Balancing Growth, Community Impact, and the Needs of a Data-Driven Economy

Data centers have emerged as one of the most consequential infrastructure investments of the twenty-first century. The global data center market was estimated at approximately $387 billion in 2025, with projections indicating it will exceed $1 trillion by 2034. This extraordinary growth reflects the central role these facilities play in powering the digital economy: cloud computing, e-commerce, AI, fintech, logistics, health care, and nearly every component of modern life.

The driver behind this expansion is straightforward: AI and digital services require massive computational resources. Every AI query, every cloud-based transaction, and every digital workflow runs through servers housed in data centers. While the need for this infrastructure will reach every part of the country, only some regions will benefit twice — first from the productivity AI unlocks, and second from hosting the physical facilities that generate tax revenue, jobs, and adjacent investment.

The Chicagoland Advantage

In Chicagoland, the economic impact of data center development is already visible. The World Business Chicago Research Center reports that data processing and hosting industry employs approximately 11,819 workers and contributes $8.37 billion to the regional domestic product. The multiplier effect is substantial: each direct data center job supports an estimated 4.43 additional jobs across the economy, generating $542,615 in total earnings.

The region’s competitiveness is reinforced by its infrastructure. In Cushman & Wakefield’s 2025 analysis, Chicagoland ranks as the #8 best data center market overall and #6 nationally in Operational IT Load, reflecting strong fundamentals in power availability, fiber density, tax incentives, and skilled labor. Additional benchmarking from JLL’s H2 2025 North American Data Center Report places Chicago as the #5 largest market in the U.S. by total MW inventory. Together, these indicators underscore a simple reality: Chicagoland is already one of the country’s most mature data processing hubs — with the capacity, infrastructure, and runway for continued smart, responsible growth.

These advantages help explain why companies are exploring or expanding here: access to water, a cooler climate, significant power infrastructure, large-scale industrial footprints, and an ecosystem increasingly tied to quantum, AI, and high-performance computing.

“Data centers are evolving faster than any other form of modern infrastructure. The regions that will lead are the ones willing to embrace that evolution — not by saying yes to everything or no to everything, but by shaping development in a way that strengthens communities. The Chicagoland region has the chance to be a national model for how to integrate this critical infrastructure responsibly, sustainably, and with lasting local impact.” — Tony Kempa, Regional Partnerships, Climate & Sustainability Economy Consultant, World Business Chicago.

Headwinds: Community Impacts and Quality-of-Life Considerations

While data centers deliver considerable economic benefits, communities across the country have raised legitimate concerns. Regional partners continue to collaborate and work to understand these impacts as part of an evolving conversation about how this infrastructure can coexist productively with surrounding neighborhoods.

Energy Use

Data centers require significant electricity for both server operations and cooling. Increased load on the grid can contribute to higher costs for households, even those far from the facility. This reality underscores why some regions require grid agreements, renewable procurement, or energy offset commitments before approving development.

Water Consumption

Some cooling systems consume large quantities of water — sometimes 300,000 gallons per day. In water-stressed regions, this can create tensions between industrial development and residential or agricultural needs.

Noise + Light

Cooling equipment, generators, and 24/7 operations can produce constant low-frequency noise and security lighting that can affect nearby homes.

Land Use + Aesthetics

Because data centers are secure, windowless, and designed to protect critical equipment, they can feel “fortress-like” when placed too close to residential corridors.

Local Moratoriums

These concerns have prompted some communities to pause development entirely — decisions that forfeit real tax revenue, jobs, and long-term economic opportunities.

None of these issues are unsolvable; rather, they highlight the need for early coordination and consistent standards that align community expectations with industry realities.

Mitigating Impacts: What Thoughtful Development Looks Like

Nearly every form of modern infrastructure—highways, airports, power plants, warehouses—generates externalities that must be managed. Data centers are no different. The key is ensuring they are designed to integrate into communities, not burden them.

Noise Reduction

• Acoustic attenuation
• Increased setbacks
• Vegetative buffers and noise walls
• Equipment mufflers and enclosures

Water Stewardship

• Air-cooled systems that use zero water
• Closed-loop liquid cooling that recirculates coolant
• Immersion cooling, which offers superior thermal efficiency with negligible water use
• On-site water reclamation and rainwater capture

Energy Solutions

• On-site generation
• Renewable or nuclear power agreements
• Participation in grid enhancement or load-balancing programs
• Aligning projects with utility plans to reduce system strain

Government Role

Municipalities can set standards through zoning, development agreements, and environmental requirements that ensure projects deliver benefits while keeping impacts within community-tolerable limits.

Opportunities for Innovation

The challenges of data center development have also fueled an emerging innovation ecosystem:

Advanced Cooling Technologies

• Direct-to-chip cooling, reducing 70–80% of heat at the source
• Two-phase immersion cooling, where dielectric fluids vaporize and recondense
• Market for liquid cooling projected to grow from $1.5B in 2024 to $6.2B by 2030

Heat Reuse

• District heating systems using data center waste heat
• Common in Scandinavia; gaining traction globally
• Converts a liability into a community asset

New Thermal Approaches

• Passive fiber-membrane cooling (UC San Diego)
• Thermal storage systems (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) that shift cooling demand to off-peak periods

The pace of innovation means the data center of 2030 will look very different from the data center of today — more efficient, more integrated, and less resource-intensive.

Data centers are no longer optional; they’re foundational to the digital and AI-driven economy. Communities that find balanced, responsible, and forward-looking ways to support this infrastructure will share in the economic benefits — jobs, investment, tax revenue, and increased competitiveness. Success, however, requires both:

• Acknowledging real community concerns about energy, water, noise, and quality of life
• And working in good faith to mitigate those impacts through design, technology, zoning, and public-private collaboration

The path forward is not blanket opposition or unchecked expansion. It is building thoughtful, flexible models that allow data centers to create value for the communities they’re part of and the economy they enable.