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player ready...A settlement agreement has been reached in a resident lawsuit against the city of Yorkville over a roughly 1,000-acre data center campus slated to take shape in the area in the future.
Last week, the Yorkville City Council approved a conditional settlement agreement in connection with the lawsuit that, among other stipulations, orders the construction for the project to be rephased. The council also recently OK’d a measure giving the project’s developer an additional 18 months to close on the property.
The data center development in question is commonly referred to as Project Cardinal. It was brought forward to the city by Pioneer Development, LLC, along with the property owners, and received approvals from the city green lighting the project in November and March despite significant resident opposition.
The development site is just over 1,000 acres in the northwest corner of Yorkville on the border with Sugar Grove, generally located northwest of Route 47 and Galena Road, south of Baseline Road and east of Ashe Road.
There would be a total of 14 data center buildings at the site, along with two electrical substations, a utility switchyard and stormwater detention basins.
Yorkville has become a sort of hub for data center projects, in part due to the area’s proximity to a ComEd substation. The Project Cardinal campus would join what may one day be a corridor of data center campuses in Yorkville in the northeast quadrant of Eldamain Road and Route 34.
But, like other communities in Illinois where data centers are being considered, with these proposed developments has come significant resident pushback.
More recently, the city has indicated that it may be pumping the brakes on supporting more data center projects in the city, with three already approved.
But Project Cardinal, one of the projects that’s already secured the city’s approval, appears to be moving forward — with some adjustments.
In November, the project got its first green light from the Yorkville City Council, which approved the rezoning of the land for the project and a Planned Unit Development, or PUD, agreement.
Then, in March, the council approved the annexation of the land into Yorkville that will one day hold the Project Cardinal data centers, a rezoning of the area to a general manufacturing zoning district and utility, infrastructure and development agreements between the city and Pioneer Development.
But before that, in October, nearby resident John Bryan, who has been a critic of the project, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to halt the development.
Last week’s vote by the council was to approve a conditional settlement agreement and releases in connection with the suit.
Voting for the settlement were Alds. Craig Soling, Matt Marek, Ken Koch, Arden Joe Plocher and Chris Funkhouser. Ald. Rusty Corneils was the only council member present who voted against it.
Bryan did not immediately return The Beacon-News’ request for comment.
The dismissal of the lawsuit and the settlement agreement are contingent on the city amending the current PUD agreement to revise the construction phasing for the proposed development, the agreement states.
Concerns about the construction phasing were among the criticisms aired by some residents to the west of the proposed Project Cardinal in the ongoing pushback surrounding the development.
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Originally, per the project plans, construction was set to start on the west side of the project area, and move to the southeast portion followed by the northeast part. It was then changed so construction of the northeast portion of the campus would occur first, followed by the west and then the southeast portions.
Now, under the settlement agreement, construction is set to start in the northeastern portion of the property, followed by the southeastern portion, and then by the western side of the property. Additionally, the third phase of construction is not to occur until after the “substantial completion” of the first two construction phases.
Yorkville City Administrator Bart Olson confirmed that the settlement agreement doesn’t affect the land use approvals for the project, or the standards the city set for water, noise or light.
The phasing plan was dictated by the already-approved PUD plan, Olson said, meaning that plan would have to be amended to account for this change.
The developer has already applied for the amendment, Olson told The Beacon-News, and it is set to go before the city’s Economic Development Committee, then to a public hearing. It would then go for a vote by the City Council, which could happen as early as its July 14 meeting, according to Olson.
The settlement agreement contains no payments to Bryan, but notes that he and the developer can still separately negotiate the terms of a side agreement.
Also at the June 23 meeting, the Yorkville City Council voted to approve an amendment to the annexation agreement for the project that will extend the deadline for the developer to acquire the titles to the subject parcels.
While the annexation agreement approved for the project pertains to the whole roughly 1,000-acre campus, the property subject to the original annexation petition consisted of seven parcels totaling about 305 acres, according to a memo included in the agenda for the recent council meeting.
Originally, the deadline for the city to be informed that the closing on the property has occurred and that the developer has acquired the property was July 1, according to the city memo. But, citing “unforeseen circumstances,” the city is now allowing that deadline to be extended to Dec. 31, 2027.
Should the developer not meet that deadline, the annexation agreement and other related agreements would become null and void unless “otherwise extended” by the mayor and City Council, the city memo stated.
Voting for the amendment to the annexation agreement were Alds. Soling, Marek, Koch, Plocher and Funkhouser, as well as Mayor John Purcell because six votes were needed for the measure to pass. Corneils voted against the measure.
Matt McCarron, a representative from Pioneer Development, LLC, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The council also considered a memorandum of understanding establishing that the closing notice deadline referenced in ancillary agreements for the project “shall likewise coincide with the revised deadline,” which is now in 2027. The memorandum also further clarifies the penalties that may be assessed by the city should the data center campus’ water usage exceed the thresholds established in a utility and infrastructure agreement for the project.
The memorandum of understanding was also approved last week at the City Council meeting, with Soling, Marek, Koch, Plocher and Funkhouser voting for it, and Corneils voting against it.