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.<\/p>\n
However, the mayor stopped short of publicly opposing the project.<\/p>\n
Residents packed a town hall event to protest the new Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park being built on the former South Works steel site<\/a>. Residents say they’re concerned about the negative impacts a data center might have on the community and environment.<\/p>\n The CEO of the development has described the project as a research and development campus and not a data center.<\/p>\n Johnson told the crowd he’s gotten some assurances from the developer.<\/p>\n “I did receive a letter from the developers of the campus saying they will not proceed with a data center on this particular campus.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n This week, Johnson called for a temporary moratorium on new data centers and signed an executive order<\/a> creating stricter data center regulations and oversight.<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n