Residents near unincorporated Lake County land could see a pause on data center development after the Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals holds a public hearing Tuesday, Aug. 18, on a proposed eight-month moratorium.
The hearing, set for 1 p.m. at the Lake County Central Permit Facility in Libertyville, will consider whether to temporarily ban new data centers in unincorporated areas while the county studies the infrastructure, environmental and community impacts of the fast-growing industry.
No data center has been proposed for unincorporated Lake County. But the moratorium would give the county time to draft permanent regulations before one arrives, according to Lake County's public notice posted Aug. 6.
What the ZBA will decide
The board will weigh two questions: whether Lake County should establish a temporary moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas, and whether eight months is the right duration, Shaw Local reported. The moratorium would not apply to incorporated municipalities such as Lake Forest or Lake Bluff.
If adopted, the pause would allow the county to evaluate data centers as an emerging land use, assess potential strain on power grids and water systems, and identify best practices from other municipalities that have gone through the same process.
Why data centers are drawing scrutiny
Data centers consume industrial-scale electricity and water. In Aurora, which declared its own moratorium in September 2025, electricity rates jumped 24 percent in 2025, a spike the local utility attributed directly to data center demand, Broadband Breakfast reported.
Aurora used its moratorium period to research other cities' ordinances, survey residents and meet with more than a dozen Illinois municipalities, industry representatives and labor unions. The city adopted permanent regulations in spring 2026.
"We wanted to ensure that some kind of public process was put in place," Allison Lindberg, Aurora's director of sustainability and economic development, said during an Aug. 10 National League of Cities webinar. "We weren't necessarily allowed to ban or prohibit data centers, but we did want them to become good neighbors."
Across Illinois, 13 municipalities have enacted data center moratoriums or restrictive ordinances, and six towns have seen projects canceled since last year, according to the Daily Herald. Gov. JB Pritzker paused new data center tax incentives in July. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Aug. 11 directing city departments to tighten scrutiny of new data center proposals and urged the City Council to pass its own moratorium.
A December 2025 state agency report found that the ComEd service territory covering northern Illinois lacks sufficient resources to reliably meet 2030 electricity requirements, largely because of rising data center demand.
How to weigh in
The online comment period closed at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14. Residents can still attend in person.
The hearing begins at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Lake County Central Permit Facility, 500 W. Winchester Road, Libertyville. The hearing does not address approval or denial of any specific project.
