Cicero officials believe there could be plans in the works for a data center to replace the Hawthorne Race Course, which recently closed after 135 years of horse racing.
In a symbol of how unpopular data center developments have become, the trustees of the near western suburb approved two resolutions opposing data centers at a regular town hall meeting Tuesday — even though no official announcements have been made about any projects.
Across Illinois, residents and local municipalities are pushing back against large data centers being developed to support artificial intelligence. The centers are power hogs, driving up residential electric bills, using enormous amounts of water and creating noise and other nuisances.
One resolution opposes a data center at the nearby Hawthorne property, though there has been no public acknowledgment that any such plan is in place. The resolution says town officials don’t want any projects built anywhere near Cicero, home to more than 80,000 people.
"It's insane they'd try to put something this close to our residents," Cicero Trustee Bob Porad said at the meeting.
A mystery buyer by the name of Allimac 2023 LLC agreed to pay $90 million for the property at 3501 S Laramie Ave. in Stickney, which borders Cicero. The owner has not publicly identified itself or said what it will do with the land.
“Development of a data center on the Hawthorne property adjacent to [Cicero] will place undue strain on the town's resources and infrastructure,” one resolution states, also noting a potential threat to public health.
The other resolution is a bit of a head-scratcher because it suggests another government body is in talks with a developer to build a separate data center next to the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant, which processes hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day, making it one of the world’s largest wastewater treatment plants.
A data center industry website claimed a deal is in the works to build near the Stickney plant within the next couple of years.
However, the government agency that operates the wastewater plant, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, denies such a deal is in the works.
“The district absolutely does not have any plans for a data center [and] would never pursue any initiative that would impact our neighbors without first consulting with the local community to ensure their voices are heard,” the agency said in a statement. “We have an excellent relationship with the town of Cicero and would never want to jeopardize that relationship.”
On July 24, the district emailed a company named MicroLink and demanded it remove a claim on an industry website saying that it plans to build a data center near the Stickney wastewater treatment plant with a project date of 2028, the statement added.
Neither MicroLink nor industry website Baxtel immediately responded to requests for comment.
Without citing sources, Cicero officials said in a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times that “town officials learned of an agreement a developer claims it has already reached with the MWRD to build a data center on property that borders Cicero. We hope the agency’s director and staff can explain how a developer can provide such specific details of an agreement … without the public being aware of it.”
As for the rumored Hawthorne race track project, “the town did not want to wait for construction to begin before taking steps to protect Cicero residents who literally live across the street.”
Josh Brniak, Stickney’s building and zoning administrator, said he doesn’t know what the new owner will want to do with the site. There’s been no contact with Allimac, he said.
“We were waiting on whether the sale would be approved,” Brniak said. “We’re now waiting for the next steps.”
The last races at Hawthorne, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, were July 19.
