Joelett and deconstruction and the state of Illinois for the Castreek Bridge product that to use some of our land that's owned right adjacent to it as a staging area for construction.

Um that's all I had.

Uh all of the items except for one were sent forward with unanimous approval.

Uh recommendation for the council approval.

The one item which was the the new uh well that I take that back.

All of the items were set forward with an unanimous approval.

Did I miss anything?

I almost you know what I almost combined finance with my report.

Yes, you guys caught that.

We really made it we're all on the same committee.

All three of us are on finance and public service.

So I almost twisted them.

So did I miss anything, Paul?

I just want one question.

Sure.

Wasn't the lead service line a zero interest loan?

Yes.

So thank you.

Yes, you're right.

The uh other one was 2.4 percent.

Yeah, I wish I can get a mortgage for zero interest.

Okay, with that said, Mayor, that would be the report.

Thank you.

I show no other reports under consent agenda, approval of minutes.

It is recommended the minutes of the pre-council meeting March 2nd, 2026, and the council meeting March 3rd, 2026 stand approved as recorded.

Invoices to be paid.

It is recommended this report be approved.

Council memo number 161-26, award of contract extension for the 2023-2027 landscape maintenance services utilities program to Ramiro Guzman Landscaping in the amount of 140, 366 and 78 cents.

Council memo number 162-26, purchase of ISCO flow metering equipment from Gas Voda and Associates Incorporated in the amount of 49,995.

Council Memo number 163-26, award of contract to Center for Internet Security CIS for Crowd Strike Endpoint Security Solution Annual Renewal in the amount of $65,142.

Council Memo number 164-26, award of contract to IUNA solutions for UNA procurement annual renewal in the amount of $26,500.

Council Memo number 165-26, award of contract to cities digital digital incorporated for laser feast document management system annual renewal in the amount of $75,000.

It is recommended council memos 161-26 through 165-26 be approved.

Is there a motion to approve all said consent agenda items?

So moved.

Second.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Hugg.

Aye.

Councilwoman Ivarra?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilman Ruerdan.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinus?

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Under agenda items.

Council Memo number 167-26.

Professional services agreement for the phase three engineering services for the Juliet City Square, Ottawa Street Parking Deck Building Modifications to TY Lynn in an amount not to exceed 104,088 dollars.

It is recommended Council Memo number 167-26 be approved.

So moved.

Second.

Any comments or questions?

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Ivarro.

Aye.

Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilman Reardon.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals.

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hug.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 168-26.

Approval of change order number one for the Emerald Vaughn's Water Main Improvements Project to Austin Tyler Construction Incorporated for a deduction in the amount of 571,601 dollars and eighteen cents and pay estimate number six and final in the amount of six hundred and fourteen thousand one hundred and ninety-five dollars and ninety-two cents.

It is recommended council memo number one sixty-eight-26 be approved.

Motion approve.

Second.

Any comments or questions?

Thank you.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Moreno.

Abstain.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilman Ruordan.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals.

Aye.

Councilman McClement?

Aye.

Councilman Hugg.

Aye.

Councilman of Aro.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Under licenses and permit applications.

Council Member number 170-26.

Application for a drive-through permit for Culver's restaurant at 1301 Shale Road.

Is there a motion to approve the issuance of said drive-through permit?

So moved.

Second.

Any comments, questions?

I have a question.

Is this councilman hug's district?

Whose district is this?

I think is that the rock run.

Is it run?

It's rock run.

Okay.

All right.

Oh, yeah.

There you go.

And then we declared it.

We made all the ayes are dotted and T's are crossed.

Thank you.

I appreciate that, Councilman Hogg.

Okay.

That's all.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilman Rudin.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinus?

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman of Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Under ordinances.

Councilmember number one seventy-two-26.

Ordinance amending chapter two, Article 2, City Manager Authority for Sucession Hiring and Temporary Appointments.

It is recommended that ordinance be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

Any comments or questions?

I would really, Mayor, if I can get a second to speak.

I'd really like to.

I I'm not happy with the fact that we're doing any business tonight beyond the data center.

And I have not had a chance to even look at this.

All of our time, energy, and attention has been focused on the data center.

I would really like to table it until the data centers out of the way and we have a personal I then my vote will be no.

No, I was just gonna say that um Alison could present to you right now if you'd like.

Or we can take it off the agenda.

I would like it it personally, I would like it taken off the agenda.

We can revisit this again in two weeks.

It's not a big deal.

The data center is a big deal right now.

Are you making a motion to a table?

I am making a motion to say except tables, not the crack motion, so Todd will advise us to what it is.

Yeah, it's postponed, it's a debatable motion, needs a first and second, but the technical motion is to postpone.

So are you making a motion to postpone?

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to postpone it.

There's nothing that's gonna happen over the next two weeks that's gonna be life or death here, and this data center is taking up all of our time and energy.

Okay so let's get this out of the way and give us a chance to really think about what's being proposed here.

So thank you.

Second, yes, I did.

All right.

So go ahead.

Take vote.

Okay, so there's been a motion and second to postpone this item.

Yes, whose is a motion?

So Susanna made the motion.

Larry second, so now vote.

Councilwoman Ruerdin.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals?

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman of our councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

This was discussed at finance and I vote no.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion carried.

Mayor.

I'm gonna ask you.

Council.

Yeah.

Not today.

We have you know obviously a huge agenda item on here.

At the next meeting, can you give us a presentation of the exact difference between a motion or table and motion of I think there's some confusion over that?

Is that sure?

So not today.

I want to move forward, you know.

It wouldn't take long, but I can say so to lay it on the table is a temporary motion.

Word postpone is you're moving it off the agenda.

Laying on the table, you can pick it up at any time.

So that would include later in this meeting.

That's the difference between laid on the table and postpone.

Okay.

So thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Under resolutions.

Council memo number 174-26.

Resolution authorizing a memorandum of understanding between the city of Joliet and Deconstruction Incorporated for temporary use of city owned property for IDOTS Cass Street Bridge Project.

It is recommended that resolution be adopted.

So move second.

Comments or questions?

Thank you.

It's been motioned and seconded to approve.

Councilman Cardenas?

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman Avaro?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Councilman Mudron.

Aye.

Councilman Rudin.

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 175-26.

Resolution accepting Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Low Interest Loan.

L 176077 for the 2026 Water Main Replacement Program.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Second.

Any comments or questions?

Yes, just because and I thank uh councilwoman Rudon for clarifying it.

This is the 2.4% interest loan.

The next one that we'll entertain is zero percent.

Thank you.

I think this one says zero on the doing this backwards.

Yeah.

The lead letters.

Right.

The service line replacement used to be forgivable, but it's not anymore.

We pay the low interest, correct?

It's 2.16 for this first one.

I took the long way around, but we played it.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Thank you.

It's been motion and seconded to approve.

Councilmanc Clement?

Aye.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilman Abarra.

Councilman Moreno.

Aye.

Councilman Mudron.

Aye.

Councilman Rudin.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Council Memo number 176-26.

Resolution accepting Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Low Interest Loan.

L 176080 for the 2026 lead water service line replacement program.

It is recommended said resolution be adopted.

So moved.

Okay.

Any comments or questions?

Thank you.

It's our motion and seconded to approve.

Councilman Hug?

Aye.

Councilwoman Abarrow?

Aye.

Councilman Moreno?

Aye.

Councilman Mudrin.

Aye.

Councilwoman Rudin.

Aye.

Councilman Cardinals.

Aye.

Councilman Clement?

Aye.

Mayor Darcy.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Okay.

The public hearing will start at 5:30.

So yeah, we we noticed it for 5 30, so we have to wait until 5 30 to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to sign up to speak and etc.

So we'll break for a half hour.

Do we vote to go to recess?

No.

You do need a vote.

Okay.

Motion to recess.

I'll make a motion.

There's no discussion.

Motion to go to recess until 5 30 when the hearing will start.

Yes, second that's all in favor.

Any comments or questions?

Is it an odd in favor?

Can we get some seats for these people?

There's seats downstairs.

So there's overflow downstairs.

So if you would like to sit down.

Um sit.

There are extra seats downstairs.

Um if you're fine standing, you're welcome to stand, but there is overflow.

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

We'll we'll be back at 5 30 to start the public hearing.

No.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I'm not going to be able to do that.

Is there still seating downstairs too?

Okay.

Okay, under public hearings.

We have council memo number 178-26 public hearing for a resolution to approve an annexation agreement for the annexation of approximately 795 acres surrounding South Rao Road and Bernhard Road A-4-25.

This is a public hearing, so comments will be in order.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Um we understand there's a great deal of interest in this project.

Um so I'd like to take it just a second to briefly explain how the hearing will proceed.

Um, after the applicant's presentation, we will open the public comment period.

Everyone who has signed in to speak will be called up and given four minutes so that to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to be heard.

Please direct all comments to the council as a whole and not to staff, the applicant or other audience members.

If you are a property owner within the zoning notice boundary, you may request a reasonable amount of extra time for questions.

After a public comment, the applicant will have an opportunity to respond to those questions.

Throughout the hearing, we ask everyone to maintain decorum.

Keep remarks respectful, avoid interrupting others, and please refrain from applause or other reactions so that all participants can be heard in an orderly setting.

Thank you.

Okay, to start representatives for Hillwood Development, we'll provide a brief presentation regarding this item.

Did we officially reopen the hearing?

Because we recessed, so we just have to make sure.

Oh yes.

I have to be a motion to come back.

Okay.

Yes.

Make a motion.

So I guess we do need a motion to come back into session.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

We are back in session.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, members of the council.

My name is David Silverman.

I'm an attorney with the Joliet Law Firm of Mahoney Silverman and Cross.

I'm here tonight before you representing the developer of this project, Hillwood and Powerhouse Joint Venture.

We're here to present to you on the Jolia Technology Center.

It kind of has a good ring, doesn't it, to bring some technology to Joliet.

We did this last time.

We're here tonight to ask for your favorable vote on five issues.

First, an annexation agreement between the developers and the city of Joliet, which will set out the terms of how this property gets developed and the incentives that will be paid to Joliet.

The next is the annexation of the property, the next rezoning to the I-1 light industrial district, a planned unit development, a preliminary plan unit development.

We'll be back later for final development if this gets approved tonight.

And a preliminary subdivision approval.

Your plan commission, after many hours of testimony, has recommended to the council that the zoning and the plan unit development and the annexation agreement and the annexation be approved.

They didn't weigh in on the annexation agreement as that was not before them.

This project has been here with the city for many, many months.

We're originally on the agenda for the September Planning and Zoning Commission, at which time the city said, let's put put a pause on this project, let's slow it down a little bit, and let's make sure that all the questions are heard and the answers are provided.

So what we've done from the developer's side is we've listened to those questions.

We've listened to the questions that have been brought in public comment before this body, the questions that were brought in public comment before the planning commission, the questions presented at the plan commission in the public hearing, and also the rather large open house that we uh that we did out at Joliet Junior College.

So we hope we can answer all those questions here for you tonight.

We have assembled a group of experts and folks from the companies that are involved, Powerhouse and Hillwood, to answer all your questions and all the questions that have been presented to the public or by the public to the plan commission in this body.

At the conclusion, we hope that you will agree with the staff recommendation to approve it, agree with the Planning Commission recommendation, and that a data center is an appropriate use on this property located on the southeast side of town.

So I'd like to first introduce to you uh Don Schoenheider.

Don is with the Hillwood Group, uh, Don in Powerhouse, if approved, will Don uh Don's Company Hillwood and Powerhouse, if approved, will be your partners in this project, and we want you to get to know them and learn learn a little bit about their experience.

So, Don, if you could say a few words, please.

Thanks, David.

Okay.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, member of the city council, city staff.

I'm Don Schoenheider with Hillwood.

Uh Hillwood is a private investment development firm.

We're based in Dallas.

We were started in 1988 by Rossboro Senior.

Uh, Ross Senior has passed away a few years ago, but the company is still run by Ross Jr.

and uh the spirit and the uh cooperativeness that Ross Senior would have liked.

Our background as a company is really in diverse types of various types of real estate.

We've done over 4,000 multi-tenant units, multi-family units.

We've developed mixed use and office complexes.

We're known around the country and around the world for building industrial buildings.

And we've done over 110 residential communities in the US.

The one thing we haven't really done to a great extent is data centers.

And so what we've done for Juliet and for this particular project is to call on and partner with what we believe to be the top flight, the best data center developer in the country.

So at this point in time, I'd like to introduce Liz Nicholson, who is partnered with Powerhouse Data Centers, and she'll tell you a little bit about our partner Powerhouse.

Thank you, Don, for the introduction.

Good evening, Mayor Darcy and members of City Council.

We appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening.

Powerhouse is a fully owned and operated platform of American real estate partners, a company with over 20 years' history in the development realm.

We're an integrated data center developer that has grown to about 180 professionals in recent years.

And in house, we have a deep expertise across the investment entitlement, power procurement, design and construction, leasing and asset management.

I realize that's a long list of things to tell you, but I think the key point is we're with the project for its full life cycle, and we believe that that continuity is very important to deliver nice projects.

Since launching Powerhouse, initially focused in the Northern Virginia area.

We've expanded into about 10 markets in the United States with close to 140 data centers in planning and construction stages.

Powerhouse is a responsible development partner with a disciplined and transparent development model.

We're coordinating each phase of development directly with utilities and when a tenant is in place.

This slide depicts a few of our projects throughout the country.

And I think our history as a Class A office developer sets us apart in that we focus on the campus design holistically.

That includes intentional and well-designed landscaping that is well maintained at all times and quality architecture.

We desire to build projects that will be a good neighbor in the community.

With that, I will transition to Pat on our team who can talk a little bit about our site selection process.

Thank you.

Thanks, Liz.

Mayor and Council, thank you for this evening and listening to our presentation.

What I want to talk about is why this property.

We organize all of our campuses into many campuses to break down the mass of the property.

And I think if you see in the plans, we have four separate six building campuses with very generous setbacks.

All the buildings are organized in clusters where the generator yards are between the buildings and away from public view.

This property also has transmission lines already on the property.

We do not need to extend transmission lines off property to get here.

We hope that you'll give us a chance to show you what this thing can be.

Thank you very much.

Hi, I'm Andrew Utan.

I work at Langan Engineering.

We're downtown.

I've been a civil engineer working in the Chicago and area for over 20 years now.

I've done plenty of projects in Juliet.

I've been working on Rock Run Crossings for a little over 10 years now, and I also recently was the engineer of record on the Juliet Casino, the Hollywood Casino at Rock Run Crossings collection, sorry.

So generally the site is located on the southeast side of town.

And kind of wanted to go through some of the existing and proposed conditions.

So the overall site is just under 800 acres.

And right now it's completely agricultural based.

The pink magenta line is currently the boundaries of the property.

And shown here is the full build out of the data center campus.

The northwest corner labeled lot three is going to be dedicated to COMED for their switching station and their own stone water management area.

And the rest of the site will be four groupings, a total of 24 data centers consisting of the campus.

Each of the groupings is designed to operate independently of each other.

So they all have their own six buildings on the on the grouping, their own stone water management, and their own substation.

And then around the outside, the team is proposing to rebuild Rowell Road to the three-lane typical section for the city of Juliet.

The same for Ridge Road from Schweitzer all the way down to Middlesdale Road.

We're extending Millsdale Road from our west property line where it currently ends all the way to where Ridge Road currently is.

So all of that is being paid for by the developer and dedicated to the city of Joliet.

Within these right-aways will be berms, and then outside of the right-of-ways will be, or I'm sorry, outside of the right-of-ways will be burns that will be used for screening, typical with the City of Juliet standards.

They'll have native plantings of varying heights to help screen the data centers from public roads.

And then along the north property line, where there are neighboring sites, we're proposing burns there as well.

Same idea.

Native plantings are varying heights that are green or at least have leaves all year round, so they're screening all year round.

I'd like to mention that the site was reviewed and cleared by the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office and the IDNR EcoCat system for compliance with no engineered species found on site.

Additionally, the consulting team did a wetland review.

They walked the site, they did a desktop review and found that there are no existing buttons within the 800 acre site.

As mentioned previously, the on-site stormwater management system within each grouping operates independently of the other systems.

The existing site today has essentially no stone water management.

It's agricultural land, row crops where water, whenever it rains, the water flows off as fast as it can to get off site, carrying with it fertilizers, sediments, other types of erosion into the roadside ditches of Raoul Road and Ridge Road.

What we're proposing to do is contain it on site, have natural plantings in the ponds, filter through the water, recharge the groundwater on site, and all these things will comply with the Will County and City of Juliet ordinances.

On-site lighting also will be designed for dark sky compliance and the City of Juliet requirements for half a foot candle at all the property lines, except where we have driveways for safety concerns.

So all of the lights themselves will have shields to block any outward lighting.

It'll be pointing straight down and within the campus itself.

Here is just a zoom in version of an individual grouping.

The data centers, the top four kind of located back to back to each other to help protect screening from the outside viewpoints.

There's also a secondary access point for all of the all of the data center groupings themselves, so each one has access to a public road or at least one public road, as well as the substation as two access points as well for that operator of the substation.

You also notice that the fence line that goes around the exterior of the sixth data center building campus.

And outside of that will be naturalized plantings, metal mixes that will encourage wildlife comeback pollinators.

Kind of put it back to the way it was before the agricultural agricultural use was brought onto the site.

From a utility perspective, we are proposing water main extensions at the developer's cost down Raoul Road, Millsdale Road, and Bridge Road, as well as sanitary sewer extensions.

This helps with redundancy in the area.

Whenever there's a water main break, there's more backup.

Whenever there's a sanitary sewer that gets clogged, there's other options.

These are all part of the dedication of the 100-foot ride-aways and the three-foot or three-lane roadway sections that are all being dedicated to the city of Juliet.

Thanks for your time.

I'd like to introduce John McCann from ComED to speak this.

Thank you, Andrew, and good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is John McCann.

I'm the economic development manager at Commed.

Our job, quite honestly, is to attract new projects in our service territory that create jobs and drive capital investment.

But tonight I'm here to talk to you from a reliability standpoint.

So COMED serves more than four million customers across Northern Illinois.

