WASHINGTON, August 10, 2026 – Across the country, local governments are discovering that zoning codes written before the data center boom often have no way to account for facilities. Now, officials are playing catch-up.
Aurora, Illinois, didn’t have a category for data centers in its zoning code. So for years, it treated them like warehouses. That meant new data centers were approved administratively, by right, with no public hearing and no review distinct from a building full of pallets.
The gap went unnoticed until it didn’t. Electricity rates in the area jumped 24 percent in 2025, which the local utility attributed directly to new data center demand. Residents raised alarms about water scarcity, with some downstate Illinois communities building pipelines to Lake Michigan just to secure supply. An existing facility failed to meet state noise requirements…