Morgan County residents press for more say on energy, development rules

Morgan County residents turned out in force May 27 as county board members took up new energy rules and left the door open for a later fight over data centers, a project type many fear could reshape farm country long before any ground is broken.

The board approved new solar and wind ordinances, but the data-center ordinance remains unfinished and is not expected until the October meeting, according to Chairman Mike Wankel. That delay has become part of the debate itself: residents want the county to spell out who gets a say, when public notice will come, and what protections must be written in before a large project can move ahead.

The pressure had been building for weeks. At the April 27 board meeting, public comment already included a group speaking about a data center, and the agenda that day also included separate reviews of the wind power ordinance and the solar, data and battery storage ordinance. Morgan County’s own wind-and-solar permitting page says wind, solar and battery storage facilities require an approved permit before construction, showing the county is already building a broader land-use framework around major energy projects.

On May 27, Colleen Flinn, whose family farms in Morgan County, told the board the six-month moratorium review would be useful. WLDS reported that she had at least five people backing her from the audience, a sign that concern about a future data center has spread beyond one farm family to a visible bloc of residents watching the county’s next move closely.

The stakes for those residents are practical, not abstract. A data center can bring questions about power demand, water use, truck traffic, noise and pressure on nearby land values, and opponents want those issues addressed before a proposal reaches the zoning stage. That is why the county’s timing matters so much to families and landowners: the rules written now will shape how much leverage neighbors have later.

The local debate fits into a wider Illinois push to rein in data-center growth. On Feb. 11, lawmakers introduced the POWER Act for hyperscale data centers, a proposal that would require new facilities to pay their own energy costs and report water usage. Supporters cited an analysis projecting electricity system costs could rise by $24 billion to $37 billion by 2050, while a December report by three state agencies warned Illinois could face power shortages and price increases in part because of new data centers. Gov. JB Pritzker has also proposed pausing a two-year tax credit for data centers.

Morgan County is not moving alone. Bloomington and Normal each approved six-month moratoriums in May, and Morgan County itself approved a six-month pause on large-scale data centers in April. The board’s next step will determine whether residents get stronger safeguards before a developer arrives, or whether the county will be forced to write the rules under the pressure of a live proposal.