Since embarking on our grid monetization efforts in 2012, COMED customers have seen continuous improvement in grid reliability reliability performance.

Today, Cam Ed customers enjoy best in class reliability with fewer and shorter customer outages at any point in our company's history.

Our system reliability has improved by more than 57% and helped customers avoid more than 25 million outages.

Our grid performance resulted in Comed being recognized by PA Consulting in 2023 and 2025 as the number one utility in the nation, and in 2024 as the number one utility in the Midwest.

We remain committed to delivering reliable electric service, and we're extremely proud of the positive impact and benefits it has for our customers.

The Juliet Technology Center will be served from ComEd's 345 KB system.

We will not have a direct impact on residential or smaller commercial customers, which are served from ComEd's smaller or local distribution systems.

The 345 KB system is a network that allows electricity to flow from multiple generation sources to where the power is needed most following the route with the least resistance.

ComEd's 345 KB system is designed to incorporate intentional redundancy, meaning there are multiple routes to available to power to allow power to flow into any given area.

If a particular route is congested, damaged, or down for maintenance, power will flow through the network around the impacted facilities to reach the load.

To use the roadway analogy, if there's an accident or too much traffic on one route, other routes are available.

The planning process for evaluating large load connections, such as this project, is a multi-step process that includes the electrical design to provide the requested service while taking into consideration the customers' location, ultimate load crest, load request, and their load ramp schedule.

Using this information, our team translates the electrical design into computer models for power flow analysis and develops 345 KB system upgrades to mitigate any planning criteria violations that may result.

This process ensures the continued safe and reliable operation of our 345 KB network.

In addition, PJM, which is the 13th state regional transmission organization that ComED is a part of, also reviews all new electricity demands through their M3 supplemental process to ensure the increased demand will not cause any problems on the broader PJM system.

ComEd presented the Julia Technology Center in the PJM stakeholder process last month as a supplemental project in the customer service category.

PJM and their stakeholders did not express any concerns or have any feedback about the project or its reliability during these meetings.

I'd like to now turn it back to the Hillwood team where I believe Mark Pruitt is going to speak.

Thank you.

John, you're a liar.

Let us have the meeting, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Mark Pruitt.

I'm the principal of the Power Bureau.

I'm a energy markets consultant retained by Hillwood to comment on the project and review its impact on reliability issues as well as consumer costs.

As was just addressed directly by COMED, this project in its design has gone through engineering review to ensure reliability not only to the data center itself but also to ensure continued reliability to all the surrounding areas.

Comed and PJM are obligated by law, PJ Comed obligated under state statute under regulation under the Illinois Commerce Commission, PJM under the governance of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to prioritize system security, safety, and reliability.

So their system is designed to ensure reliability after necessary upgrades have been accomplished and the asset the data center begins full operation.

Question has come up in terms of where does the power come from?

Comed does not own power plants.

The power plants are owned by independent power producers.

There are approximately 1,400 power producers, power plants that are connected to the PJM transmission network.

As John mentioned, there are many roads where power can travel, and it's PGM's opportunity and obligation to ensure that that capacity is delivered to each and every consumer served in the PGM footprint.

Next question then comes up is okay.

Well, it's 1400 enough power plants.

Well, that's a great question.

Over time, supply and demand changes.

We have new energy users, and we have some power plants that retire that are eventually replaced by new power plants.

The capacity that's available in the PGM footprint today, according to PJM and their studies and their obligations under federal law, is that there is more than enough capacity to serve this and all existing customers in Northern Illinois.

Additionally, we do note that about 342,000 megawatts of maximum facility output are awaiting connection to the PJM grid, which is about a tripling of the current level of capacity.

So there's a lot of interest in not only data centers in the PGM footprint, but also in building new power plants to serve those data centers.

Question came up also about price.

And you know, I used to be a regulator in Illinois, and you know, prices go up and down, and that's unpopular.

But the reality is that when we take a look at the power price for residential customers today, in March of this year, and compare it against the inflation adjusted price in what we have there, 2012, we're 22% below where we were in 2012.

So I understand that people appreciate that prices have gone up recently, absolutely, but those were quite a bit lower than where we have been historically.

It's not to say that prices don't matter.

That's not the point.

The point is that prices have been higher than they are today, and that in the market, PJM has applied a cost cap that runs through 2030 that will serve to minimize continued increase in capacity costs, which has been the source of the recent increase in prices in the Comed Service Territory.

Second, the state of Illinois recently passed the called SERGA, the Clean and Reliable Grid Act that will bring 3,000 megawatts of battery storage into Illinois by 2030.

And then we have the Illinois Renewable Portfolio Standard, which is funded at north of $600 million a year to support the deployment of solar and wind assets in Illinois.

Those are all new assets of capacity that are going to be serving not only Illinois but also PJM.

And it's in that context where even though there is increased demand by this and other projects, there's also increased supply to moderate prices.

Additionally, over the 30 years of operation of this plant, this the operator of the plant will be paying into the state's renewable portfolio standard into the billions of dollars, 1.8 billion dollars, will be paid into support for all the incentives that go to support rooftop wind, rooftop solar, and then utility scale, wind and solar in the state.

That equates to, based on the Illinois Power Agency's average cost for incentives, it's going to incentivize over a gigawatt of new generating capacity in Illinois.

So this is money that's going to be paid by this data center over time, and it will go to supporting new capacity.

Secondly, as a separate part of the tariff, this data center will also be paying, again, over a billion dollars in its 30 years towards energy efficiency programs that are that benefit consumers all throughout the ComED Service Territory.

This is sufficient to provide the incentives necessary for over 800,000 heat pumps in residential households based on the current level of incentive that's used by Commonwealth Edison.

So that will make reduced demand over time within the ComED Service Territory.

And then lastly, as required under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, the data center will also be paying into the Energy Transition Fund about $310 million, which will go to supporting pre-apprentip trainings in the work programs that are administered by the State's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Substantial amount of training is going to be necessary to bring about the technical experts and assistance to be able to deploy the renewable energy batteries and other technologies in this state.

So, in terms of consumers protected, well, they're protected in a few layers here.

The first is the transmission security agreement between the developer and ComEd guarantees that consumers, regular ComED consumers, will not bear any cost responsibility for the hardware that's necessary to connect that new set of substations to the ComEd transmission lines.

It's an agreement, it's approved by FERC, it's a federal document.

There will be no subsidization of the transmission interconnection costs.

Secondly, there will be no ongoing subsidization of the cost to deliver electricity to this site.

Under state law, the Public Utility Act requires the Illinois Commerce Commission to establish rates that are directly related to the cost of service provided to customers.

That's why cost for customer service for a residential customer is very different than the cost of service for a very large customer.

They are rates that are based on the cost to serve.

Again, state law requires that so that there is not cross-subsidization.

Electricity supply, uh, going out and securing the supply capacity and transmission that will serve this uh asset is going to be the responsibility of the operator.

Um there's going to be uh a contract, possibly multiple contracts to secure that electricity and capacity for this asset, which will have nothing to do with the contracts that secure prices for residential small commercial customers.

Those are handled separately through the Illinois Power Agency.

That's where I used to work.

And then on sustainability, we just touched on the sustainability elements where there's substantial investments in sustainability that would result from this project.

So we have conclusions regarding reliability, uh cost and sustainability, and then you know, just as a an aside, um the demand for uh capacity in northern Illinois is high, and you have an opportunity to entertain that opportunity here in Joliet.

If it doesn't get built here, it will be built elsewhere.

Um that's just built in which case.

Please, everyone keep their comments down.

The person speaking gets to speak.

If it's built elsewhere in northern Illinois, you'll have the same cost impacts as if it was built right here.

So the question is whether or not you take the local development or not.

So I'm sorry to be two, not high two.

I appreciate your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so we're anymore.

Uh some question about water usage, and we'll let our water consultant from Cisco make comments.

Oh, good evening, mayor and council.

Uh, my name is Todd Swarniak.

I'm a mechanical technical manager with Cisco Hennessy Group.

Um, we're a consulting engineering firm.

Um my career for the last 20 years is designing data center cooling systems around the country, every client type, every system type.

Um, and for what it's worth, I'm fairly local.

I'm about 15 miles uh from the project site.

Um, I'm gonna be trying to try to be fairly quick, but also try to be fairly clear.

Um the system we're proposing is a closed loop system.

I know there is still some confusion on what that means.

Um, once the water is in the pipe, it stays in the pipe.

Um, these systems have been around since 1922 when Willis Carrier invented the chiller.

Um, they have been used in data centers continuously since data centers were invented.

I don't know what timestamp you want to put on that uh since the advent of the computer.

Um this is not new technology, and there's nothing fundamentally different about it at a data center other than the fact that they're big and there's extra equipment for redundancy's sake, which also improves efficiency.

Um, the reason for choosing the system type uh frankly is the need, right?

We recognize there's not ability of the site to support an evaporative uh system.

Um again, once the system is filled, it it stays full.

Uh the water is the blood of the system.

If it leaks, it is bleeding out, and that is that is a fundamental problem.

Um, this system type allows us to accommodate any current and any foreseeable future server technology.

So the air-cooled servers of today and let's say yesterday, as well as the liquid-cooled servers that are fast emerging, not just for AI.

Um, that is becoming the norm for your standard cloud storage.

Um, basically every data center application is projected to be at least partially liquid-cooled within the next two years.

Um, so there is no evaporation.

As a result, there is no blowdown.

I know that's still a point of confusion.

Blowdown by definition as water evaporates, all the other stuff in the water stays behind.

Eventually, you end up with a too high of a ratio of stuff to water, you have to purge it and bring in new water.

Um, that does not happen with this system.

Um, additionally, you know, the equipment we're selecting, not just lip service, I mean, it saves money in the long run.

We will be choosing equipment of high efficiency compressors for the cooling with high efficiency, particularly you know, the ability to save energy as it gets cooler outside, low noise, variable speed fans for the heat rejection, um, etc.

Again, these you know there's hundreds of thousands of closed loop chill water systems uh operating around the world for the last century.

Um one time fill is required per building, the pipe gets rinsed out, it gets filled, chemical gets added to prevents biological growth and corrosion, and there's nothing magic about this building type compared to any other building type.

Um once filled, uh, you know, that water stays in other than maintenance activities.

We have lots and lots of valves to minimize the amount of water that would ever have to be drained to remove or service a piece of equipment.

Um there have also been some questions on discrepancies of timeline.

You know, that system, the lease will be 15, 20 years, it's not signed yet, but but that would be the frequency of any significant drain down, would be essentially the end of life of that tenant.

Um so very few and far between.

Um for context, you know, each six pack of buildings, uh, the systems will contain about as much water as one Olympic swimming pool.

Um so four of those uh spread out over the course of five years uh is anticipated construction completion schedule for the 24 buildings.

Um you can see, you know, in 2024, when we were first considering this project, we we were looking at um direct evaporative cooling systems, those are have been and are still somewhat popular with uh like the hyperscale companies, they're very efficient, but they do use an awful lot of water.

Uh we've rethought that.

We've looked at the site and the site constraints and what it means to be a good neighbor, a good steward, and we've decided uh to rethink that and go with the closed loop system.

Um, you know, our our daily water use on average over the course of the year.

We're now projecting for all 24 buildings not to exceed 150,000 gallons.

Um we put some other context up there just for comparison's sake, and I know may or may not be relevant.

Um, but by way of comparison, if this was single-family homes, the water usage would be substantially more nearly an order of magnitude greater.

Um we're also um a little over half of what the assumed water consumption for this site was under the light industrial zoning.

Um, and our understanding is that is the water capacity that was considered in the water study for the existing water supply on the aquifers.

So we are reducing from what the planned demand for this site would have been.

Um filling of these systems again will be spread out over roughly five years.

That activity will be coordinated with the Department of Public Utilities to ensure the rate at which that fill is taking place and the timing of that is not disruptive to the city's water utility capacity.

Um this has been reviewed with the city and the current infrastructure.

Um again, we're you know, we are below the planned uh the anticipated water usage rate of this site.

Um hopefully that answers some questions and provides some clarity.

Um from there, I believe we're gonna want to discuss uh noise next.

Mayor, can we ask questions?

Is that okay?

We can.

Okay.

I want to get my head around this cooling system.

Yes.

It's basically a mixture of water and chemicals.

Yes.

Not unlike my car.

Uh way less chemical than your car.

Right, but same concept.

Um, yeah, so car is 50-50 anti-freeze water.

This is 99 water and 1% uh again, biosides corrosion inhibitors, just stuff to keep the inside of the system clean.

And that stays in that cooling system, just like my car's cooling system stays there until we drain it out.

Correct.

And replace it.

And you said that drain down you referred to it as drain down would happen at the end of a lease, for instance.

That would be the soonest somebody would typically entertain taking anything.

That's a total facility shutdown if if that is done.

So that's typically when somebody would vacate.

Yeah.

And what happens when you do remove it from the system?

Where does it go?

What do you take it?

Um, building by building, uh, again, this is no different from any other chill water system anywhere.

I've never encountered a instance where anything in that water was objectionable to the sanitary utility.

Um, that water data can be provided for analysis prior to discharge.

I assume that would be something the city is within their rights to review, and if there's an objection, it can be disposed of, it could be trucked off if needed, but it's it's essentially water.

So, and I do believe you know, in talking and doing my research talking to staff that it's exactly what the city's gonna do when it comes to disposing of it.

They're gonna have it tested before it's allowed to be put into the system.

And if it if it can't be put in the system, it gets trucked off.

Yes, and that there's when the initial fill takes place, it's a little bit of a chemistry set.

So you put in the amount of chemical you think it needs, it's tested.

Initially, it's tested more frequently, and after about six months, that typically gets pulled back to quarterly.

Um there's a chemical treatment vendor um assigned to the site, they take samples back, check the chemistry if they need to tweak at a couple gallons, you know, here and there of chemical, they do that.

But there's regular testing reports that would be available throughout the life of the building that could be provided easily.

And on a project this size, I'm just trying to get my head around this.

If this was a traditional or you know, like my research I'm seeing referred to as legacy data centers, where most of them early on were using evaporative.

If you use water, it could be that would be like five for a project this size would be up five million uh gallons of water a day or or more, right?

Yes, so lots of different ways to cool these buildings.

Um as they've grown to scale your traditional like open cooling tower systems that evaporate water all year, those have really fallen out of favor.

The direct evaporative cooling that's been very popular.

Um you literally just bring outside air in, and when it's too hot outside, you bring it through a sponge to cool it off, and the air evaporates into the into the water evaporates into the airstream.

Um those systems only use water when it hits about 80 degrees outside, but the amount the rate at which they use water when they're on is significant.

So again, you know, this five million gallons a day peak, something like eight billion gallons a year would be the consumption for that system type for uh for a project this size, which is why we looked at that number and said there's there's no way.

Thank you, Mayor Mayor.

Yeah, I know.

Mayor.

Uh so you mentioned our city staff, and I I have had conversations with Alison who is our director of public utilities.

And um is she over there?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, there's um could you please explain one more time?

I I know I read it in our um proposal, but about what would happen when this water is taken out if by some chance there was something that needed to be treated or just the permissions to do that.

Yeah, so per the annexation agreement, um the only wastewater that's allowed to be discharged is domestic waste and domestic waste is what you put down the sink or the toilet um at home.

And so that's similar to what they will have at the data center with bathrooms and other uh weight domestic waste.

Um it does require that anything that is non-domestic would have to be permitted by the city, and we do this through our pre-treatment um process, which is governed by our pre-treatment ordinance.

And we treat uh industrial wastewater from many different industries, and each one has a different wastewater characteristic that we request samples of, and with that information we assess what the right course of action is, whether that wastewater would need to be pre-treated at the facility before it enters the s the sanitary sewer system, whether there would be a surcharge charged, and then we would do that treatment at the city's wastewater treatment plant, or if we just wouldn't be able to accept it at all, in which case then it would be trucked off-site at their expense.

At their expense.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I I should have touched, you know, we we believe we've overestimated um again, there's no um regular water consumption for cooling other than the initial fills.

So it's it's toilets and sinks, um, it's an over-assumption of uh an acre of building for uh sprinkler coverage, it's normal maintenance activities, and it's a little bit of uh humidification in the winter just to mitigate static electricity.

Um again, fairly common, benign stuff for most building types.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Yeah, I have a question.

We know so I'm a truck driver, right?

So for example, in diesel, right?

Let's say if you're driving a truck, sometimes you have a diesel spill.

I know water is nothing compared to diesel, completely different, but I'm gonna use the analogy.

If there's a s uh I know you said um it could be a sp the only way you can lose the water from the closed loops of system is if there's a spill or something happens, you know, God forbid, right?

You never know what can happen.

Uh is just I'm hoping neither you or zone from the team can answer the question of if there is a spill, is there something in place where it can contain the water?

Uh I know construction they use um even for dirt, can't think of the name.

They just put something around the like the swales or yeah, they yeah, they put it around it just to contain the the issue so it doesn't go into our drain system or the sewer system, I should say, or a storm.

Yeah, uh so if you if you take a hundred thousand gallons and spread it out over the building footprint, it's like that uh deep, right?

Okay.

Um there are equipment curbs uh around mechanical rooms, things like that.

Um there are also floor drains, so it depends on where the leak happens.

There's instrumentation again, these great care is taken to detect that and prevent that.

So there is instrumentation should the pressure in the system start to decrease, decrease, which would be indicative of a leak, um, there's an alarm generated essentially immediately that will give you a pretty good indication of where to start looking for that leak.

And again, there's there's valves provided out the wazoo to be able to isolate very small uh parts of the system and service them, repair them as needed so that you don't need to extend uh the impact of the outage and therefore the the amount of uh water that's that's drained.

So um fully welded piping systems with flanges, they're pressure tested before they go into service at that point.

The only way anything is going wrong is if I don't even know somebody drives a forklift through them and we don't have forklifts in these buildings, so thank you.

Yeah.

I have a question.

Since we're on water, I might as well get my questions out of the way about water.

So the agreement references a cap of 150,000 gallons of water per day for the data center campus.

Is that an initial estimate?

And does that cap account for all 24 potential data center agreements with the development?

Then I have another part to that.

Additionally, the agreement appears to allow Hillwood to return to the city, not this council to request additional water allocation.

