Yorkville residents file lawsuit seeking to stop massive data center project

Some people living in southwest suburban Yorkville have filed a lawsuit seeking to block construction of a planned data center that would be right across the street from their homes and businesses.

Chuck Kasper has lived in Yorkville for a decade. He said he moved there for the quiet, land, and trees.

"Now, with the stroke of a few pens, that's in danger of going away," he said.

Kasper said a proposed data center would be built just 112 feet from his house near Ashe and Baseline roads. He and several other residents are part of a lawsuit seeking to halt construction before it starts.

The lawsuit claims the city of Yorkville rezoned more than 1,000 acres of land from residential to industrial to make way for the data center project without first conducting a noise analysis, traffic impact study, analysis of cooling water consumption, or impartial balancing of public benefit against private hardship.

The lawsuit also claims the city and the developers failed to provide proper public notice to property owners within 500 feet of the site before approving the data center project.

"Minimal public notice, if any, was given, and we're just not happy with the fact this was snuck in," Kasper said.

Yorkville City Administrator Bart Olson said the city hasn't received the lawsuit yet, so he can't comment on it. He said public meetings were held on the data center plan, but did not comment on whether residents were given proper notice.

Olson said the Yorkville City Council did approve a data center to be built by Pioneer Development LLC. There's no timeline for construction. The company has yet to close on its purchase of the property.

Dorothy Flisk, who owns Legacy River Equestrian Center, which is also across from the proposed data center site, said she fears she could lose her business.

"Horses aren't tolerant of the noise, so they wouldn't be tolerant for the noise level that even just one data center brings, and this data center is threatening to build 14 buildings. So, it would pretty much be the largest in the world next to China," she said. "The constant construction; they say the construction would be 20 years."

Flisk said she's not anti-technology, but she believes a data center belongs along a highway, not in people's back yards.

CBS News Chicago has reached out to Pioneer Development LLC for comment, but has not received a response.