Residents on Chicago’s South Side called on Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday to speak out against a controversial development they say is a new data center.
However, the mayor stopped short of publicly opposing the project.
Residents packed a town hall event to protest the new Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park being built on the former South Works steel site. Residents say they’re concerned about the negative impacts a data center might have on the community and environment.
The CEO of the development has described the project as a research and development campus and not a data center.
Johnson told the crowd he’s gotten some assurances from the developer.
“I did receive a letter from the developers of the campus saying they will not proceed with a data center on this particular campus. If they were to do that, they would be strictly bound by to the executive order that I put forth to provide stronger regulations,” he said.
This week, Johnson called for a temporary moratorium on new data centers and signed an executive order creating stricter data center regulations and oversight.
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