Given the scale of this project and the public concern around the off of aquifer, why would any increase in water allocation not be required to come back to this council for approval in a public meeting?

Whoever wants to answer that.

Yeah, not me.

So the agreement, the comp the control to approve that is completely at the city's discretion.

Um it does not read that they can guarantee to to get that.

Um the authority of who has the ability to do that would lie with the the city manager.

So as as I interpret the agreement, but I think it's more of a legal question as to who would who would approve that based on the statement in the agreement.

Um it is that is all 24 buildings, so that is end state, right?

Starting in end of 2028 through 2033 as the buildings are coming online.

You know, we don't hit those numbers until the the 2032-2033 timeline.

Well, I'm not happy with that answer, so now I'm gonna ask you one more about water.

The agreement also allows usage to spike up to 300,000 gallons per day during high use periods, and the stated consequence for exceeding that cap is paying three times the water rate for every gallon over the limit limit.

Considering the concerns about the aquifer depletion, a long-term wallet water availability for these Jolette residents.

Does the administration believe that simply charging three times the rate is a sufficient deterrent, or is that effectively just the cost of doing business?

Again, whoever wants to answer that.

So there is the way this is being designed, is there is limitations in the pipe itself that there it cannot exceed grossly that amount.

So they would also, if they exceeded that amount, be in breach of the contract.

So in that being the case, you know, we always have the right to reserve to turn off the water in that case.

So how will the city ensure that protecting our long-term water supply for residents remains a priority?

If these caps can be exceeded with only a financial penalty, and the other thing I want to say about that is water is a very precious commodity.

We are draining from the aquifer.

We're draining the aquifer, and we're not hooked up to Lake Michigan at the earliest convenience 2030.

That's another, I don't know, four years from now.

And so I want to know how this is all gonna happen.

And I would really like to know this prior to a vote.

The thing is, if we had a public dashboard, maybe it would be so much easier for the public to have some trust in what's going on there.

Yeah, I mean, I the only other comparison for context, you know, your typical fire fighting event is a quarter million gallons of water that the city has to be able to accommodate anywhere at any time, right?

So there's understood.

There's there's there's capacity on a rate basis on an instantaneous flow rate basis, well beyond what we're asking for in the aggregate averaged over the year, which is sort of what matters to aquifers, right?

Um again, we're we're significantly lower than what was assumed for the site when that water study was completed.

So I can just say from the administration administration's perspective, Allison and her team have done extensive review of all this and have signed off.

So I don't know what else you want to hear from her on that.

I would actually rather not hear anything more from her.

You're the city manager, you're running the city, so I'd like you to answer some of the questions.

We all hired you.

I would like to see you answer some of these questions.

And show that you have proficiency in what we hired you to do.

Thank you.

I'm gonna take a I'm gonna take a stab at that.

We have a very very qualified team of department heads.

And they have given us extremely a lot of work to give us the information that we're sharing, and we have worked hard to get to these specifics for everyone.

So I would tell you as the mayor, I'd love to know it all, but I have to rely on our experts to be able to give me the full answer on a lot of this stuff.

And I I believe that this project will not be up and running fully till after 2030 in full capacity, if I'm not mistaken.

So it's um if it goes through.

So everyone will have their time to speak.

Everyone, I believe, signed up for public comment, so you will have your time to speak.

If we could just get through the presentation and comments, that would be wonderful.

Everyone will have their time to speak.

So if we could just please keep the the comments and to a min to a minimum, everyone will have their time to speak.

Thank you.

Maybe to follow up council woman, I uh I bear's question.

Alison, so if they go above what we have is uh they can't have more when when they're audited per annum, they can't have more than 150,000 gallons average per day, and no day can peak above 300,000.

If that happens, the first step, if I understand the uh development agreement, would be a fine of three times the the the uh rate, but the question, and I'm not sure if if we got the answer, if they continue to thumb their nose, not that you guys would, but we have to explore every eventuality, not just for what's good for for the company but for the residents.

If they just say we're gonna do it because she said it's a cost of doing business, ultimately the worst penalty we can assess on them, if I understand it, you're correctly, is shutting them down until they come into compliance, turning their water off.

Am I correct?

Yes, so our metering technology sends data points to us every six minutes.

So every six minutes we'll be aware of how much water is going into the facility through the meter.

And so using that data, we can then make those calculations to determine if they have exceeded the amount that's in the contract, and then take action accordingly, which ultimately could lead to termination of water service.

Okay.

The other question I had for the water engineer, there you are.

Does this project have currently any plans in its design or plans in the future to drill into local wells to get more water than what the city's provided?

No.

Okay.

You're on the record.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, council.

Um my name is Joe Horesco.

I'm a principal with the CentEC.

We are uh acoustical consultants.

Uh so hopefully I can answer a few questions about sound here.

Um to start, the state of Illinois has a pollution control board that sets sound level limits.

Uh they are based on use, land use, and they divide them into three classifications.

Class A is generally considered uh for residential, class B would be commercial, and class C would generally be industrial or agricultural.

Uh this site and most of the surrounding sites are class C.

Uh, there are some class A's as as this uh image indicates.

Um so there would be limits for uh the sound at those uh class A receivers for both daytime and nighttime hours.

Uh this chart here gives a kind of an overye uh overview of what the uh the actual limits would feel like or sound like you can see we're in the uh uh in this green zone, which is generally considered quiet uh during the nighttime, that would be for cooling equipment.

Uh and for uh the daytime levels, which would really be for generator uh testing, um a little bit louder, but still like a dishwasher or slightly above the dishwasher in the next room, generally speaking.

Um so what we have is uh cooling equipment that generates sound, we also generators that generate sound.

The cooling equipment usually is located on a roof.

Uh it can be screened.

Uh well, it will be visually screened, but it can be screened for acoustics as well.

Um there's you know, good equipment selection starts with um getting something that's already uh acceptable for the site, but if there's other options that need to be done, they can be added.

Um the uh the other type of equipment that generates sound generally out of the data center would be the emergency generators.

Those would be tested typically once a month and be exercised and for a short period of time, and otherwise they would only run during a full power outage.

So we generally design those to meet the daytime limits.

Uh the other thing to note about sound is that uh again we have to meet at those class A receivers, but you know the sound will det uh attenuate the the more distance there is so further sites will be even quieter than what we would need to meet at the closest location.

Um I think that sums up my parts.

I'll hand it over to the I have a question for him there.

I have a question about noise.

Sure.

Noise pool.

This is from our own staff report.

We got this today.

Maybe I would like to just defend the staff.

We have had all these things.

It is my time, not your time.

I understand.

I'm not gonna let you insult my staff.

These people work their tails off.

Bravo.

I'm happy for them.

I'm asking a question about noise.

Please proceed, but be kind to the people that work so hard for you every day.

A question about noise.

Go ahead.

I'm going to.

I'm going to.

Our own quality of life study, actually, says that noise pollution is the number one impact on the quality of life for everyone in proximity.

It could be audible from 3,000 feet up to two miles from the point of source.

So this is actually the biggest complaint with the quality of life.

So that means two miles to the east, two miles to the west, two miles to the north, two miles to the south.

So I'm wondering how exactly are you going to mitigate up to two miles of noise?

That's what I'm wondering.

Right.

Absolutely.

Sound uh so again, we're we're looking at the closest locations first to make sure that they would meet the limits.

Sound uh beyond those lines would go would be quieter as we go.

Um audibility actually is a lot more tricky than what you what you've described it as, which is there's ambient sound already, and the further you go, the lower the levels from the facility would be, and then you would have to compare that to what the ambient sound would be to say whether it's audible or not.

Um sound like light is uh it's a wave, so it attenuates naturally with distance due to friction and air absorption and other things, but is a theoretical point where you you know it still goes two miles, but whether you can hear it at two miles is not so simple as to just say that because you traveled two miles that it's audible at two miles.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Rory Fancler Split with Kimley Horn, who lead the traffic team, transportation planning and traffic operations team for our Chicago offices.

Kimley Horn prepared a traffic impact study for the subject development, pursue it to local standards.

It complies with both city requirements as well as well county and IHOT.

The purpose of the traffic impact study is to evaluate existing traffic conditions at key intersections in the vicinity of the site as well as future traffic conditions, both with and without the proposed development.

Um for purposes of future traffic conditions, we recognize there are changes that happened, the traffic impacts that happen are projected to happen in the area.

The traffic impact study does take that into consideration.

It includes both an ambient traffic growth projection based on data from our MPO, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, as well as site-specific uh traffic estimates for development activity happening to the west.

And then for purposes of the site, the proposed development trips are estimated using data provided by the industry standard Institute of Transportation Engineers, uh, trip generation manual, otherwise referred to as ITE trip generation manual of note is that was recently updated, new manual issued in the fall, which includes a much more robust data set for this particularly in use.

So that collects data at existing facilities and provides an average and an 85th percentile as well as daily traffic volumes that's used to inform our projections for the site.

Um on the screen before you the table shows the estimated trip generation for purposes of a traffic impact study.

We evaluate the peak hour conditions.

That's the time of day when the highest volume of traffic is on the area roadway network, meaning the highest potential period of impact.

For purposes of this conversation, we did compare that to potential land use alternatives, a warehouse use and a single family residential use.

The graph also shows how it's evident in the table, but it's also evident in the graph that the proposed data center use is a relatively low trip generator.

By comparison, a warehouse or residential development of similar density would generate significantly more traffic, thereby significantly more impacts to the area roadway network.

The other unique condition about this type of use from a traffic standpoint is it is not a truck trip generator once it's operational.

Yes, there will be trucks during construction, and I'll touch on that in a moment.

But under operational conditions, the truck traffic is no different than any office use accepting deliveries from UPS, FedEx, that type.

But this is not uh similar to the warehouses that are currently on 53.

This is not transporting goods.

This is not a high volume truck trip generation.

So based on the traffic impact study with the planned improvements, both those proposed by the subject development as well as those planned in the area by others, the area roadway network would provide uh would support the proposed development.

Um this exhibit just quickly highlights a couple of improvements.

The proposed development would extend Millsdale Road east to Ridge Road.

It currently terminates uh just east of 53.

Raoul Road would be improved to city standards, it's currently a rural cross section.

And then the other thing I'll note is there are two area improvements planned by others at Schweitzer and 53.

IDOTS recently completed a corridor study to evaluate improvements at a key intersections along the corridor, turn lane improvements would be provided at that intersection, and then as a part of development activity to the west, there are plans to modify Millsdale Road so that it's a cul de sac and limiting to local traffic only uh west of 53.

So again, with those plan improvements, the proposed roadway network would or the roadway network would support the proposed development.

Construction traffic, um, should the development move forward, a construction traffic analysis would be completed.

The traffic impact study evaluates operational conditions, construction traffic analysis.

We need to have more information to complete that out analysis.

It would evaluate construction traffic volumes at different phases of development, it would evaluate site access at different phases of development, truck haul routes, but the premise of a uh construction traffic analysis is the same.

Any impacts that are um generated by the proposed development under construction traffic conditions would be mitigated at the cost of the development, subject to city review and approval.

And with that, I'll turn it over to economic impact.

Anybody have any traffic questions?

Yeah, yes, yeah, real quick.

Um do you mind going back to the slide where you showed uh it was like three slides before that word?

That one, nope.

So that one, please.

Thank you.

So the developer is gonna um the road improvements from Schweitzer Road.

Uh no, where it connects from Ryth Road to Bernard Road.

Uh Millsdale Road would be extended east to Ridge Road, Bernhard Road, thank you.

That would be vacated.

Public, it's currently public right away, that would be vacated.

Okay, thank you.

Um I will say that that is a huge improvement for that area.

Uh I actually drive that quite often uh during work or and I see a lot of people at number one they they speed down there, and number two, the um you have school buses that stop sometimes on the there's like three houses on Schweitzer Road.

So that being done by the developers actually something good that will happen to that area.

So I I can attest to that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um we will finish as quickly.

The um staff ask us for right there with you.

Um staff ask us for a very detailed economic impact study.

Uh we did that, and I know the city did the same.

We made certain assumptions, and I think many of you have seen these numbers where the anticipation is that over the 30-year life of the term, this project will generate over two billion dollars in annual tax revenue.

You can see how it's broken out.

Um we looked in our study analysis, looked at various impacts, uh, local expenditures, uh, jobs, other secondary benefits.

Um you can see the jobs during construction for not just Joliet, but for Will County in Illinois, jobs during operations.

Again, we've talked about the idea of around 8,500 construction jobs, perhaps as many as 10,000, and over 700 full-time jobs, almost all those being uh six-figure jobs.

A little bit about earnings, and a little bit about total impact during construction.

So again, very meaningful.

I know the city ran the same analysis and came up with something uh very very similar.

Mayor.

Thank you very much.

Question?

Yes, all um.

So I've seen the estimate from 700, now a 1700.

Now the 1700 is even peripheral total right, but 700 would be the site.

In in the in the buildings that you're looking at there.

And are these going to be through temp agencies or temp jobs?

No, they'd be full-time jobs employed by the tenant.

Okay, thank you.

Mayor Beth, I understand that we hired an outside uh attorney as well to review all this.

Can they give a summary on where we're at with uh our study?

Sir, um David Reifman, if you could approach the you can stay there.

That's fine.

Okay, thank you.

Hi everybody, my name is David Reefman.

I'm an attorney at Croke Fairchild Dwarf and Barris in Chicago.

Um I've been working in real estate area for about 40 years.

I've been representing the city on the uh document on the annexation agreement.

Um I'll give a very brief overview really just from the perspective of the issues that you're talking about.

But I've been involved in dozens and dozens of annexations and annexation agreements, and this is very protective of the city's interests.

And just a couple quick highlights.

Um the developer is required to provide all private and public infrastructure at its sole cost.

So there is no public subsidy, there's no public cost to that.

That includes all the sanitary sewer improvements, all the stormwater improvements, roadway improvements that we've just described.

Um there will be many of these improvements that are maintained privately, so therefore the developer will be required to establish a property owner's association that will take care of the private improvements, and if they fail to do so, the city can step in and impose a special service area to make sure that again there is no cost to the city or the taxpayers.

Um the agreement covers design and operational controls, such as the noise that was just discussed, generators, screening, um, photometric plans, lighting, and so forth.

The developer, everything being submitted now is preliminary, so it's preliminary engineering, preliminary PUD.

The developer will have to submit final engineering plans which meet all the requirements of the city, um, and they must prepare and submit an emergency services plan regarding power supply, fire suppression, hazardous materials, and so forth.

Um they are required to indemnify the city for any breach.

There are provisions for the breach in the agreement.

Um there are other key obligations, such as entering into a project labor agreement, which I believe is done, um, acknowledging the applicability of the city's electric utility tax.

There's a covenant by the developer not to challenge this agreement later.

In other words, if they agree to all this, they can't then sue the city to say we don't agree with it.

Um, and it covers various issues regarding the dedication of public improvements.

As importantly, it memorializes the developer's obligation to contribute 100 million dollars to the city throughout the course of the development, including 20 million dollars upon the closing of the property, which the developer is obligated to do within a year, and if they want extensions, they have to make payments on that initial 20 million to create that extension.

They can extend once for 10 million and again six months for 10 million, and then an additional six months for a maximum of two years.

Um, those are the highlights of the agreement.

Um I'm happy to answer any questions about it, but in my view, um the city is really protected, has rights to um enforce the agreement, has rights to go to court on the agreement if the developer breaches and all of the uh obligations that you've heard here and the requirements of the developer are memorialized both in this and in the plan unit development ordinance.

Mayor, yeah.

If I um I'm sorry, I didn't hear his name.

David.

David, um the 20, you know, they have a year up to a year under the agreement to close on butt purchasing and starting the project, and at that point, when they close, they have to give us 20 million.

They can extend it another year by by paying the full 20 million, 10 million every six months.

So they have to, you know, purchase and start the development within two years in that scenario.

They have to close on the land within two years at the outside date, and they have to have paid us the city 20 million to get to that full two years, yes.

And what was the legal codesol you referred to that says anything in this agreement?

They can't challenge late.

So we put in a covenant here.

So, you know, if you have an agreement and later you could come back and say, well, this part of the agreement was illegal or this part was unenforceable, you went too far, they've waived their right to challenge any term of this agreement.

So you never have to go to court over this agreement.

They've conceded that.

I just think it's a prudent provision to add to an agreement like this that they will never sue us under this agreement for the things they agreed to do.

Can they challenge that covenant?

The covenant prohibits them from challenging.

It would look I don't, I mean, I don't think that would go very well.

I suppose they could try, but they've agreed to it's like saying I don't I I'm not gonna pay what I agreed to pay.

That doesn't go well for people who challenge that.

Does this also include challenging the assessed value?

No, it does not.

That that would be a county thing.

Um I think the the market study and the economic impact studies that have been done by the developer and by the city would show that the um the property taxes generated from that assessment are considerable, and I think it's assuming a market rate assessment over time based on historical performance.

And we can't legally prohibit them from that right to challenge taxes, no, but you can probably intervene and say we think it should be higher.

You would have the right to do that.

There's no provisions about their there's nothing limiting them from going through the normal process of challenging the assessment of their property.

Thank you.

I have a question for David.

Um in the mutual assistant clause of the annexation agreement, that is page 17 section 18.

That is the most recent uh alliteration of this agreement that came out.

There is language indicating that if Hillwood uses reasonable efforts to acquire property or easements, and that is unsuccessful, the city may step in and exercise eminent domain to obtain obtain the land.

Can you explain why the city would agree to use its governmental power of eminent domain to acquire property on behalf of a private developer?

And under what circumstances the city would determine doing so serves a public purpose rather than primarily benefiting a private corporation.

So this is generally limited to rights of way and easements.

So in the event that there's a need to do that, and the entire project is going to be jeopardized by the existence of a right that is not accessible, the city may exercise eminent domain at the developer's cost.

For a project of this size with 800 acres and the value that's involved, this is a valuable right to the city.

It's with an Illinois law for a municipality to exercise that right, and if they do so it'll be at the developer's expense.

But you have rights of way that need to be expanded for roadway improvements and so forth.

So eminent domain is a process that compensates property owners for moments when a public body chooses or requires that a piece of private property be taken.

