Just days before the Hoffman Estates Village Board was set to vote on a controversial plan to rezone a patch of farmland for possible use as a data center, the developer withdrew his request. The sudden reversal came after a flurry of opposition in the northwest suburb and several nearby towns.

Residents packed a Hoffman Estates village planning meeting in early June, giving hours of testimony against the project. They protested, filed public records requests and signed petitions to deny the rezoning. A new data center campus at the 186-acre Plum Farms, they feared, would use too much power and water, cause noise pollution and possibly raise utility costs.

When Karis Critical, the data center developer leading the project, withdrew its petition for rezoning on Wednesday, five days before a Village Board vote that was set to take place tonight, some in the community breathed a sigh of relief.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/07/06/data-center-karis-critical-hoffman-estates/

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