CHAMPAIGN — After community backlash ended Mahomet’s talks with a potential data center developer, Clean Cloud Energy, some Champaign County residents feel strict guidelines are more important than ever.
Residents’ concerns about data centers include wildlife and environmental impacts and electricity demand.
The Champaign County Data Center Task Force held a public meeting Wednesday, Oct. 7, to review its proposed regulations for large data centers in the county.
County officials say banning data centers would risk a lawsuit, so the ordinance will be limited to setting guardrails for large data centers — like limits on size and location — in an effort to protect the county’s residents and natural resources.
But the task force’s proposed ordinance would only apply to Champaign County, said Aaron Esry, vice chair of the task force.
“We can do whatever we want as a county, and Mahomet could still put a data center,” Esry said. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”
Esry said he doesn’t want new data centers to be built in the area, but he doesn’t see any reason to make the regulations so limiting.
“We can make this as tough as we want, folks,” Esry said. “But Mahomet was already going to do their own thing … Surrounding counties can do their own thing and give us the headache. What is the purpose of truly making it just so dang hard when we know we can still get one?”
Andrew Rehn, who also serves on the task force, said Champaign County has the chance to be a leader.
“We always knew that our power ended at the county line, and now we’re reminded that our power ends at the municipalities,” Rehn said. “The mission is the same. We make the strongest ordinance that we can.”
Champaign resident Bryana Davis said that the recent talks about a data center coming to Mahomet “lit a fire under the community.” She feels regulations on data centers are more crucial than ever.
“I really wanted to reiterate how important this was,” Davis said. “We saw how close things got with Mahomet, and it’s very scary … It’s scary to think that something could have happened so close to our home.”
Review of the ordinance is ongoing, and task force leaders are hoping to get it approved before the current ban on large-scale data centers in Champaign County ends in mid-April 2027. The Champaign Zoning Board of Appeals must approve the final draft ordinance before the Champaign County Board can vote on it.
Two data center companies — ABEI Energy and Nodiac — have contacted Champaign County with interest in developing in Sidney and Tolono, according to Director of Planning and Zoning John Hall.
Spain-based independent power producer ABEI Energy reached out to the county about a data center site outside of Tolono in May 2025, Hall told IPM News. In August and September 2026, Nodiac, a data center developer based in Denver, inquired about a site outside of Sidney.
Both proposals target unincorporated land outside of the villages and under the jurisdiction of the county, but applications have not been received from either company.