This is not an extensive right that would go to massive amounts of private property.

Are we legally obligated according to this agreement to do that without choice?

It says the city will assist the developer by exercising evident domain.

So yes, the city is agreeing that if that happens, it will assist the developer at the developer's cost.

I'm not with all due respect, because I know you spent a lot of time working on this.

I do not like this agreement, and I do not like that clause.

I am not in agreement with the city stepping in and telling residents what they can and cannot do with their own property.

I'm sorry.

May I clarification, David?

So we can't use the eminent domain just to get them more property to build more buildings.

This has to you're saying to do specifically or rights away, whether it be sewer and water, streets, yes.

It says necessary off-site easements or rights of way after making all commercially reasonable efforts to do so.

So if they came to us and said, hey, we want another 10 acres for another building, that's their business, not ours.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Okay.

We are going to start with public comments at this time.

Can we have a comment?

I didn't know they were done with the case.

Are there any other questions from council right now?

We're not going to vote yet.

We're going to have public comments.

Yeah, but we're going to have to.

That's what we're going to do.

Yes.

Is anybody know that noise?

Okay.

Right now is the right now is the time that we will have public comments.

I'm going to call up speakers.

Um about seven to ten at a time.

So if you can all line up here so we can go ahead and get the um so we can go ahead and get um the comments started.

So nothing's gonna be knocked down about that noise.

Okay.

We will start with Doc Gregory, Tom White.

I don't hear annoying Mike Hansen.

Mike Payone, I think that's it.

Kip Klein.

Andy Rico.

Mike Mahoney.

If you could all please come and line up here in the middle.

And we'll get started.

You ready?

Ignore us.

All right.

Uh good evening.

Mayor Darcy, nice to see you.

Joliet City Council Men and Women.

Nice to see you.

It's nice to be back in the Joliet Chambers.

I can say that.

Uh as you know, my name's Doc Gregory.

I'm president of Will Grundy Building Trades, also Pipe Fitter BA 597.

Um born and raised in this city.

Uh Joliette.

Went to Holy Family School on Larkin when St.

Francis was there.

Graduated Joliet West 1982.

So I think you can figure out my age.

Um that being said, I'm here today, today, tonight, to speak on behalf.

We have you around 25,000 members of the Will and Grundy building trades, men and women here in Joliet, Will Grundy County and a lot of communities uh directing us.

The Joliet Technology Center will provide, as you heard, 8,600, 8500 union jobs, construction jobs.

These jobs mean a very important aspect to our members, our men and women working.

A couple uh few weeks ago, we were over at Joliet Junior College listening to questions and answers.

I was fortunate to be with some of the uh Hillwood and Powerhouse people that answered some questions.

And I heard a lot, you know, our construction jobs don't matter.

Well, I'm here to tell you tonight that our construction jobs do matter.

There's probably a hundred construction guys with me that I work with day in and day out that we're job our jobs matter.

We're not temporary, we're here full time.

When we work, we spend money.

We go to the Rialto, we see the shows, we go out to dinner, we go put our kids in daycare.

We need jobs.

Okay.

The next guy you'll hear from my cohort, we worked on a data center around the area that was lost to Wisconsin.

And my local, I I had about 300 people, men and women go to work in Wisconsin.

Now, they got compensated, don't get me wrong, but they had to go live away from their families.

So my point being is the Joliet Technology Center is a great project.

Our men and women need to work here in Joliet, not in Wisconsin.

The only ones who got rich for the ones that you know worked in Wisconsin were the divorce lawyers in Joliet here.

I don't want that to happen.

So I don't know if everybody has been out to the lot with the proposed annexation.

Um I've driven it countless times.

There's some houses, three houses on Schweitzer.

There's the houses that the landowners are selling.

You also got the racetracks there.

And I hear about the noise, you know.

What happens every weekend at Route 66?

I mean, that's good noise, so I like that noise.

Um you got the NASCAR coming back 30 years ago.

My father, he was an iron worker, called me, and I sat in this chamber when they the Stephus family sold all the land for the dragster.

You didn't have that many people against this.

The data center is a great project.

We are partnering up uh with Hillwood and Powerhouse for union jobs.

The the 2.1 billion or whatever you're saying for tax incentives for the city of Joliet, that's huge.

That's huge for the city.

There hasn't been this kind of project in the city, and I've been around.

I was here when they took Louis Joliat Mall from Plainfield.

I was here when Will County said no to the gambling boats, and Mayor Schultz, God rest the soul, took the gambling boats in.

I was here for a lot of this stuff, the racetracks, and I'm here to tell you today, on behalf of the members uh men and women for the Will Grundy Billy trades, 25,000, and that live in Will and Grundy and Joliet here.

We need these jobs, and we need you guys and girls to vote yes for Hillwood Powerhouse.

Thank you.

Tom White.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name's Tom White.

I work for Three Rivers Construction Alliance, which is a labor management group out of Will and Grundy County.

We also cover Kiki and Iroquois.

We represent four different uh contractor groups and any number of labor unions.

A lot of them are here tonight, like doc, so there's well over a hundred folks back there, all different walks, all different trades.

Some are business agents representing their locals, some are you know, just union members here to support their locals.

Some are hoping you'll vote yes so they can go to work on that job in the near future.

Um I also want to take a quick minute and thank staff.

I know stuff like this is tough.

And I know everybody here is going to put up, I mean, a whole bunch of different people saying different things.

And I I know you guys did your homework, I've done mine, and there's gonna be people here that say you didn't, and that's fine.

That's their right to come up and say that.

Um I just want to urge you to vote yes on this.

A lot of people in Joliet want to work on these projects, and we hope we can do it in the near future.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

Thank you for coming down.

Mike Hansen.

Good evening, mayor, members of the city council.

My name is Michael Hanson.

I've been a resident of the City of Joliet for 62 years.

I was a practicing lawyer in Joliet for 47 years, retiring three years ago.

I am here to speak in favor of the approval of the annexation and development agreement for the data center.

As a taxpayer of the City of Joliet and a private citizen, I deeply care about the long-term health and future of our city.

I have not been formally engaged by Hillwood or by Power House Data Center.

When I make remarks such as these, I tell everyone that I'm an old guy.

But I do believe that I come here with wisdom, knowledge, and experience.

I also say that I don't know computers, which is somewhat strange when talking about this project.

But there's not much about the future here, and I'm and that it's going to be further away than I'm going to be living.

I will say, however, that this speech was not prepared or reviewed by AI, and it was written entirely by myself, and it was also written and prepared before the remarks you heard tonight by Hillwood.

There are three important matters that I'd like the council, mayor and council to consider.

Number one, the actual annexation and development agreement.

I commend City Manager Beatty, her staff, and her attorneys for a thorough and comprehensive agreement.

There are no financial incentives for the developer.

The community benefits package is without precedent, and I believe it is commensurate with the type of project that is before you tonight.

This new type of consideration is for development projects in Joliet.

I would admonish the council, however, for any other proposed city projects to be very careful and examine each project on its merits and the financial impacts on the city.

The provisions of the agreement regarding water usage and electricity are fair and reasonable.

You should rely on city staff for these matters.

I can vouch for the city staff, having worked with and trusted them for their work for over 25 years.

The data center will secure and pay for their own electric costs.

Number two, what is most important for this type of project are the people who are behind the project.

Hillwood is one of the nation's most trustworthy and recognizable real estate companies, led by Ross Perot Jr.

I have known Don Schoenheitler for many years, and the former mayor of the village of Lake Forest is an individual of integrity and high character.

The staff, the mayor, and the council must be and should be comfortable with these companies and their principles.

The number three item locations.

I believe this location is as good as any location in the city of Joliet would desire for this type of project.

So the bottom line, it comes down to the question of what is right for the city of Joliet.

And I asked the mayor and the council to show leadership.

This project will attract favorable businesses and innovative companies who want to invest in the city of Joliet.

It will not adversely affect our quality of life in this city.

This project is right for the city of Joliet.

I recommend a vote in favor of the annexation and development agreement for the data center and the project in general.

Thank you.

Andy Rico.

Thank you.

Mayor Darcy, City Council, a pleasure to come before you.

I want to thank the city manager and your staff for everything you guys have done to review the project, study it, and make sure it is a good project for the city, and I commend you for defending your staff and that.

My name is Andy Rico.

I'm the business manager of the International Bell Herb Electrical Workers, Local 176 and Joliet.

I serve on a board that reviews and evaluates applicants for our apprenticeship.

And just in January and February alone, we had over 300 young men and women that came before us seeking employment opportunities in our apprenticeship program.

And it's projects like these that will help create those opportunities.

Those people, they were not looking for handouts.

You know, they're looking for opportunities, looking for a pathway to help them become better individuals and create a pathway where they can help better serve their community.

Again, they're not looking for handouts.

You know, myself, my partners with the Willow Gurney County Building Trades, my colleagues, we consider ourselves good community partners.

We enjoy helping to invest in the community.

One of the things that we uh require our apprentices to do is to have community service.

And you know, it's opportunities like these that will help us grow our apprenticeship and create job opportunities so we can give back to the community.

These projects they help strengthen the ability of a strong community and get give our members the opportunity to give back.

You know, we sit in front of our members, and you know, I've had members come to me, you know, with tears in their eyes, thank you for the opportunity that that's been given to them to help provide for their family and you know and give back to the community.

If this project doesn't happen here, it'll go to a neighboring state, like Tom White said.

We lost many projects to neighboring states, and they all sit on the same you know, energy grid that we sit on.

So those concerns, you know, they're gonna happen even if it's built in a different in a neighboring state.

So the question is not whether the the large data center demand exists, it's where the Joliet and the community wants the benefit and have the investment and the opportunity that comes along with what hosting the project.

If Joliet hosts the project, Jolie gets the jobs, the investment, the economic activity, and local benefit.

So respect respectfully ask the council to support the project and help move the this project forward in the city of Joliet.

This is about opportunity, responsible growth, whether Joliet wants to be part of the future or watch it happening somewhere else around us.

Thank you.

I'll say something.

I'll reiterate it.

Everyone will have their chance to speak.

So please, if we can get through these comments, everyone will have their chance to speak.

Otherwise, we will have to start um asking people to leave the room.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh Mayor Darcy and Council members, I am Mike Mahoney.

I'm the chief of staff for the Will County Executive.

I too graduated from Holy Family on Larkin Avenue, I think a little different year than Doc Gregory.

Uh but I come before you today in support of this project.

This development is significant not only for the city of Joliet, but also for Will County and all its 710,000 residents.

This investment of over 20 billion dollars, creating 24 new buildings covering 800 acres is unprecedented.

The scale of this private investment is one of the largest in Illinois history and all without asking for any local incentives.

This project brings together all the resources that make Will County and Joliet such a special place to do business.

This area has the infrastructure, the transportation, the union workforce, and the strong leadership needed to deliver a project of this magnitude.

Residents from across the county, from Beecher to Bowlingbrook, will see benefits in a project of this scale.

Not only will county residents find work during construction and when the facility is open, they will also see a direct impact on their property taxes.

The county estimates that this campus, when fully built out, will add between five and six billion dollars in real estate market value to the entire county.

To give you an idea of how massive that scale is, last year the entire county's taxable market value of real estate was around a hundred billion dollars.

So this one project alone will add five to six percent to the county's entire real estate valuation.

What this will mean for the county is over five million dollars in annual revenue that does not have to come from residential taxpayers.

This will allow for important government services like the county sheriff, the health department, and our court systems to continue to operate with residents receiving the services they are entitled to with the quality they deserve.

When you look at this project and location, it addresses the concerns that many residents have about a development of this scale.

It is a location away from residential homes.

It will generate revenue that won't come from homeowners, and the data center will also help limit the exponential growth we have seen in truck traffic in the area.

The area is already heavily industrialized, and unlike warehousing, data centers require little truck traffic.

I would like to end by thanking the Joliet City staff.

The way you have navigated this project, making sure questions are answered, being exceedingly transparent and doing community engagement has been excellent.

You have set a model for how to handle such large scale projects, and it will be copied across the country, I am sure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Mike Payon.

I'm the executive vice president of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

And I'm here tonight on behalf of our President Jen Howard, our Government Affairs Committee, as well as our Chamber Board of Directors.

Honorable Mayor Darcy and City Council members.

On behalf of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry, I'm here to express our support for the proposed data center project, currently working its way through the city's planning process.

From an economic development standpoint, this project represents a strong opportunity for the community both in the near term and long term.

During construction, the development is expected to generate a significant number of skilled construction and trade jobs, creating immediate economic activity and supporting local contractors and suppliers.

Beyond the construction phase, the data center will create permanent high-wage positions across a range of functions.

These jobs will offer competitive salaries and benefits and contribute to the growth of a stable modern workforce aligned with a growing technology sector.

The project will also provide a meaningful and reliable source of property tax revenue.

Data centers typically represent substantial capital investment and long-term occupancy, offering predictable revenue that can support essential city services, schools, and infrastructure.

Additionally, the proposed data center represents a productive and responsible alternative to other potential uses of the site that may generate fewer jobs, lower wages, or less consistent tax revenue.

Questions and concerns were thoughtfully reviewed, and the developer engaged in multiple discussions with us to ensure appropriate mitigation measures and safeguards were incorporated into the project.

For these reasons, the chamber believes the proposed data center project aligns well with the city's economic development goals.

We appreciate your consideration, and you should, and should you require any further information, you know where to contact us.

Thank you.

Dr.

Kip Klein, Vice President at Lewis University, Mayor Darcy, members of the council.

As someone who has worked in higher education for more than 20 years, much of that time at Lewis University, I've spent my career thinking about how education prepares students for meaningful futures in their communities.

The Joliet Technology Center represents more than a single development.

It's the type of long-term investment that helps position a community as a hub for technology innovation and economic growth.

For institutions like Lewis University, the Joliet Technology Center will strengthen the connection between education and opportunity, helping ensure students can build meaningful careers right here in the area.

Investments of this scale, roughly 20 billion into the local economy, help position Joliet as a place where innovative industries want to grow and invest.

The project is expected to generate thousands of union construction jobs during development.

That creates opportunities for students pursuing careers in the skilled trades, engineering, and construction management, all of which we offer degrees in at Lewis University.

Once operational, the facility will support hundreds of permanent technical and operational jobs, many of which align with programs offered by local colleges and universities, such as computer science, information technology, engineering, and other technical training programs connected to technology infrastructure.

Developments like this can also create opportunities for partnerships between industry and higher education, including internships, workforce training programs, and pathways that help students move from classroom into the workforce.

The long-term tax revenue generated by the project will also support local schools and educational resources, strengthening the pipeline of talent across the region.

Thank you.

Kelly Roter Tanelli, Frederick Delmeyer, Tracy Delmeyer, Abby Vallmer, Willie Sellers, Isabel Gloria, Hugh O'Hara.

If you could all please line up in the middle, that'd be great.

Okay, okay.

All right.

Um good evening.

Uh I'm Kelly Roder Tanelli, and I'm here speaking on behalf of Joliet Junior College.

Um thank you, City Council and City Team for everything that you've done in explaining this this project this evening and being transparent through the process.

And I just want to acknowledge the significant public dialogue surrounding the Joliet Technology Center.

And we believe as the nation's first public community college and longstanding regional workforce partner, that this is a project that would bring both opportunity and engagement for our current residents, future residents, current students, and former students.

And we appreciate the thoughtful engagement from all of you that have participated in the review process.

From the college's perspective, our primary role in conversations like this is to help ensure that local residents are prepared for emerging workforce opportunities, and that new industries connect with strong regional pipeline talent.

Rapid growth in digital infrastructure, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and data storage has created increasing demand for skilled technicians and applied technology professionals, not just here but across the country.

Should developments in this sector continue to expand within the region?

Community colleges play an essential role in preparing the workforce, playing a central role in preparing the workforce needed to support them.

Potential career pathways that I'm talking about this evening include electrical and power systems technology, industrial maintenance and automation, HVAC, fiber optics and telecommunications, cybersecurity, and facilities management.

These technical occupations align closely with JJC's mission and provide pathways to sustaining careers, not just short term, but sustaining careers for local residents.

We also recognize that residents have raised important questions relating to infrastructure, including water resources, energy demand, and long-term environmental stewardship.

For more than 120 years, JJC has worked alongside all of you, municipalities, employers, and community partners to align education with regional workforce needs.

As new industries emerge, the college remains committed to working collaboratively with local leaders, labor organizations, and employers to ensure that residents have access to the education and training needed to participate in this evolving economy.

We appreciate the thoughtful leadership of the city council and city team during this process and remain ready to support workforce development and educational initiatives that strengthen the long-term economic vitality of the Joliet region.

Thank you.

One point of order before I begin.

Oh, by the way, my name is Frederick Dahlmeyer.

I live at one uh 1703 Heritage Point Port Plainfield, Illinois.

Um as of early 2026, our current um utilization of servers uh in the data centers throughout the United States hovers between 12 to 18 percent.

That means that most of our uh servers are sitting idle.

They are not being used.

Uh just want to point that out, uh, the lack of necessity for this uh for this project.

So good evening, ladies and gentlemen, uh friends beyond the binary and members of the city council.

Uh I mean it looks like we pretty much have a done deal here.

Uh, regardless of four hours of overwhelming disapproval from the uh concerned citizens of Joliet and the uh surrounding area during the uh planning commission, uh they chose to move it forward.

And uh I do want to thank Chairman Kella for recognizing the concerns uh and questions as reason to put that project on hold.

Now, as someone who uses the internet, cloud computing and artificial intelligence every day, I acknowledge and and uh appreciate the uh vast computational power that is necessary for the backbone of the information age.

Along with a good portion of here uh people here, uh we're not merely here to block progress.

We understand and appreciate the delicate task the uh city council has to balance the uh promises of progress versus the uh burdens that the uh city uh that the people of Joliet and the surrounding uh area could face.

And we can't fault you for having that decision.

We understand and appreciate the sweat and toil of our brothers and sisters in labor trying to realize the vision of those at the top of the pyramid, the one percent who are interested in their private concerns, their efforts will be compensated, as they should, and we cannot fault anyone wanting to support their families or themselves.

They should benefit from this from this contract that has yet to be written and should be done in the best interests at hand.

