The data center fight in Charleston, Illinois
As of October 25, 2026, Charleston, Illinois has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Oct 6, 2026; documented end date 2027-10-06).
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
City council voted 5-0 on Tuesday night (Oct 6; reports published Oct 7-8) for a moratorium on new applications for data centers and battery energy storage systems; residential battery storage on 1-2 family dwellings exempt. Runs until Oct 6, 2027 or until the city adopts new regulations, whichever first (end date per MyRadioLink). Zoning board hearing Sep 24 recommended approval. No ordinance text read.
SourceNews
read 2026-10-11
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
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.
Nearby in Illinois
- Mattoon (10 mi) — Enactedno fixed end — runs until a condition is met
- Effingham (33 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-02
- Champaign County (45 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-04-23
- Macon County (49 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Logan County (77 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-05-19
- Bloomington (80 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-26
- Illinois (tax incentives) (81 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-07-01
- Normal (82 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-30
All 19 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.