About the City Council Decision

The petitioner Karis Critical is looking to place a data center in an Office Research and Light Industry (ORI) Zoning district that requires a conditional use to be approved.

Naperville Office Research and Light Industry Zoning Code:

https://library.municode.com/il/naperville/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT6ZORE_CH8INDI_ARTBOROFRELIINDI

Conditional uses are conditions placed on the overall zoning to allow the developer to develop a property.

The City of Naperville planning staff have recommended a number of conditions.

Detailed here:  

https://naperville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7721607&GUID=1C72BA9A-2B64-4906-97B0-A52251B93174&Options=&Search=&FullText=1

The City Council has to approve the conditional use based on the following criteria:

https://library.municode.com/il/naperville/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT6ZORE_CH3ADEN_6-3-8COUS

2.Standards For Conditional Uses: Any recommendation by the Planning and Zoning Commission and any decision by the City Council shall be predicated on evidence and findings that:

2.1. The establishment, maintenance or operation of the conditional use will not be detrimental to, or endanger the public health, safety and general welfare; and

2.2. The conditional use will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate area for the purposes already permitted, nor substantially diminish and impair property values within the neighborhood;

2.3. The establishment of the conditional use will not impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of the adjacent property for uses permitted in the district.

2.4. The establishment of the conditional use is not in conflict with the adopted comprehensive master plan.

We do not believe that the proposed development meets any of the conditional uses and should not be allowed. Ultimately a modern data center is a large industrial facility by every measurement and has no place in close proximity to homes and parks.

Data Centers are fine tucked in the back of large industrial parks or in rural areas far from homes. 

Data centers have signifigantly changed in scale in the last 20 years. Data Centers built even 8-10 years ago may have fit better in office parks as they typically had a smaller number of generators and had much quieter evaporative water based cooling systems. The scale of modern data centers changes this.

 2.1. The establishment, maintenance or operation of the conditional use will not be detrimental to, or endanger the public health, safety and general welfare; and

1. Petitioners submitted “Response to Standards” Only addresses property history and general economic welfare. It does not even try to address detrimental impacts, public health and safety 

2. The petitioner did proactively submit a noise impact assessment with their proposal but the proposal has a number of identified issues.

• The initial noise background collection was done during the week of spring break where overall there is less road traffic and no bus traffic.
• They omitted one day of noise data due to loud mufflers. Neighbors living in the neighborhood have confirmed that they live with the loud mufflers on a regular basis. 
• The background noise collection was not completed in accordance with the Illinois Pollution Control Board Standards Part 901: Sound Emission Standards And Limitations For Property Line Noise Sources - utilizing a 9 Octave Band Center Frequency (Hertz) measurement https://pcb.illinois.gov/documents/dsweb/Get/Document-12261/
• Sound study assumes the existing 60 year old Nokia building that sits in between the proposed data center and homes will continue to exists and will provide sound shielding for the data center even though it has been communicated in the past that Nokia will be looking to leave the location once contracts that require it to continue to have the facility expire in the coming years
• Sound study did not use actual sound data from the manufacturer of of the roof mounted cooling systems that will be the primary source of noise when the generators are not running - but instead used in correct assumptions based on a blend of 300-400 ton units instead of the 450 or 550 ton units. While questioned by the community the developers mechanical engineer provided an incomplete Trane model number and capacity information that does not match the partial model number provided. This provides the city or the community no way to independently validate any of the most important sound data.

3. Petitioner does not directly mention generators at all in their initial proposal and only mentioned them with one mention in the sound study and only talked about them after initial community comments.

• 24 locomotive sized generators with tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel on site has a great amount of risk
• Petitioner has provided no information on models of generators outside of 3MW assumption in noise study
• Generator exhaust has well documented health risks especially for children
• Storage and transfer or large amounts of fuel while the generators are running in during a power outage has great risk
• Noise from the generators all running will be heard from miles during a power outage
• On a hot summer night when the power is our neighbors will not be able to open their windows due to noise and to generator exhaust - this is entirely incompatible with homes

Loud Low Frequency Noise from HVAC and generators will be detrimental AND endanger the public health AND safety AND general welfare.

1. Developer Claim: “It will be developed as a secure facility, focused on internal operation rather than external impacts. Operations will occur within the four walls of the large industrial building”

– HVAC and Generators will be operating on the outside of the building will be injurious and will affect enjoyment

2. Developer Claim: “the operation of the facility will have little impact on the use or operation of property near the facility.”

– Neighbors will be impacted on the enjoyment of areas outside of their homes due to noise impact

“Response to standards” - does not address impact to property values and “Data Center Pricing Impact Report” does not prove they will not impair property values due to the comparable properties submitted combined do not add up to the number of generators or power capacity of the single facility proposed.

The Common Sense Test: Would you buy a house adjacent to this facility?

Petitioner does not meet this standard.

 It is unlikely adjacent property where the 59 year old Nokia buildings sits will be able to be developed with almost all ORI or Residential uses

Medical and Dental offices are an approved ORI use. A dentist working on a patients teeth or a doctor performing surgery at the adjacent property when they fire up the generators is likely to cause great hard to a patient. Heavy industrial uses next to ORI uses would be impractical.

Petitioner does not meet this standard.

The adopted comprehensive master plan clearly has this area identified as medium density residential housing. This was identified prior to the adjacent Naperville commons development was approved and constructed.

See: https://www.naperville.il.us/businesses/development-resources/land-use-master-plan/

Petitioner does not meet this standard.