And once we get that data center built, there should be a few hundred jobs created that should in no way be threatened by the very technology that they serve.

I am confident in the financial security of these people, just as locomotive engineers, warehouse stalkers, and bank tellers were at their time.

We believe that the tax revenue should be generated by this data center, should be used for the benefit of the city, like schools, infrastructure, etc.

And we can't fault the city uh to look for additional revenue uh revenue centers, revenue streams.

Now, should that's a heck of a powerful word.

Has a lot of promise there, but nothing concrete.

And you can't fault us for being a little bit skeptical about that.

So rather than shoulds, what will Hillwood and it's $891 million of liquid assets and $6.5 billion that the CEO currently holds, what can they provide us?

I have a proposal.

Instead of waiting for a should have that, have them put that tax revenue up front now to serve the people of Joliet.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

I am Tracy Dahlmeyer, and I also affirm that I will speak the truth and only the truth today.

Again, nobody else was sworn in.

Uh staff was asked for clarification, they were not sworn in.

A lawyer was asked for clarification, not sworn in.

Um, you said you're on record, but they were not sworn in.

Um this might already be a done deal.

I hope that is not the case.

Some of the questions I've heard have been encouraged.

I was disappointed that the previous meeting on March 5th yielded hours upon hours of public comments overwhelmingly to say no, and with seemingly very little due diligence, it passed quickly.

I understand that there were a lot of emails for it.

We could have emailed instead of showing up then.

We could have emailed today instead of showing up now.

But we are here.

We're talking to you, asking you to approve, or pleading with you to say no.

But we are here, please listen to us.

Um during the presentation, we heard about how high uh prices were in 2012, without commenting that there was a great recession in 2012.

It seems a little bit disingenuous to compare those prices.

Um, Councilman Hugg, you asked where things would go.

It uh and all we didn't hear an answer.

We heard it'd be carted off.

Um we've also heard the phrase essentially immediately.

Is it immediately?

Is it essentially immediately?

Um we heard unable to go grossly over the limit.

What is grossly over the limit, and the very scientific unit of measurement out the wazoo.

Now I am all for new jobs, especially union jobs.

I am not against the progress of technology.

There are other avenues for jobs in this area, and there are other avenues for technology to grow.

This is not the project we need.

We do not need a data center at this time, and we do not need a data center in Joliet.

We do need jobs in Joliet, but not this.

And it seems like they don't even care about Joliet.

Uh, they seem disappointed that presentations and this project have been backed up since September.

They don't want to start over with another town and another council, but they will.

They said they will.

Please let them.

I will just say, please do your due diligence on this, continue to ask the hard questions, and do not be afraid to say no.

Thank you for your time.

Hello, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Willis Sellers, and I haven't been in front of you guys in a long time.

But I hear all the good news about them, all the money coming the job.

And I've heard this before.

And every time big job, money opportunities come, our community is left out.

So I'm here advocating for economics for our community.

When I was here the last time we had two black council people that's representing us.

Right now, we don't have any.

And right now, with these two billion dollars that's that's being spent, if someone does not speak up, we're gonna get left out again.

So I'm here to advocate for opportunities for some of that hundred million dollars, some of the job opportunities to come to our community.

And I am uh union member, and I am for jobs for the union, but I also am for getting opportunities for our community.

So when you guys start doing your negotiation and everything, think about our community also.

And I'll leave with that one.

Hello everybody.

Um I feel like we all need to like get up, do some jumping jacks.

I know it's a long night, so I appreciate you all being here and listening.

Um two things I would like to mention.

Um, there was a news article recently published about the way that a lot of us who are opposed dress.

I would like to mention that 90% of us come straight from work.

It is not a disrespect thing, it's not anything to do with that.

Um, I came from student teaching.

Um, I can't really wear nice clothes around preschoolers when we're painting.

So um, and then secondly, a lot of us who are against do not use AI to write any of our speeches.

Actually, we often are like, hey guys, does this sound good?

Should we tweak it before our meetings just to be safe that what we're our points are getting across well?

Um, but as you guys know by now, I'm Abby.

I am from Elwood.

Um, another town that will be affected by this data center.

Uh last time there was a meeting, there was almost five hours worth of concerns, and they kind of just fell right on deaf ears.

Um, it's beyond frustrating and scary to know that the people in power don't necessarily care for the people they represent.

Um you will likely hear ours more tonight, um, and I ask you to do more than just hear, but to listen to us.

Um, we are really scared.

Um, we have facts and fears against the center, water consumption is a big one, especially the effect on wells that are ordered and are already depleting aqueduct.

Um that has been mentioned more times than I can count.

I have not heard one comment from um the pro about what will happen to people's wells.

Manhattan and Elwood do still use wells and people will be affected.

Um there are there are many concerns about health risks from pollution in the air to and water and even noise pollution, um, up to two miles, as we know, all um, which can cause cancer, and that's terrifying.

I come from a family who's lost many people to cancer.

I don't want to lose anyone else.

Um, the fear that AI is taking jobs and honestly dumbing down humans greatly.

Um, I have seen it firsthand.

Um I graduated on the tail end of AI becoming more and more prevalent in um undergrad and grad school.

Um, and I like I said, work in the schools.

Um, kids will use it to literally summarize a three-paragraph um paper.

So kind of concerning.

Um, reading is in the toilet besides the point.

Uh, we worry about our homes and the affordability um to live in homes with the rising electricity price.

We worry about our neighbors and for our families and friends, and yet no one is listening.

The only pro that I have consistently heard from this argument revolves completely around money.

Um why is money more important than us?

Uh so I would like you to kind of look at all of us as people.

Um, I know that what we ask is that you guys think about this or say no, because we're people, we're not dollar signs.

Um if we are just dollar signs to you guys, what is the price of me?

I want to know the price of my family.

I want to know the price of Miss Bombhart's family who's gonna be right on this property.

She's the nicest lady.

Her family deserves.

Um, and if we have a price range, do your families have price range?

If somebody came in and offered to buy up your family, wouldn't you be here fighting?

Um, if you wouldn't live next to this or have your families live next to us, please don't codone, uh condemn another family to the same fate.

Um, because if whatever does come and happen to us, I hope that whatever happens to us is put tenfold on you and your families.

So please vote in favor of people in favor of us.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Isabel.

Go ahead.

Okay, please.

Hi, my name is Isabel Gloria, and I'm a lifelong resident of Joliet.

I'm a voter, taxpayer, and I hope to continue living here.

And as you all know already, I'm not for the data center.

I'm asking for you guys to please vote no.

But I know that a lot of you guys have already decided to vote yes.

So I'm asking for those of you that have decided to vote yes to table this for later.

To at least consider tabling it for later.

For example, we have the we're still waiting as a state for the power act, and that's to come up with better guardrails for data centers so that they provide green energy, not just saying that they're gonna tap into what already exists, but for them to provide their own energy.

Why are we not pushing for that?

And not only that, but the money that they're giving us.

At the end of the day, it's great that they would invest in sidewalks and roads.

But one of the things in the Power Act is that it says that they would help invest in LIHEAP in helping the people that can't afford their utilities.

How are we gonna help the people whose utilities are gonna go up?

The reality is that even though, like the gentleman mentioned that the utilities have been higher, if you read the news, the reason why our utilities are where they are right now, which is hurting people, is because of data centers.

That's what it is.

And it's going to continue being a problem.

So we need to think, I think we can ask for a better deal, quite frankly, if we're gonna ask for a deal.

Again, I'm I'm against data centers.

I morally think that AI is evil, and I think that at the end of the day, these are business people who have given up their ethics for money.

And the way that a lot and a lot of the people that are here pro data center are doing it for the money.

So, what does that look like to the average resident me?

That looks like you guys are choosing to side with people who have money over those of us who don't.

It's classism, it's racism, it's sexism.

How many people in the unions are diverse?

How many are women?

I'm not saying they shouldn't have the jobs, but if they're the only ones benefiting it, it should reflect all of Joliet, not just some of Joliet.

So that's something else that I think is really important that we really be there.

How much and something it's something I forgot to mention, but okay, you guys consulted your city people, your staff, you guys consulted Powerhouse and Hillwood.

Did you guys get any sort of conversations when you guys were doing your research with environmentalists?

Did you guys have any conversations with public health officials?

Did you guys have any conversations with activists?

And I'm not just meaning where they reached out to you and had to force their way into the door.

Did you go out of your way to have a holistic view of this?

Not just the one-sided of economic, economic, economic.

We didn't vote for you to just do economic.

That's not what I vote for.

And I hope you guys recognize that I'm the voting generation.

I'm a young person.

There's a lot of young people here that are more reflective of Joliet, the diversity of Joliet, and what we want for Joliet.

And our generation is not just about voting for the economic good, especially not if it's just going to the people that are already rich.

How's this gonna help me?

So that's all.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name's Hugh O'Hara.

I'm the executive director of the Will County Governmental League, and importantly for tonight, a resident of Joliet.

Um our organization has spent a lot of time looking at data centers trying to assist communities in figuring out the right questions to ask.

And I have to say your staff has done a great job in asking those questions.

When we look at data centers around the country, around Illinois, around our region.

Water and energy are obviously the important questions.

You have great staff with the uh Elison Swisher and your water department who looks at these things, trust her uh completely to give us the right answers.

John McCann was comed.

I've known for a long time and worked with him on a number of projects and have never known John to mislead me or to mislead our group when it comes to the power needs of our area.

So I think you've listened to the right people on this.

Um it comes to the financial side.

This is a benefit not just for Joliet, it's for all the taxing bodies.

Obviously, Joliet has the uh additional uh bonus of the the city contribution, but um this is gonna help communities all over, it's gonna help the school districts.

I have two kids that have gone through public school or still in the public high schools here in Joliet.

Um, you know, those schools they could definitely use the extra dollars, and they can use it from not being put on the property tax owners.

It's not being put on residential property taxes.

The number one thing you hear across the county.

Why are my property taxes so high?

What can be done about it?

What can happen?

Bringing in large projects is what can happen.

That's what can help diversify that tax base.

That's what can help lower or at least maintain your current property tax rates for residents.

This is exactly the type of development that's going to be a win for a whole lot of people in this community.

Again, the staff's done a great job.

This is going to create a lot of jobs for labor.

We work a lot with our friends in labor.

The more jobs that we can bring to our community, the better.

I'm looking at the city seal.

You've got I-80 I-55, Route 6, Route 30, etc.

This is this really is the crossroads of America, always has been.

Data centers are just the new crossroads of America.

It's just another thing that's going to come into our area.

It's going to provide a lot of jobs and a lot of good financial tax base for our region.

So I urge you to vote yes.

I urge you to support this project.

City has a lot of financial challenges.

This can definitely help out with that and not be put on the backs of the homeowners.

So I think this is a great project for the city.

I think it's a wonderful project for the region.

With that, I will give you back your minute and a half.

Um, other than to say happy St.

Patrick's Day to everyone for tomorrow.

Please celebrate safely.

Thank you.

Brandy Galena, Craig Dornoard, Rick Norman, Alma Montero, Lily Martinez, Ava Grubb, and Amina Brown.

Brandy Galina.

Hi.

My name is Brandy Galena.

I was born in Juliet.

Lived here my whole life.

I have a lot of skin in the game, a lot of family.

Sure.

A lot of my neighbors that I care about, a lot of people I love in this community.

And we all have come to the consensus that this is not a good thing.

I've watched just kind of watching the facial expressions of everybody on the board.

Um you've got really fat, dirty looks all the time.

Keep looking at her.

She's told you to stop.

Um I'm glad that you have courage, Susanna.

You have courage.

Um everything you've asked, you've taken the words out of my mouth.

You have stood up.

You have not had um anyone back you down, and I am just grateful for that.

Thank you.

Uh, Mr.

Darcy, I have every time I voted for you every time.

I want you to know that.

Um, I believe that you are a good leader.

I believe that you do make good choices for us.

I do believe that in the end, um, you will think about this really hard, and you'll think about the people that vote for you.

And I do believe that you will really take that into deep consideration when you make your choice at the end of this, and I hope that all of you will too.

Um, Miss Beth, I see you spending a lot of time over there at that table, chit-chatting with all your cronies over there.

I know we're your I know we're, you know.

Can you just stay on top of the we don't want to talk firstly?

Speaker should try to address all comments to the council, but it doesn't say I have to, so I should, but I'm not going to.

I'm gonna address each one of you individually.

Um I think that a couple of you have really kind of shown your face and shown your cards outright, and it's kind of scary to be standing up here and feeling that I am a little David here with these Goliaths over here.

And uh the only stones I have right now are my words.

And I hope that the words that I do have are mighty enough to throw the stone hard enough so that it'll land where it needs to land and take out the Goliath that we have before us.

I believe that this is a war for our things we stand for in all of our uh freedoms.

These data collection centers, that's what they do.

They collect your data, they use it, they store it, they have it forever, and whenever they see fit, uh they're they can use it against us, and they will.

They've shown us, they've told us there's a little story and a little weavy called minority report.

If anybody knows what that is, um it's kind of what they're heading towards.

If you take a look at this, you can Google it.

That's what they want.

Um they're going to use us up.

They're going to take everything they can, and they're going to turn around and they're going to use it against us.

And that is going to be something that's going to happen because they already told us that's going to happen.

Um, Hillwood, I guess they're out of Texas.

If you take a look and see what's going on there, they're about to take out the biggest cotton field that there is in America right now with what they want to do.

I hope you guys like wearing cotton clothing because that's about to end.

Um, Mr.

Mark, I sat next to you for quite a while.

I guess Mark is an ammunition specialist, but he said he's not into war.

Not sure what he meant by that, but I've been eavesdropping a lot of conversations.

Um John from Commed.

Everything you said was a lie.

Mr.

Andrew, also bullshit.

Liz over here, you were so boring, you just spoke in monotones that we maybe wouldn't catch anything.

You had to say it so we wouldn't hear anything, we wouldn't learn anything from you.

Um mission accomplished.

Uh Pat.

Um don't really have to say much about you, but you were pretty boring too, and I think you're full of shit too.

And Don, you were the first one to come up here and talk to us, and uh, I think you were just kind of the patsy.

You're just kind of the one that was put up here like the puppet.

Well, they told you what to say, and you know, hopefully you get your point across, but kind of over it, and I hope you guys vote no.

Please, for the love of God and the love of our town and the love of everybody in it, vote no, I'm Rick Norman, a lifelong resident of Joliet.

I'm gonna start with presenting a petition.

Uh collecting more than 4,600.

Eight eight hundred four thousand six hundred and eighty-eight signatures against this proposed data center.

Do the right thing, do what's best for the future of Joliet, vote no on this proposed data center.

Do not let these fuck with Sir.

Data Center Pimps, please.

My name is Craig Dornward.

Uh one mayor and a council people just listen.

Where Millsdale and Ridge Road are.

That's where my house is.

It's less than 600 feet from where this data center is going.

In my right mind, if I go to sell my house, ain't nobody gonna want it because a data center is gonna be there.

Why can't you instead of a data center build houses, roads, make construction over there?

You'll get more tax money in the millennium than you will from these people.

You'll get over 10 million dollars a year just in tax money from that new properties.

That's all I gotta say.

Hi, um, Mr.

Mayor and Councilman and Councilwomen.

My name is Alma Montero, and I live in Joliet and have lived in Joliet for over 40 years, so I'm a lifelong Joliet resident.

Um before I start with my spiel that I had already written up, I just want to say that it was very nice to see that all the reps that did the presentation here acknowledge the residents.

I heard, you know, acknowledge you guys, but they never acknowledge any of the residents here.

That's to me that's disrespectful because they're the ones trying to come into our city, and that ones that they say and acknowledge the residents.

So I just want to kind of throw that out there.

Um the second thing I want to say is Mr.

Mayor, you asked about or you mentioned something about the facility not being fully functional until about 2030.

Per the last meeting that was here for the planning commission, one of the reps um here said it would be fully functional, up and running by 2028.

That means it'll be fully functional, up and running two years prior to when the water from Lake Michigan will be here.

So, what it what are the residents supposed to do for those two years?

It's gonna be um gone before then.

So I just wanted to kind of throw that out.

All right, and so what I want to focus on tonight for my message is three things.

I want to say accountability, responsibility, and listening to your residents.

I only ask all of you that sit up there with the power to cast your vote on many critical issues that affect all of the residents of the city of Joliet and at times such as this time, many others surrounding Joliet to thoroughly think through your vote tonight.

Be accountable and be responsible for your actions.

Remember, your vote will have impact for years to come and will be remembered for the consequences that your vote has, no matter if you are sitting in that seat or no longer are.

Think of what the legacy you want people to remember you by.

Also remember to listen to your constituents.

Listen to those that put you in those seats up there, not the businesses that have no clue what Joliet is about.

They are only here for the business deal.

Once that's done, they leave, they walk away and move on to the next city, state, or town.

Just one of the reps here before in the presentations, they admitted that if you guys do not approve this in another northern city will be approved, the cost impact will be the same.

So they're admitting openly tonight that there is a cost impact.

So remember that.

I came here tonight already disappointed because knowing that pretty much only one person up there is going to vote no.

Everyone else has already made up their mind to vote yes.

So I urge you to please listen to the people that are here that you represent, that you said you were gonna represent.

What a shame if you do.

Because at least ask, act like you're willing to listen.

Reach out to us.

Instead of us trying to track you down, track us down.

Try to reach out to your community and see what is it that we need, what is it that we want.

I can tell you that throughout this topic of the data center, and many others as well that I've been involved in, most people are clueless as to what you are all voting on.

Not because we're ignorant of what is happening, but because we all have lives, and the expectation is that people that are elected to represent us will have an open channel of communication.

But that hasn't happened.

My ask tonight is that this item is tabled.

Again, remember to be your own person and not just follow suit.

You have your own voice, you definitely will be judged by your vote, not by anybody else's.

Why rush this?

Why not wait?

Any business deal needs a lot of negotiating before it is settled.

So because the time is up, I just want to say that please when you vote, look at each one of us in the face and be proud of your vote.

Don't look down, don't look at the clerk.

Look at us and say, I'm proud of what I'm voting for.

Okay, can I also have Eileen?

Eileen with an E.

Becky Studer, Craig Herr, Matt Robbins, and Maribel Jasso.

