Lake County residents in unincorporated areas could see an eight-month freeze on data center development after the full Lake County Board votes Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The board's Planning, Building, Zoning and Environmental Committee voted unanimously Thursday, Sept. 3, to recommend the moratorium, the Chicago Tribune reported. The measure would halt new data center applications in unincorporated Lake County while county staff draft permanent zoning rules and performance standards.

The moratorium would not apply to incorporated municipalities like Lake Forest, Lake Bluff or Grayslake. But the definitions and regulations county staff develop could serve as a model for those communities if data center proposals surface within their borders.

No data center applications have been filed in unincorporated Lake County.

The county is operating under a 120-day administrative deferral of applications that expires Oct. 7. Tuesday's meeting is the last full board session scheduled before that deadline.

County Board member Paul Frank first raised concerns about data center impacts at a committee meeting in early December 2025. In June, the board authorized the formal moratorium process, which included a public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). More than 1,300 public comments were submitted during that process.

The ZBA unanimously recommended the moratorium on Aug. 18, according to the county's data center information page.

"The answers were not satisfactory," Frank said at the Sept. 3 committee meeting. "This moratorium will give us time to do better."

During the moratorium, county planning staff will evaluate zoning classifications, review procedures and potential "community benefit" agreements. Eric Waggoner, the county's director of planning, building and development, said staff have compiled lessons from other communities and plan to turn them into regulatory guidelines.

Staff will also track the proposed state POWER Act (Protecting Our Water, Energy, and Ratepayers Act), which would establish environmental, water and energy regulations for large data centers. The bill failed to receive a vote during the spring 2026 legislative session. Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive order June 5 pausing applications for the state's data center tax credit program, though that order does not prevent new construction.

A Pritzker spokesperson told Axios that the administration is working with lawmakers to pass comprehensive legislation during the November veto session.

The moratorium could extend to a full year if paired with an additional administrative action, though the Chicago Tribune report did not specify what that action would be.

Meanwhile, data center development continues in incorporated parts of the county. Grayslake issued a building permit Wednesday, Sept. 2, for the first 800,000-square-foot building of the T5@Chicago IV campus, a planned 472-acre, $18 billion project, the Chicago Tribune reported. That site falls within Grayslake's municipal boundaries, outside the county's jurisdiction.

Committee Chair Marah Altenberg called data centers "This is probably the number one issue people in America are talking about now." At least six counties and nine cities across Illinois had approved data center moratoriums or regulations as of late June, the Chicago Tribune reported. Data centers account for 5.4% of Illinois' electrical consumption, a figure the U.S. arm of the International Energy Agency projects will grow 133% by 2030.

The full Lake County Board meets Tuesday, Sept. 8.