By: Diane Benjamin
If Illinois really wanted to “spur developments and create jobs”, most laws regulating and taxing businesses and their owners would be repealed. The Illinois exodus isn’t for better weather.
Since everything is a secret, start connecting dots:
2023 Megasite Investment Press Release: https://www.chicagowestbusinesscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/26898-_Governor_Pritzker_Announces_Recipients_of_Megasites_Investment_Program.pdf
Excepts:
What company agreed to provide $1,736,501? It’s a secret.
There is nothing “former” about the proposed site unless it gets paved over. Farmland would then become “former”.
Headline from the Pantagraph:
Facebook comment from a County Board member:
Lea Cline McLean County Board District 8
Following last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting, I want to share a few thoughts about the public comments regarding a potential data center.
Over the past year, the McLean County Regional Planning Commission—funded by the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, and McLean County—has been working on an updated strategic land use plan. While this plan received some attention early on (particularly because initial drafts did not reflect public input), it has largely fallen out of public view. Importantly, it has not yet been formally approved by any of the three governing bodies.
That plan, however, is directly relevant to the current conversation. It identifies the area south of the airport—within the city’s designated growth boundary—as a future site for industrial development, including a potential “technology park.” This is not speculative; it is clearly mapped and discussed as part of long-term planning.
Unsurprisingly, farmers and residents in this unincorporated area have raised consistent concerns (generally, and to me in my capacity as the chair of the county’s Land Use and Transportation committee). They have been clear throughout the process that they do not want to see productive farmland converted into industrial use, or for the tranquility of this area to be undermined. Those concerns deserve to be taken seriously.
At the same time, there are practical reasons this area has been identified. The recent addition of a nearby Ameren substation means this location has significantly greater capacity for high-energy users than other parts of Bloomington-Normal. That makes it a logical—though not uncontested—candidate for projects like data centers.
This context matters because, in an interview this morning on WJBC, Assistant City Manager Billy Tyus confirmed that the City of Bloomington has received interest from parties looking to site a data center in this very area. For residents who have been following the land use discussions, this confirmation aligns directly with what they have been concerned about—not something imagined or exaggerated.
Many residents worry about a sequence of events: infrastructure improvements near the airport (roads, sewer, utilities), followed by annexation of surrounding county land at the request of property owners, ultimately creating “shovel-ready” sites for large-scale industrial projects. Whether or not that is the city’s intent, it is a reasonable interpretation of both the plan and recent actions.
This brings us to Monday night’s agenda. Item 8H referenced land south of the airport that had already been annexed (January 2025), along with a proposal to seek grant funding for infrastructure improvements. The agenda language did not clearly explain the purpose of those improvements, leaving open the question of whether they were tied to airport operations or broader industrial development.
By the time clarification emerged midday Monday, public concern had already grown. Pulling the item without explanation only intensified that concern.
From my perspective, this is the core issue: community members who spoke out should not be dismissed. Even if some details were initially unclear or misunderstood, their concerns are grounded in real planning documents, recent infrastructure decisions, and now confirmed external interest in development.
These are not “tinfoil hat” theories. They are reasonable questions based on available evidence.
At a minimum, this moment calls for clearer communication, greater transparency, and a willingness to engage seriously with public concerns—especially when those concerns are rooted in the very plans that our local governments have developed.
We can—and should—have a thoughtful conversation about growth, infrastructure, and economic development. But that conversation has to start from a place of respect for the community members who are paying attention and asking questions.
100% correct – and until elected and highy paid public servants who (family and friends) and partners are usually in entivised financially and inested in so called growth are exposed citizens will always be the ones disguated as they ram rod whatever they want in.
From Peoria to Champaign and north of it (it’s bad and always has been) now Chicago pretty much dictates everything and every project.
A snake oil data and marketing game at citizens expense. The big game.
It’s not a coincidence either that the county changed data center zoning to allow M1/2, and low and behold, there is a county M2 plot immediately adjacent to the Abraham road CIRA development Bloomington is working on.
Project and infrastructure and data/system planning at it’s worst
Well, since they are already building the substation, consider it a done deal. The public’s opinions and concerns have never mattered to the government in B-N, or the state for that matter.