Come to the center, please.

My name is Lily, and I'm a lifelong resident of Joliet and a member of Joliet Residence for Responsible Growth, and I want what's best for our city.

Um earlier during the presentation, we heard about how their claims that for the utility costs that it won't increase for us, but um did some research and um they discussed during the presentation what's called the transmission security agreement between COMED and data centers, known as TSA, and that attempts to have data centers pay for eight to ten years, but there's a lot of criticism on this about how it does very little to protect the costs, um, protect us from the cost of data centers.

The Federal Energy Regulation Commission, known as FERC, had until May to vote on the TSA, and many were against the TSA as it does not truly protect us.

The Illinois Attorney General's office filed objections to the TSA as there were no guarantees this revenue will cover the costs needed to provide the required transmission facilities, meaning that existing customers might end up paying higher electricity bills to financially support the infrastructure costs of new large data centers.

And if these costs are added to the general formula rates, they are spread across the entire customer base instead of only charging the new large user that caused the need for the expansion.

The FERC, the Federal Emerg uh Energy Regulation Commission stated they have not independently assessed the terms of the agreement to determine if they are just and reasonable.

They pass a TSA and stated, although the commission accepts the agreement, that acceptance does not protect other customers.

And this could be found on their federal website.

The commissioner of FERC has stated that they are concerned that this agreement may not be sufficient to ensure that customers are protected against unjust cost shifts of the new large loads.

Neither the terms of the agreement nor ComED demonstrate how these commitments protect other customers from unjustified cost shifts.

The agreement does not identify any specific upgrade upgrades needed to interconnect the data center.

Instead, if the large data center triggers transmission upgrades on COMED system, the requirements, and thereby rolls into transmission rates that all customers pay.

So that's including us, including your businesses.

So this means that all Comed's transmission customers would share the costs, responsibility for those transmission upgrades.

The commissioner from FERC goes on to say that achieving affordability and fairness will require more than passive reaction like this TSA agreement.

So I just want you to remember that this vote will reflect this is being recorded, it will be remembered from here on out, and this reflect reflects your position on the city council, reflects the businesses you own, the businesses that your family owns.

So and all the data shows that this will come out of our pockets.

I don't want this data center, but if anything, please table it.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Ava Grubb, and I serve as an in-office staff staffer for State Senator Rachel Ventura, and will be reading the following remarks on her office but office's behalf.

I am here today asking the Joliet City Council to listen to the will of the people regarding the proposed Joliet Technology Center.

At the Planning Commission meeting, my coworkers spoke about how there is a bipartisan group of 72 state legislators from nine states and the district of Columbia that have submitted a letter to the P PJM interconnection board urging reforms to protect ratepayers, maintain grid reliability, and ensure fair competition for renewables and battery storage as data centers accelerate energy demand across the region.

We are still actively working on this.

My coworker also discussed the stress the data center would have on our failing aquif ahead of the Joliet joining the Grand Prairie Water Commission in 2030.

This alter alternative water source will cost 1.446 billion dollars and was intended to provide an alternative dependable water source for more than 300,000 people.

It was not intended to cool the largest data center in Illinois.

Additionally, at the Plan Commission meeting, the concerns of noise and air pollution, environmental impact, negative economic impact to citizens, and grid reliability were also mentioned repeatedly.

The potential financial boom to the city of Joliet seems to outweigh all other considerations regarding this data center, unfortunately.

There is no CBA in place to protect the people of Joliet or Illinois from any potential negative impacts of development.

There is no guarantee that Tier 4 admission standards will be met.

There have been no agreements to voluntarily report noise, water, and energy consumption or vibrations to have non-interested third party vendors complete these studies.

Most importantly, the people of Joliet stood here and told the plan commission at that meeting repeatedly that they did not want this data center.

Of those who signed up to speak at the last meeting, 89% of them stood up and said repeatedly that they didn't want not want the data center in their backyard.

It is the job of elected officials to listen to their constituents constituency.

Those who fail to listen to their constituents constituency fail in their primary responsibility as an elected official.

So again, we ask that the city council vote no on this development.

Although the construction of data centers can create many jobs, those are often very short-lived temporary roles.

Once the data centers are actually built, they require relatively few top few full-time employees.

There is no data from any existing data centers to support the suggestion that full-time employees would reach the number that we are being told that they would reach here.

It's just physically impossible.

We ask that the city council vote no, and instead of rushing this development, at least wait until the proper safeguards have been put in place by legislators.

Waiting will ensure that citizens and our planet are overall better protected.

If this is really such a prime spot for the state's largest data center, what would the harm really be in waiting for a regulations by the state to be actually put in place to protect us?

Thoughtful planning will now will prevent costly consequences later.

I respectfully urge you to vote no or at least wait until statewide statewide framework is established and table this um issue.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Mr.

Moreno, can you do what I previously asked you to do earlier?

No, you can't do it.

Alright, so I'm gonna point out three people here for everyone else.

This is Liz Nicholson, the vice president of Powerhouse, according to your website, of course.

Uh Don Schoender of Ilwood and David Silverman of Power, Open their attorney.

Okay, good.

So according to their own website, they have an archipelago of about 140 data centers, all of which have been peppered across Appalachian the Southwest.

Historically, places that have bore the brunt of internal colonization and left destitute.

People are left with no money, no food, or you know, very poor because you know my family's from West Virginia.

And the the earth is stripped to barren rock.

It's it's nothing.

Okay?

So I reached out to these communities because it seems that the council forgot to do their homework.

It might shock you that this reminds wildly unpopular.

Even in Texas, where Hillwood is from, it's a bipartisan issue.

Democrats and Republicans unilaterally agreeing that this needs to be solved.

So I spoke with public citizens.

Where Mr.

Showed earner's company is from a local advocacy group.

Despite echoing what we've been screaming at, you've lot I asked if they obeyed any restrictions.

Quote, if there was any, I don't, they don't care.

Now, because of these people right here, counties are now forced to enforce to impose drought restrictions and reservoirs like Corpus Christi are set to dry by New Year's.

So, Miss Liz Nicholson, according to your website, again, like I said, you're the vice president of Powerhouse, in your home state, according to EESI, electricity costs have gone up by 267% in five years.

You got an answer for that?

Do your PR team out coach you?

Anyways, or Don Schoender of Hillwood.

Your ilk's been cutting deals left and right across the country.

How much money did the city promise you in land grants?

50%, like North Lake, Texas, or was it more, or were you just too greedy?

Yeah, look at me like that.

Keep looking.

Look at the people that you are affecting.

Please address the council.

David Silverman, Powerhouse's attorney, being from the same university who gave Terry Darcy his De La Salle and Signum Fidai Award.

Did you sweeten the deal with your repute to develop Jolia?

Or was it mere coincidence that you're bumping shoulders with people that Terry Darcy greets with open arms?

Mind you, this is all public information, by the way.

I didn't need to go on a data broker website or something like that.

Who is also from you know data brokers usually use AI, so all right.

Three days ago I spoke with Mr.

Hug after addressing concerns of PFOS, which is a substitute for cooling, which is highly toxic, mind you.

Oh, did I move that?

Sorry.

I asked, what is the measures that you took?

And these were his responses.

It's not my business.

It's worth the jobs, and every industry has its consequences.

700 jobs, Mr.

Hug.

You said 700 permanent jobs, Mr.

Hug, for the livelihood of 151,000 people and more?

No.

Am I speaking to babies with grayed hair?

This is not the work of a businessman.

This is a bus, this is a criminal enterprise with people in turtlenecks.

This is not stripes, this is business suits.

This is how they get you.

And to the intellectuals brought to flying concerns, your degrees are paying or penned with snake venom.

It is not the first time that a company has used intellectuals to stomp out concerns.

ExxonMobil, who you're acquainted with because they gave you an award, didn't they, Mr.

Darcy?

And also Malborough and Nestle have all come to these places saying that they're not gonna hurt people, but guess what?

They sure shit did.

Oh, you know what's the funny thing is?

I'm gonna take a few more seconds, sorry.

Open AI is not even profitable if they're not spying on you.

Your time is a good one.

Your time is.

They are losing 15 million a day.

This guy right here, Mr.

Don.

This guy right here, Mr.

Schoander.

It's enough.

Contracted with flocks.

Do your job.

Your time is up.

Okay, my name is Becky Stewart.

Stewarder.

I am a big union family.

Dad, uncles, cousins, six out of seven brothers, union, now nephews.

Um, so I just want to say to you guys I think you're forfeiting a lot for a couple of years of steady work.

You don't know how this is gonna affect down the road, and you're gonna say, well, I don't either.

Well, I, being a retired ICU nurse, I do know how people's health is affected from you know toxic environments.

And um, well, you know, first let me say, hey, you two sitting together.

Um the front page of the first story in the patch today.

Anyway, um I had I've been here long enough I had to use the facilities.

I just want to say kudos to the city for putting out water saving, putting in water saving toilets to save clean water for the city.

I just want to say kudos to the city for putting out water saving, putting in water-saving toilets to save clean water for the city, says the toilets save up to uh 20% and the urinos save up to 50%.

Hey, we're saving clean water for what to use elsewhere?

Okay, so first, not a scientist in the group here, all salesmen.

Okay.

That's why I say I am pro-union.

I I want you guys to work, but there's got to be something better.

The city can spend their money on and more permanent jobs than what is going to be realized when you so uh have any of you got a data center in your neighborhood?

How close?

How close?

Ms.

Studer, please address it.

Can you can you address the council, please?

Yes, I can.

Um, so um the you know, there's uh the state.

Well, I this is the state, right?

That um gets a they get a 20-year memorial on uh tax money, that's not the city, right?

That's the state.

Am I understanding that correctly?

Yeah, you know, we're still the city is still going to realize money from this, but the state is gonna lose a lot of money with this memorium.

So okay.

And um I just want to remind everybody I'm old enough to remember when the lottery was started.

Uh the money the way they sold it to us is all this money's going to the schools.

We won't have any problem with our schools anymore.

And a lot of you remember.

And uh, well, that didn't last long.

So, as far as uh this all this tax money is supposed to be coming in, it's going to go to our schools and all this.

I'd have to see a little more in writing.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Mr.

Mayor and uh City Council, my name is Craig Hurr.

I've uh been in the community for 37 years.

I'm a senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church for 32 years, and uh one of our main priorities was to be a benefit to the community and to serve the community.

Uh over the years I had the opportunity to be part of a leadership team that helped pass school referendums, first for Joliet Township operating uh their operating budget.

Uh then we went uh and helped the grade school uh with their operating budget referendum, and then we did a building referendum uh which we passed, and all the buildings were renovated, two new buildings were built.

Uh that was a while ago, but the new referendum that passed last year rested on those funds, the foundation of that, and they did the similar thing that we did years ago, and Mayor Darcy was a very important part of uh that that leadership uh for education.

I just say this to say, let you know that I care about the community in which I live, care about the quality of life and the city and Will County, and because I care about the quality of life, I urge you to vote no or to table uh this uh because uh worries about the rising price of electricity, uh no new power generation immediately is being provided to add to the demands of the data center and what it will use.

Uh once our capacity is maxed out, and the recent study in the TRIB and from the governor's office said that it will be in five years.

Who will get the power?

Will the homeowners, manufacturers, retailers, the data center, who will come first?

Who will be favored if there is a brownout?

How comfortable are you with rising electricity bills and our bills are rising very much?

Neighborville said no at this time to a data center.

Yorkville said yes.

We don't need a tsunami of data centers throughout our region.

We do not know who will be the largest users of the capabilities of this data center that it makes possible an ethical use of AI is becoming a real problem and an impediment now.

Will any of the users use it to do surveillance and to keep files on all of us in the general population?

Uh companies says it's palantur, and Peter Teal, who doesn't even like democracy, uh, sucks in all this kind of information and wants to have files on us all.

What about the autonomous oversight of equipment and processes in our community and in our region from AI?

Now, how many jobs will be lost through the exponential increase of AI?

Meta Zuckerberg today, we heard in the news they're reducing their workforce by 20% because of their investment in AI.

Block got rid of 4,000 employees because of their investment in AI.

Uh every day, Oracle, Amazon, Elon Musk, the billionaire technocrats, want to have a tsunami of data centers all across our country, and they don't really care about us.

I encourage you to think about what the decades say against the day and the moment.

It is better to say no to a data center, I believe, at this time.

What about all the jobs created during construction?

I know you're worried about that if you vote no.

I grew up in a blue-collar household, my dad was an IBU, BEW union electrician, I've been on some jobs.

He needed work.

I understand that.

I support the unions.

I understand the importance of creating jobs.

I was a member of the Center on Economic Development for 30 years.

I encourage you to think about what the decades have to say against the day.

Think about all the warehouses that have been built in our community in our area.

And if you could go back and start fresh again, would you allow so many warehouses to be built?

Would you welcome all the truck traffic and congestion and exhaust?

Probably not.

So listen to what the decades have to say to the day.

And I wonder why our leaders haven't required all the warehouses to put solar panels on top of their roofs to supply power.

Thank you very much for your time.

Good evening.

I know it's gonna be a long night, and I appreciate everybody taking the time to listen to everybody.

My name is Matt Robbins, and I'm the Jackson Township supervisor.

I'm sure everyone is aware this project is entirely in Jackson Township.

I have read through some of the items in the agenda packet, especially the traffic study.

Jackson Township is mentioned multiple times, and no one from the developer has even talked to us yet.

This project will directly affect our residents with increased traffic and their safety, especially during construction.

I'm sure this has been worked on by the city and developer for months.

The increased traffic on Route 53 and other side roads like Bridge Road, many under the jurisdiction of Jackson Town Group will be greatly increased, especially during construction.

I am here tonight representing my residents' safety and quality of life.

I hope in the near future we will be able to talk about this project and the impact it will have on the residents of Jackson Township safety and quality of life.

Thank you.

Can we have can we have Dan Wexler, Glenn McCollum, Jason James, Portia Gallegos, Jennifer Garlitz, Andrea Baumhart?

Please come to the middle.

Go ahead.

Good evening, members of the Joliet City Council.

My name is Maribel Josso.

I am a stay-at-home mother to a toddler.

I am currently pregnant, and I live three miles from this data center.

I'm not here to talk about tax revenue.

I'm here to talk about our children's lungs, our water, and our right to live in our own homes without fear.

I'm here because I am terrified that this council is voting on a project you do not have to live with.

When you approve this, you are telling our families that our health is secondary to computer servers.

We live in our home.

We play outside.

We drink the water, but based on documented failures at other data centers, here is the gift you are giving our neighborhood.

You are placing a water guzzling giant on top of an aquifer that is already failing.

In Newton County, Georgia, families just like mine saw their wells fill with sediment and run bone dry within months of a metadata center groundbreaking.

Those families are now facing $25,000 bills to replace wells that officials promised were safe.

With Joliet's Aquifer already in a state of emergency, what is your plan B?

When our taps stop running, is there a bonded repair fund or are we just collateral damage?

Closed loop promises mean nothing without transparency on where that chemically discharged water ends up.

Where exactly is the volume of wastewater being treated?

And can those facilities actually handle that volume of untreated water?

Where does it end up after the treatment?

They don't like we don't know.

But in April, the Cyrus One Data Center in Aurora had a transformer failure.

Their diesel generators ran for three days straight.

Residents described it as unlivable.

A roar like a helicopter on the roof that they could feel in their bones.

If that happens across 800 acres here, what is the plan?

Why are we settling for tier two generators when tier 4 technology exists to cut the nitrogen oxides?

A known carcinogen that causes cardiovascular issues, respiratory diseases, and a higher incidence of asthma in children and surrounding residents.

Are you prepared to tell the parents at the Lairway Elementary School, three miles away, that their children must breathe diesel exhaust for 72 hours because there was an emergency failure?

A 24-7 industrial hum is not a neighbor.

Data centers produce a high decimal hum.

And even worse, a low frequency infrastellum that penetrates walls causing sleep deprivation, neurological issues, cardiovascular strain, chronic stress, and wildlife disruption.

The Cyprus One Data Center in Aurora has received multiple reports of significant noise and vibrations from residents leading to complaints of sleep deprivation and stress.

Standard walls and landscape arms are generally not sufficient on their own to completely stop the noise, particularly the low frequency infrasound.

What is your concrete plan to mitigate a sound that never sleeps?

Our residential streets cannot handle this construction traffic.

Will you ban these construction trucks from using our neighborhood roads tonight?

And when our electricity bills spike to cover the massive system costs of the center, what relief will you provide to the families who can no longer afford their heat?

You are rushing to approve a project in a largely unregulated industry.

I ask you one question.

If you lived three miles from this site, would you say yes?

I urge you to vote no.

Do not trade the health of Joliet families for a 30-year tax deal.

Thank you.

Honorable mayor, members of the city council, good evening.

My name is Dan Wexler, and I'm here representing the Indiana, Illinois Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting, respectfully voicing my strong support of the proposed Joliet Technology Center.

Joliette is being asked to make an important decision about the kind of growth it wants to encourage and the kind of economic future it wants to build.

This project combines exactly what local governments, just like Joliet should be looking for substantial private investment, meaningful job creation, and a development framework that allows the city to manage impacts through enforceable conditions and continued oversight.

In the short term, this development represents a significant volume of construction work for skilled tradespeople, contractors, and apprentices.

That means real employment, real training opportunities, and real economic activity tied directly to the build-out of this facility.

In the long term, this project will support permanent positions in operations, maintenance, security, and technology.

Simply put, the value of this project does not end when construction does.

This project presents Joliet with an opportunity to strengthen its tax base through major capital investment without the city being asked to carry the burden through local tax abatements.

That is an important distinction to remember.

Too often communities are told to accept risk and hope the promised benefits follow.

Here, Joliet has the opportunity to secure long-term economic value for a project that is being advanced with conditions, review, and accountability built into the process.

I also want to address a few of the concerns that have been raised.

A project of this scale should be scrutinized carefully, and those concerns should be taken seriously.

But it's important to distinguish between rigorous scrutiny and reflexive opposition.

The standard is not whether a project has zero impact.

No major development has that standard.

The proper standard is whether the impacts have been identified, whether safeguards are in place, and whether the city retains the authority to enforce those safeguards as the project moves moves forward.

