Community briefing

The data center fight in Aurora, Illinois

As of October 1, 2026, Aurora, Illinois had a data center moratorium whose documented term has run out (action taken Sep 25, 2025; it ended 2026-03-24).

Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.

Status today

Expiredterm ran to 2026-03-24status

Sep 25, 2025action taken

Locallevel

180-day moratorium, 10-1. Expired Mar 24, 2026 and replaced by permanent regulations: noise limits (56/46 dB day/evening), water standards, energy efficiency, annual reporting. 10 existing DCs

SourceNews
read 2026-08-13

An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.

The project on the table

CyrusOne Aurora — Operating

Operator: CyrusOne · Size: 40 MW

$1B+, 40MW initial data center in Aurora, Illinois. Under construction.

Next: Already operating — the leverage now is enforcement: noise and water conditions, tax revenue tracking, and any expansion filing, which reopens the record.

Latest in the record

2026-08-03 — Public radio coverage examined how Aurora (centered on the CyrusOne facility) and DeKalb have taken different regulatory approaches to data center noise, water and energy impacts amid continued resident complaints. · source
2026-07-09 — Residents near the CyrusOne Aurora data center said noise (measured around 80 decibels) continued disrupting daily life despite the company rooftop sound wall and ComEd-partnered generator-runtime reductions. · source
2026-03-24 — As its 180-day moratorium expired, Aurora City Council approved strict siting and performance rules on new data centers: mandatory noise/water/sound studies, daytime/nighttime decibel caps (56/46 dB), and generators/chillers set back 1,500 feet from homes. · source
2025-11-28 — A cooling-plant failure at the CyrusOne-owned CME Group data center in Aurora caused temperatures to exceed 100F and halted CME derivatives trading for nearly 10 hours, disrupting global futures and options markets. · source
2025-10-09 — Aurora and CyrusOne signed a legal agreement resolving the May 2025 noise citations, setting a compliance timeline for permanent generator and chiller sound fixes and a $40,000 fine. · source
2025-09-25 — Aurora City Council unanimously enacted a 180-day citywide moratorium on new data center and warehouse development applications and expansions, driven substantially by resident backlash over CyrusOne noise complaints. · source

Full dated timeline on the project tracker.

Source.

What to do next

Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Illinois.
Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
Illinois briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.

Build a full action pack →

Nearby in Illinois

Plainfield (11 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-18
Chicago (36 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
Ottawa (39 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-25
Lake County (47 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-05-08
Bourbonnais (48 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-01-31
Rockford (53 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-03
Woodford County (87 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-18
Normal (93 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-30

All 18 tracked actions in Illinois are on the state page.

As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing

Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.

Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.