I live in Marion Co., IN and this county has nine (9) townships. Five (5) township councils have been approached by ‘developers’ who want to build LARGE (& some MASSIVE) ‘AI’ data centers!!! Sections of generations-old farm ground is now being sold by the younger generations who don’t want to continue farming. Many citizens in four (4) of these townships have screamed NO DATA CENTERS near me…and so far, it has worked!! The connected-county to the north-north west is Boone (c.s. Lebanon). A LARGE section of farm land just west of Lebanon was recently purchased by ‘out-of-state’ developers and lo and behold….META will be building one of their “HUGE” ‘AI’ data centers there BUT, they need large quantities of “water” that Boone Co. can’t supply. The latest plans are….to PIPE water from Marion Co’s west side Eagle Creek Dam (Speedway’s water supply) to the META D.C….some 22 straight miles…and then (after META’s filtration??) return it to the Dam!!! Think about that! To install that large pipe means going through MANY private properties…and quite possibly UNDER County roads, a State highway (or two) and I-65. I’m telling you…THIS IS “INSANITY”!!!!
Malcom is 100 percent on point. Data center construction in Central Indiana has become a big topic and concern of many citizens. Why the sudden need across the country? Storing business and personal data, but mainly personal. Companies like Planatir are at the forefront along with Blackrock. The more the elites know about you and your habits the better. The world powers, including those in America, are marching toward a digital world currency that can be controlled based on your politics and habits. These people, that include the banksters (particularly the Rothschild’s) want to be able to control everything, including your ability to do what you want, when you want with your money. A digital currency can be turned off and on by a whim by those behind the curtain. Data centers are nothing but personal information storage centers to know and find our everything about you. Think 15 minute cities. It’s easier to control the rats when confined to a small area.
AI is about pulling data together 1000’s of times faster than a human can. That’s why entry level and maybe higher research jobs won’t exist in the future. It will solve problems humans haven’t yet.
Avoid ChatGPT, it lies and slants far left. I have found zero problems with Grok except the free version is occasionally not available due to heavy use.
Doesn’t change the point of my comment. AI is also meant to be a control technology and one used to obliterate the human job market. It’s easy to research. The primary purpose of data collection is to create a personal information bank to be used by the technocrats to control human habits and behaviors. They’ve admitted as much. In fact, Musk, Gates and others have even talked about a board of technocrats someday controlling a world government apparatus at conferences. It goes much deeper than banking information for AI.
Car obliterated lots of jobs to. Adapt or be unemployed. College is a waste of time
None of that happens without massive computer power, hence data centers. They MUST create their own power instead of billing us.
If diesel fuel is stored on the future site, as a fuel source for generators, does this create a significant and highly significant public risk concern for the entire eastern Bloomington/Normal community?
Also, water usage for cooling? Where will the water come from? Aquifer? Lake Bloomington? Where will it go after being utilized? Simply dumped or exhausted into the atmosphere?
Possibly contaminated with coolants, “forever plastics”.
Electrical systems are already being planned as witnessed by the very substantial substation the has been built, I have taken numerous trips and pictures of its creation to document the project and process including the Solar farm and its soil polluting existence not far away.
Communities all over the US are battling their various local and State jurisdictions against these “data centers”. Fighting against lack of transparency, NDA’s between elected officials, government officials, staff, counsel and the various parties building the data centers such as Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. These NDA’s are kept secret from the taxpayers and are illegal by law as a fiduciary conflict of interest at a minimum, creating a false blanket of protection between the public and private sectors that could lead to serious consequences of corruption, fraud, misuse of government resources, mis-appropriation, and simply lying to the public potentially leading to environmental disasters, contaminations, sickness, financial ruin, death and potentially life threatening health conditions for generations.
Nothing done in darkness is ever righteous and usually someone tends to be a winner and many more end up losers.
I could go on and on about the negative issues with data centers located near communities and electric power, water supplies, tax burdens and so many more concerns, but these are some of the more important and critical concerns. Ask questions. Send FOIA’s, email, call and demand to know who is benefitting the most. Why suddenly are these data centers necessary near small communities? Why not build them in bunkers under Chicago, like a secure server farm is usually built? Makes more sense to me.
I hear Europe is building them underground where cooling doesn’t take as much water