This is what makes this proposal different.

The public record reflects a project structure that includes limitations, phased review, and continued oversight.

In other words, the city is not the city is not being asked to control or to surrender control, is being asked to approve a project within a framework that preserves public leverage and public accountability.

This is the kind of smart growth local government should support.

Growth that creates good jobs, strengthens the tax base, and remains subject to clear conditions and public oversight.

Ultimately, the issue before the city council is whether the project offers economic value, meaningful employment opportunity, and a framework of enforceable protections.

In my view, it does.

And for those reasons, I respectfully urge a yes vote.

Thank you very much for your time.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council.

My name is Dr.

Glenda Wright McCullum, and I am the CEO of A Rise Community Development Center Corporation.

We are a local nonprofit 501c3 organization that is committed to strengthening neighborhoods and expanding opportunities for the residents in Joliet.

As you consider the proposed data center, I respectfully urge the council to ensure that if this development is approved, that it includes meaningful and structured community benefit award for the people of this city, particularly the South Side of Joliet that has been so gravely neglected for decades.

Projects of this magnitude at a cost of 20 billion dollars receives significant incentives as well as produces substantial economic growth for developers and corporations.

It has been reported that a hundred million dollar offer is on the table in exchange for approval of this project, which equates to about 0.5% of the projected costs.

National standards for community benefit agreements used in cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, which is incomparable to the size of this proposed data center, is anywhere between one to 3% in community benefit awards.

For a project this size, using those metrics would constitute 200 million to 600 million dollars for community benefit awards.

Consequently, it is only reasonable that the surrounding community also receive intentional and measurable investment in return.

Community benefit funding could support critical initiatives such as workforce development, youth engagement programs, STEM programs, neighborhood revitalization, improvement to facilities that serve residents on a daily basis.

Joliet is growing and evolving, but that growth must be balanced with community reinvestment.

When developments of this magnitude enter our city, there should be a clear pathway ensuring that local organizations, residents, and neighborhoods share in that progress.

If this project is approved, we encourage the council to establish a community benefit structure as well as put governing measures in place by hiring personnel that can represent as well as give oversight to ensure that the awards reach the communities that are most in need.

Again, namely the Southeast side of Joliet.

What I'm asking for is if you approve this project, please remember the sectors of the city that are in dire need of revitalization by providing viable community benefit awards to grassroot organizations that are working so diligently to bring substantial and sustainable changes to herding and neglected communities.

Thank you for your leadership and consideration.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

My name is Jason James.

I'm a union organizer with the Labor's International Union of North America.

Our organization represents over half a million hardworking middle class men and women of all races.

Over 600 of them being here living residents of Joliet.

Besides the laborers' union, there are anticipated about 7 to 10,000 other jobs needed to complete the construction of this project.

This will bring many other jobs for our fellow union trades with their members also residing in this area.

After the project is complete, we'll allow for additional 700 permanent positions for our local residents.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime project.

We would love to say we are part of creating and do not want to miss out on this remarkable opportunity.

Over 300 million dollars of tax revenue this database will produce over the years will tremendously help our school system, our local community in a way that Joliet has never seen.

Hillwood has provided us with their plan and vision with complete transparency.

They hold themselves to the highest standards when coming to the health and safety of our community.

When that being said, our organization and members are all on board.

So please approve the annexation so we can move forward with the project.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Hi, um, I'm Portia Gallegos.

I'm a Joliet resident, a homeowner, and a member of Joliet Residence for Responsible Growth.

And my question is how important is transparency in city government?

And I think we all agree it's very important.

And the status center is one of the most consequential projects to be proposed in Joliet in years.

A project this big with so many effects on our community requires a great deal of outreach and communication with all of Joliet's residents.

And this has not happened.

So staff and council are familiar with the idea and have had many opportunities to ask questions of Hillwood and Power House.

But the public has not.

Hillwood says they're transparent, and we can get nothing out of them.

Then we had the March 5th planning meeting.

That was the first time I heard concrete numbers from Hillwood about water use and discharge along with other specifics.

Less than two weeks later, you are here to potentially approve this data center.

What is the hurry?

Other communities in our area have said no and had second thoughts.

Naperville and Lyle just said no.

Aurora initiated a September moratorium on data centers and now is holding multiple, like eight, ten public hearings to create a data center ordinance because they realize they made mistakes when they first approved the data centers.

And now their residents are suffering the health consequences.

So why are we rushing on this?

Let's take the time to get this right.

Regarding transparency, another thing, almost none of the cities are Hillwoods Communication has been in Spanish.

And I just want to say, okay, falta de respecto para la comunidad.

What a lack of respect for the community.

The City of Joliet realizes it's important to have bilingual communication in our city, so a Spanish-speaking resident can find out when it's story time at the library.

But for this 1.8 gigawatt project, a project that uses as much electricity as two cities of Orlando, there is nothing.

A bilingual link on the city's webpage through reports written completely in English, along with bilingual signs about the public meeting of the project site.

This is unacceptable.

Finally, Hillwood Power House and Comment filed a transmission services agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on January 13th, 2026, two months ago.

It's just been approved.

I want to read something from the very first page which says to Honorable Debbie Ann A.

Reese, Secretary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Hillwood is constructing a new data center campus in Joliet, Illinois.

Is constructing, not maybe, not possibly, is constructing, to which Combed intends to provide retail electric delivery services personant to the applicable rate schedule in Hamed's electric retail service tariff on Vlad with ICC.

I understand there may be contingency clause in the contract in case the city doesn't approve the project, but why was Hillwood so confident that their project would be approved that they submitted a transmission services agreement before a planning commission or city council meeting was scheduled?

I don't know why they're so confident of approval so far in advance.

Right now there is legislation in Springfield to put guardrails on data centers and protect our residents, our water, our electrical supply, our air quality, and our health.

So what's the big rush?

Please vote to table this until we can at least have bilingual public meetings someplace like Billy Lilemacher with staff from Hillwood and the city, because the city staff is actually really pretty great.

I had a chance to meet with them and they answered a lot of my questions, but I'm one person and we have 150,000 people in Joliet who need these answers.

Create a data center ordinance like other cities have.

Get answers to our questions because there are still so many unanswered questions.

Please table this until our questions can be answered, and we can get a better deal.

Thank you very much.

Can we please have Reagan Pattinson, Patrick Young, Jay Jones, Bonnie Larson, Nick Domberg, Michael Platta come to the center?

Jennifer Garlitz.

Go ahead.

Good evening.

Jennifer's my name, and I live in Joliet.

I'm the homeowner.

And I want to say that I want to start out by saying that union jobs are important, construction jobs are important.

I when I was working, I'm very recently retired.

Um, I was in a union.

And I want to say that I had done some reading about data centers and jobs.

And although industry groups claim that each new data center creates dozens to hundreds of high-wage high school jobs.

Some researchers say data centers generate far fewer jobs than other industries, such as manufacturing.

A 2025 brief from University of Michigan researchers said data centers do not bring high-paying tech jobs to local communities.

A recent analysis from Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit that tracks corporate overreach found that in Virginia the investment required to create a permanent data center job was nearly 100 times higher than what was required to create comparable jobs in other industries.

It's already been mentioned that Naperville recently voted against a data center.

There's a good reason for that.

There are reasons for that.

Also, um, in the United States, in the following states, there is legislation at the state level to put a moratorium on data centers.

Um just mention a few specifics.

In um Georgia House Bill 1012 would bar counties and cities from issuing any permit license or certificate that would authorize the construction or development of a new data center until March 2027.

Um New York, um Senate Bill 914 would impose a statewide moratorium on permits for new data centers and direct the public service commission to minimize impacts on electricity and gas rates.

Um then in also other states that have uh legislation that is they're looking at passing to declare a moratorium on data centers is Vermont, Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Michigan, Maryland, and Wisconsin, and there is a reason for this, and I think we need to look at what are the reasons for this, why are states doing this?

There is a good reason for it, and we need to look at that.

Um, I also want to mention about um the bathroom poster in the bathroom right out there.

Um it was interesting because it talked about how we need to save water in Juliet, and are okay.

So the deep, this is from the bathroom poster, I'm quoting.

The deep well aquifer, which supplies water to Joliet will not be able to keep up with maximum demand by 2030.

So the city of Joliet is encouraging water conservation.

I'm all about that.

I think that's fantastic.

I think we should do that.

We need to encourage water conservation.

So the encouragement on the poster is to get low-flow toilets, 1.28 gallons per flush.

And if we're that concerned about our water situation, then we really need to look at you know, at the water usage of a data center.

Um, because our water situation in Joliet is is precarious.

Thank you.

Hi, Andrea Baumhart.

I wanted to start tonight by saying that there is one thing that Juliet does get right every time I come to these meetings, and that it is that you open the meeting with prayer, and you ask for the divine intervention of our Lord and ask for his guidance, and the Lord is invited into this space.

He's definitely with me.

I take that prayer very seriously.

I hope you do too.

And there are so many potential energy-related environmental and health impacts that we've been bringing up for months to these Joliet meetings.

Okay, I've been coming since October.

Now we know that you've been having secret meetings for two years, but we were never invited to the table.

Okay, they were first to the table.

Where was the workshop made where we could all get together and share concerns instead of having everybody wait to the last minute?

I want to also address the inferred disrespect.

And I believe this came from the attorney at the Plan Commission, the last meeting I went to, um, who said it doesn't matter, it's just an area with warehouses and solar farms anyway.

But you know what?

Real people live there.

I live there, and we didn't ask for the largest data center in the Midwest to just come and be put there.

So you have to accept that we're upset.

Let's say just for one minute, that there were not going to be any monetary benefits at all.

Not for Joliet, that you weren't gonna get the hundred million advanced signing deal.

There's gonna be no money.

Would you still be signing this fast?

Okay, why aren't we getting public protections in advance?

You're getting a hundred million in advance, but we're not getting public protections in advance.

That's a grave disservice.

Okay, you are in a fact gambling with what's not yours to play with.

To me, it's no coincidence that this is all being finalized during Lent.

Holy Week is just a few weeks away.

So I'm gonna leave you with these thoughts.

In the words of Saint Blessed Bernadette.

I'm here to inform, not convince you.

All things are going to be returned to Christ.

Everything that's disordered is going to be reordered.

Someday you're all gonna have to stand before the just judge, God almighty.

You too, them, the attorneys.

There won't be any NDAs.

There's not gonna be any names redacted.

There's not gonna be any conversations hidden.

Anything that was supposed to have been talked about won't be forgotten.

Every thought, spoken word, fact, action, failure to take action is all going to be accounted for, and you're not going to be able to say that you didn't know because you know.

Okay.

So the only thing you really need to do in advance now is pause.

You need to pause.

Pause this vote.

Pause.

And when you lay down your head at night, you remember the first shall be last and last shall be first.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, City Council, City Manager, staff.

My name is Reagan Patison, and for years I've served this community as a former alderman, Will County board member, and local attorney.

I'm also a lifelong resident of Will County, someone who's raised a family here, paid taxes here, and watched this community grow with the residents put first.

Today I'm speaking on behalf of Harbor Contractors, a union construction management firm located in Plainfield, Will County, and members of the Will Grande Building Trades and the Contractors Association.

I'm here to tell you what I've seen with my own eyes, both as a public official and as someone who spent over six decades building facilities that positively impact our communities.

This isn't just another warehouse or strip mall.

It's infrastructure of the future.

Clean, quiet, high-tech, that brings real local union jobs without choking our roads or clogging our schools.

Hillwood isn't asking for handouts.

They're investing 2.1 billion dollars into the community while reducing the burden on taxpayers into land that maybe we've sat on for too long.

Harbor fully supports the Joliet Technology Center.

Harbor built the Jolet Arsenal out, Abraham Lincoln Cemetery, the Will County jail, and the R and G plant on the Will County landfill, a very rare project that actually generates revenue for the county.

Harbor knows how to do this right.

We build with minimal disruption, zero admissions from daily operations, and a workforce that is local and union, carpenters, electricians, welders, plumbers, men and women in the union who already live in Joliet, Lockport, Romeoville, Plainfield, to just name a few.

I've sat on the other side of this table.

I've heard the worries, traffic, noise, water use.

Fair questions.

But here's what I do know.

Data centers like this run on electricity, not diesel trucks.

They don't need constant deliveries.

They don't pollute.

And Hillwood's design.

It's built to blend low price, low-profile buildings, landscape buffers, and contained equipment thoughtful to mitigate sound.

The tax revenue alone could fund road repairs.

Schools that our residents, that these residents, children, will attend, and parks for our children.

And also towards public safety, such as new police stations, fire stations that will protect our families.

Look, I voted on difficult land uses, heard complaints, and still come back to one truth.

Progress isn't perfect, but stagnation is worse.

On behalf of Harbor Contractors, I want to commend the council, city manager, staff, and hellwood for all their due diligence, hours of research, creating a dashboard, a website, and a town hall at Juliet Junior College.

I trust you will do the right thing and vote yes for the Joliet Technology Center.

Thank you.

Mayor, City Council.

My name is Patrick Young, business representative with the operating engineers local 150, representing over 24,000 operating engineers.

I'm not gonna stand here and rehash everything you've heard this morning or this morning.

This evening we're getting late.

I will tell you though, uh I was I'm fortunate enough to sit on the Metropolitan Mayor uh caucus for data centers, uh, speaking to many mayors all over uh about these data centers.

And I will leave you with one well actually not one, but I I've got a bunch of points that were uh sent to mayor's questions.

Um they answered the questions, and I will tell you that contrary to belief, uh, one of the mayors uh up north, he responded to one of the questions um about uh taxes.

Uh his response was they have decreased property tax levy on residents 11% over five years.

Again, they have decreased their property taxes on levy on residents 11% over five years.

Local 150 stands behind this pro this project.

Thank you to Hillwood for bringing it to Joliet.

Uh we hope you uh vote yes for this project.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council and staff.

My name is Jay, and I'm with the workforce development of Sheet Metal Workers Local 265 and a member of Will Grundy Building Trades.

Well, I don't live in Joliet.

I've worked in Will County for over 25 years, and a large part of my career has been spent working alongside people who live right here in this community.

I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of many hardworking men and women in the building trades who will help build this project.

Many of them live in Will County and the surrounding communities.

A lot of them can't be here tonight because they're working, taking care of their families, or simply aren't comfortable speaking at meetings like this.

So I'm here to speak on their behalf.

I understand that projects of this size raise questions and concerns, and that's understandable.

People care about their communities, but I want to be clear about something.

I would not support a project that I believe would put the people I represent or the communities they live in at risk.

These are the same workers who could be building this project and living here long after construction's finished.

Construction work isn't temporary for the families who rely on it.

It's a career that supports households, puts kids through school, and keeps local business going.

When projects like this come forward, the decision isn't just about land use or zoning.

It's about whether communities like ours continue to be places where skilled trade people can earn a good living and support their families.

From the perspective of the workers I represent and the years I've spent working in Will County, I believe this project deserves every support.

Thank you for your time.

Hi, my name is Bonnie Larson, and I live off Burke Drive in Joliet, and I am so so relieved that this project isn't behind Eisenhower Academy that is on my street.

I thought it was.

You could build strip malls, you could build a car dealership and use a hospital.

We need more hospitals.

And use union labor.

You don't have to build a data center.

The data centers only value to add AI.

This thing is killing jobs.

And it hurts me to see union leaders supporting it.

It's a job killer.

It's a surveillance tool.

They're blaming it for bombing a school in Iran.

They're promising it's gonna replace huge sectors of the uh job labor market.

Sorry, this is all off me.

Um if AI is like too nebulous a threat, then just look at your electric bill.

My electric bill went up, and I went looking why.

And all the signs pointed toward data centers.

I know their paid rep told us that uh it's actually okay.

That my bill's actually not that high, but it keeps going up.

And I'm sick of it.

So, data centers are to blame across the board.

I implore you to listen to your community uh when we tell you that we don't want this here.

Thank you.

Can we have can we have Andrew Engelbreck, Matt Ryan, Kathleen Garthis, Eva Scarborough, Tim Broderick?

Come to the center, please.

Go ahead.

I might have a few pages here, but I will keep it kind of quick.

Um believe it or not, there are experts beyond who you have talked to who have come here with the company, and you're hearing from a lot of them, a lot of the residents, a lot of the folks who vote you in or out.

Um I I wanna just implore you folks that this, you know, we this is a former boom town, right?

Okay, this isn't anything that's foreign to us in Joliet, like there is a history of that.

And like any big boom, you can rush into it, you can overbuild, and you can shoot yourself in the foot.

And this is one of those situations.

This is going to be one of those situations.

It seems like a lot of you have already voted yes on this.

Like, I don't know how that's possible before hearing from us.

I don't know how ground is being broken for this project.

I don't understand how that is moral.

I don't understand how that, you know, is is accountable at all to your voter, to the people who you're supposed to be representing.

And to push this thing through before something like the Power Act has been passed.

I mean, that's something that's just proposed.

I I would love to hear if any of you all know about the Power Act.

I just am learning about it, just like I'm just learning about this proposed data center not too long ago.

This thing is being pushed fast without proper protections in place.

Okay.

The Power Act, if it passes, that could do things like prohibit shifting data center costs uh on to consumers.

Um it can bring uh it can force them to bring their own new clean uh energy uh capacity to the project.

Faster grid connection for clean energy uh for for cleaner energy, public benefits and affordability funds, protections for consumers.

These things are not in place.

So we want to build this gigantic facility, right?

And they've said themselves, I mean, just now they said they have little experience in building data centers, and yet they can also say this is not new technology.

Some of this is inherently false.

So I hope that you listen to some of the experts who are community members who are coming up here and talk to me.

I might not be the expert, but there are folks here who can school you.

So please listen to these folks, alright.

I mean, I have I've gone around, I've knocked doors for a couple of folks uh on on this council, alright.

I know there's some good people on this council.

I know I've had some disagreements with some folks on the council.

That's okay.

I don't, you know, um, and also as far as the labor unions go, of course, I respect I'm 100% pro-union.

I get it, you guys want the work, but we have to do this thing responsibly to push this forward so quickly without looking into both the rhyme of history when we have overbuilt when we have done things before we fully understand the impact of overbuilding and making something so huge.

Okay, uh, I was talking about how I had knocked doors for a couple of people, right?

I went to a neighborhood that is pretty close to this proposed site, alright?

I knocked on some doors.

Um, I talked to some folks, uh, and it's a pretty diverse neighborhood, politically, racially, um, what have you, and there was some amazing, amazing bipartisan opposition to this project.

I I didn't talk to one person in that neighborhood.

I wish I could have talked to a lot more if there were more lead up time.

A lot of us would have had more time to organize around this issue, right?

Every person I talked to in that neighborhood was afraid their property values are going to drop.

And they're looking at you guys.

They're saying, well, look at that.

And there's and there's a house is being built down the street, not even built yet.

Imagine those people when they put their life savings into a house that is miles from this facility, just a couple of miles, if that from this facility, right?

What's gonna happen the moment they pay for that house, sometime in the next year or two before it's done being built, their property value is gonna go way down, alright?

And I wish I had more time, but basically, the point, the point of these data centers is to cause, is to is to widen the wealth disparity gap, alright?

They're mining data of the poor and the what's left of the middle class to make billionaires richer, okay?

That is the express purpose of this facility, okay?

And anything else is an untruth or is some some type of way to wind around.

So this is not reflexive opposition, okay?

These are your constituents asking you to represent their best interests.

Okay, we didn't have a lot of time to organize coming up to this vote, but we will have time to organize based on the result of this vote.

We sure as that will, all right?

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

I appreciate you listening to me.

Um Amazon, 33 billion dollars on one data center.

Amazon's don't doesn't pay a lot in taxes, they have all kinds of tax incentives.

Okay, so um okay, a single large, large hyperscale data center consumes enough enough electricity for 100,000 households.

In 2024, data centers use a hundred and eighty three terawatts of electricity in this country.

That could raise that could uh raise by 8%, and that could double in two years.

Um in Virginia, a data center consumed 21% of total power in 2023, surpassing all residential use at 18%.

The electric grid is going to have to be updated time and time again.

One county was it was updated five times.

We pay for that.

They're not gonna pay for the updates on the electrical grid.

Um, I've um look okay, one more couple more things.

Okay.

So um how I didn't hear anybody say how uh what for uh type of energy is going to produce the electricity.

I didn't get that.

But if it's not renewable, that's where the construction jobs should be going for renewable energy.

We have got nothing but beam months of uh um warehouses that are taking up all our land.

We're using how much farmland is gonna be gone, it's going to be gone and it'll never come back.

I'm seeing this county disappearing into a uh concrete jungle.

Finally, one thing that hasn't been brought up that all of you should start thinking about real good about your kids.

This is the Nobel laureate's speech.

It's I'm gonna make it quick, I'm gonna try.

He was the founder of AI.

He this is his speech before the Noble Committee.

This new form of AI excels at modeling human intuition rather than human reasoning, and it will enable us to create highly intelligent and knowledgeable assistants who will increase productivity in almost all industries.

If the benefits of the increased productivity can be shared equally, it'll be a wonderful advancement for all humanity.

Unfortunately, and that's when the whole Noble Committee, the whole room went quiet.

Unfortunately, the rapid progress in AI comes with many short-term risks.

It has already created divisive echo chambers by offering people content that makes them indignant.

It is already being used by authoritarian governments to massive surveillance by cyber criminals for fishing attacks.

In the near future, AI may be used to create terrible new viruses and horrendous lethal weapons that decide them by that who will decide who to kill and what nation to keep and what not.

Our military, they're quitting Google.

Technicians are quitting Google because they had to supply intelligence, AI intelligence to Israel's war with Gaza.

So this is going to be used for warfare.

They don't need let me keep going.

Okay.

But we now have evidence that if they are created by companies motivated by short-term profits, our safety will not be the top priority.

We urgently need research on how to prevent these new beings from wanting to take control.

Okay, that's it.

Please.

Hi, Council, Mayor, most importantly, the people in the room.

Most importantly, the people in the room.

Thank you for all of you to speak tonight.

My name is Anger Engelbrecht.

I'm the chair of the Green Party of Will County.

I'm a DSA member.

I'm a you I'm part of a family of union uh union workers.

Um points I wanted to make and at least say my piece because this is not good.

Um the infra sound, you know, the you can't even hear.

Okay.

And these data centers that are creating all these health problems, migraines, anxiety.

I have anxiety speaking up right here, so I hate I would hate to see what what'll happen when we build this.

Um yeah, cancer, all these health problems.

Okay, that's one.

We're people have spoken about the water, the energy, the climate crisis.

Okay.

We have about 20 years left before things go completely south.

Okay, it's it's already happening.

Okay.

Couple couple more points, okay.

Follow the money.

Follow the money.

Who's who's gonna profit off this?

Listen to the people.

Hi, council members and mayor.

Um, I'm Eva Jean Viev Scarborough.

I'm a new resident here.

I'm a home owner.

I moved to Joliet two years ago.

Um, and I was shocked to find my electric bill already rising.

I'm paying about $80 in April, May, June, and a little more in July and August running the AC.

But boy, when it winter hit, it was up to 200, almost 300.

And I couldn't, I I live on social security.

I'm a disabled senior.

So keeping this house, I I'm just on a tight budget, and like any little increase is gonna kill me.

I you know, I don't want want to see data centers raise those rates.

And it seems the proof is in that they do.

So I I have a real concern about that.

If the rates go up because of this massive center, it you consumes almost if it's running full tilt, it'll consume almost the entire output of the Hoover Dam, equivalent to that.

So that only generates two gigawatts.

So this is 1.8.

That's a lot of power.

It's the infrastructure, if they're running at that intensity, this old infrastructure isn't going to handle that.

Be serious.

It's there's physics involved in this.

It's something's got to give.

And my my other concern, several I've been spoken to enough tonight, but my concern is also the subsonic sounds from this.

It affects infant development, brain development, and infants in the womb, and in toddlers.

It causes cardiac problems, not to mention stress and insomnia and other things that were mentioned.

It's a real concern.

And I think built into the contract for this, if we're going to do it, we have to put in protections for the people who might be harmed, medical costs, and all of the costs of taking protecting your children, and if people have to relocate, those costs need to be covered 100% by the developer.

I think.

Well, thank you all.

Can I have Lorraya Williams?

Persephone Carr, Rita Renwick, Sean Miller, Amy Vallmer, Jack Connolly, Nick Fipole, and Alicia Morales come to the middle.

Samo you have you excuse me.

You're not it!

Excuse me.

The people you're not it!

You're not it!

We're never beating up feeding!

The people!

You're not it!

The people struggling!

The hard people lives!

That's the same there, not the same of you!

People of project, not the same!

How dare you!

How dare you!

Go ahead, Kathy.

Okay.

I speak for his frustration.

I understand it.

He speaks exactly what we all are saying right now.

I with all this stuff with this data center.

There is, you know, after the planning committee thing happened, what happened?

What happened?

Does anybody know what the U.S.

is involved in right now?

We are at war with Iran right now.

You know?

And what happened to the gas prices?

Everybody knows how fast the gas prices went right up.

You know, how many times a day did the gas prices go up?

How high are the gas prices now compared to what they were before when this planning committee thing meeting happened?

You know, we are at Colonel War in Russia, right?

I mean in Iran right now.

I ask AI, can China and Russia use data centers to shut down U.S.

war weapons?

AI on on Google says yes, China and Russia are heavily working to build capabilities, including through data centers and cyber operations that could allow them to disrupt or shut down U.S.

weapons system and critical infrastructure.

When chat I say, do we want to have data centers to where we could get Russia and China controlling our weapons?

Especially when the uncertainty in this world is.

We know how uncertain we are with, you know, keep the tenth thing, keep on real coming up with China and everything.

And now there's the data centers here.

You know, Amazon says it wants to go all or auto motive with all their data, with all their air the warehouses.

They have already done, they already got over a million machines in all their workplaces so far, and they the CEO of Amazon has said he wants to completely automate it, meaning get rid of all the human workers.

The human yes he says, quote, the human workers will be working less.

Meaning they will not be even working at all.

Because they've got to totally eliminate them.

Other high-tech places, you know, seem to come down like saying, oh, we'll have a 32-hour work fleet, but give them the same pay.

Well, you know, 32 hour day does not pay the same as 48 hour day.

People still gotta pay their bills, which that, you know, more people, AI, the warehouses taking over and going over about it like we've all had talked about for years.

And that happens, all them people warehouses be unemployed, they'd be in lining up in public aid offices, down in their Joliet, will come, wherever all the public aid offices are in there in their county, they'd be going there lining up to get financial public aid.

And we know how how the government how Trump has already cut back on that.

So who's gonna pay for that?

And now, as far as the cyber attacks, what happens when uh AI takes over and it crashes?

We know how many times when a computer crashes and stuff.

Who you call to get to get it out to fix it.

You know, with cyber things taking over more and more, you get the people who don't know how to fix them just like automobiles.

You take your car in to be fixed, they still can't fix your car, or it costs you thousands and thousands more dollars to get your car fixed, and still your car is not fixed, and now your car is inoperable, and your car still is not fixed.

And all the noises and everything, I know from all my experiences and all the problems.

I've been coming here for years and telling you all about my situation, and I have yet found my solution and everything, and my life just keeps getting worse and worse, and nothing's been done.

I keep on losing more and more to where I'm at the point where I don't want to live anymore, I ain't got nothing to live for anymore.

Because everything's been taken away from me.

I lost my mom because of the noise.

She couldn't sleep.

It did work on our health and gave her end up having her heart go out.

And I've been just sitting there struggling with the consequences of everything since then.

So it's not just it's all the noises, it's all the air pollutions, all the health problems that have concerned.

And you cannot, once your loved one is gone, you cannot bring them back.

AI is not going to be able to dig them in the ground, bring them back to life.

We need to understand when a human life is gone and when human health is is sacrificed just for big corporation dollars.

It's not enough.

Good evening, Madam City Manager, Mayor, and members of the City Council.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Timothy Broderick, lifelong Juliet resident.

I'm here tonight as a private citizen to express strong support for the proposed Joliet Technology Center.

I also want to acknowledge the weight of your responsibility.

I previously served on the Joliet Planning Commission, and that experience gave me a deep appreciation for how carefully these matters must be evaluated.

I understand the City Council carries the final vote, and with it the obligation to balance opportunity, neighborhood impacts, infrastructure, and long-term community priorities.

I respect that this is not a simple decision.

I support moving this project forward for three reasons.

First, this is a generational opportunity.

Jolia can attract major long-term private investment that brings jobs, expands the tax base, and signals that we are serious about responsible economic growth.

Communities that win projects like this don't just add buildings, they expand opportunities for residents.

Second, growth with accountability.

The council has the ability to require measurable, enforceable standards, not aspirations, covering traffic and roadway improvements, utilities and water coordination, storm water management, lighting, noise mitigation, and public safety planning.

Those conditions are how we protect neighborhoods while still welcoming progress.

Third and most important, our children and our schools.

A project of this scale can produce the kind of stable, recurring revenue that helps the city do more than maintain services.

It helps the city raise the ceiling on what it can provide.

That matters because the future of Joliet is not just economic, it's educational.

Stronger city financers support this the support, the environment surrounds schools and learning, safer streets and crossings, better infrastructure, stronger police and fire readiness, improved parks and libraries, and the capacity to partner more effectively with our schools and youth programs.

And as we all know, great schools and great neighborhoods are inseparable.

When we strengthen the financial foundation of Joliet, we strengthen conditions that allow students to thrive.

And we make Joliet more attractive for families, teachers, and employers alike.

In short, I believe Joliet should welcome this opportunity with clear conditions that protects residents and delivers measurable community benefits.

I respectfully urge the city council to approve a pathway forward for the Joliet Technology Center and keep Joliet moving in a direction that is job creating, investment friendly, and responsibly governed.

Thank you.

Well the product.

Go ahead.

I would say good evening, but it's not a good evening.

My name is Laura Williams, as you probably already know.

I'm a PhD student studying data science after completing my master's in data science.

I would like to say that as an AI researcher, Joliet Homeowner, an advocate for sustainable and ethical AI, I oppose the construction of this data center.

I would like to see it tabled at the lease for three important reasons.

Lack of transparency, cost versus benefit, and lastly, long-term impact.

I don't believe in moving fast and breaking things, like these large tech corporations and data center developers.

This process has lacked transparency.

Whether it was significant delays in disseminating information to the public, a freedom of information request, which was answered with over 1,300 pages of redacted information, or whether it was Jane Bernard, the city planner planner, having familial ties to the land trust being repeatedly denied and made opaque.

The city council was elected to advocate for the community.

Lack of transparency shows bad faith.

It makes it difficult to believe the decisions are made with our interest in mind.

Additionally, there are many things that we still don't know, even after the presentations.

We don't know if it will use CPUs or GPUs, which differ vastly in power use, or if the power use projected is based on the minimum use with CPUs or the maximum use with GPUs, which affects whether or not they'll have to use backup diesel generators.

More should have been done to incorporate community input into this project.

Next costs versus benefit.

In the past five years, wholesale electricity costs have gone up by as much as 267% as you've heard from others.

And this is from Bloomberg News.

This will cost us.

An article written by Cornell Researchers outlines the effects of data centers on public health.

With some data centers in Virginia costing communities 44 cents in public health costs for every dollar of electricity spent.

This will cost us our health in ways that cannot be remediated.

The standard data center development, speedy deal making, opaque negotiations, deliver short-term construction jobs and revenue, but little durable local economic upside, according to the Brooking Institute.

They later go on to discuss that further negotiations that ensure that the community is involved and that things that benefit community bring more benefit within this article.

This will not give us long-term jobs.

As Tim and Giroux said, a lot of people who are making money are not the people who are actually in the midst of it.

And I would like to end with this quote from the Atlantic.

As we drove through Southwest Memphis, Cashawn Pearson told me to keep my window down.

Our destination could be better tasted.

Not viewed.

Along the way, we passed an abandoned coal plant to our right, then an active power plant to our left, equipped with enormous natural gas turbines.

Pearson who directs a non-for-profit Memphis Against Pollution was bringing me to his hometown's latest industrial mega project.

Already the air smelled of soot, gasoline, and asphalt.

Then I felt a tickle sliding up my nostril and down into my throat.

Like I was getting a cold.

As we approached, I heard the rumble of cranes and trucks.

And then from behind, a patch of trees emerged, a forest of electrons.

Finally I saw it, a wild wall tanker bigger than a dozen football fields when Elon Musk intended to build a gun.

Let's not move fast and break our community.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Members of the City Council and Mayor Darcy.

It was my pleasure to speak here tonight, but my displeasure to have to be here.

You know, I was talking to people out in the waiting area over there, and I was telling them it does feel like a done deal.

And many of us already know it.

We've seen how you engage and don't engage in these discussions.

Don't look us in the eye when we have to tell you all of the negative effects that we will have to face, and you can leave.

Every night, knowing that even though 80% of us are against it and 20% are not, you will still vote yes.

I had the pleasure of speaking with a councilman here, and he was able to tell me his concern was the lack of civil engagement.

I countered by saying the planning commission was scheduled at 3:30.

We had a little back and forth.

He told me, well, that's just when they're scheduled.

That is because you don't want to hear from us.

In the same way that Hillman scheduled their open town hall during a time when many of us have to work.

Luckily, I have the flexibility.

I could put on my teams, I was like, I'm gonna be at the city council meeting.

And people are telling me, I hope it goes well for you.

And I have the flexibility to do that.

But many people don't.

Many people have already had to leave because they have obligations outside.

And they cannot afford to be here.

But I can.

So I will let my voice be heard.

I want to tell you that yes, we did hear of a 2028 start time during the PUD meeting.

And now we've heard about a 2033.

Why can't we get the same numbers?

We were quoted that the 20 three 2030 will be the price for energy cap, but the data center won't be built by them according to one metric, but will by the other.

And that the water will have access to by 2030, but if it's 2028, no, we won't.

If I can't get two numbers on a start time, it doesn't even make sense.

We can't make an informed decision.

The water expert chastising people for having single-use family households and having firefighting duties.

These are things that we need to survive.

We do not need this to survive.

We talked about capacity.

These are not highly used services, they're not being used to how much they could be utilized at this moment.

But we're building another one anyway.

I want to thank the councilman I spoke to for at least listening to my concerns.

He was the only one of you who made yourself available during the brief time that he stepped away.

I want to talk about if the if the concern is lack of civil engagement, why was there no materials prepared in Spanish?

Why did we not communicate this to other people?

Why did I have to knock doors and have people tell me that they had no idea what was going on?

Because you failed to communicate what is important to your constituents who you don't care about.

These chips will be outdated.

One and a half years to three years, or yeah, three years.

What we can't have estimates, they don't know who they're who their customer is going to be.

They have to say it will be the occupant because they don't have one lined up.

In the PUD meeting, we were told there will be no serious negotiations until that was approved.

I want to know how do you have a legitimate estimate for us then tonight?

You don't.

You're creating a sacrifice zone.

In this area, you talk about these homes like they're negligent, that people don't live here.

They do.

And they are trapped by your decisions.

You want to talk about NASCAR?

Okay, look, we'll put something else that'll choke, choke the air.

Even though a member for the uh my time's up.

I will let you sleep and think about this tonight.

Thank you.

Go ahead, you can start.

Hello.

Uh my name's Sean Miller.

I am not a Joliet resident, but I am a student here.

Uh I'm a Bowlingbrook resident, though, and I I like to say pollution knows no border, so I think that this is still relevant to me.

Um I just want to actually I said I was gonna open with something real quick, and let me pull this up.

Okay.

I just think that this is a little bit amusing, so I'm gonna read it out loud.

The reason why RAM has become four times more expensive is that a huge amount of RAM that has not yet been produced was purchased with non-existent money to be installed in GPUs that also have not yet been produced in order to place them in data centers that have not yet been built, uh powered by infrastructure that may never appear to satisfy demand that does not actually exist and to obtain profit that is mathematically impossible.

Now, I want to uh ask the city council uh do you guys know about the Chicago Spire?

Yep.

That uh it was supposed to go up in I think 2007, and then the crash hit, and now there's just a giant gaping hole on the lake front somewhere.