The University of Illinois Research Park is considering getting a new data center.
As reported by Government Technology, a new data center has become a possibility following a proposed zoning change in Champaign, Illinois, where the campus is located.
On June 5, planning staff in Champaign are set to debate the amendment to the city's zoning ordinance that would enable this project and similar ones in the future, while imposing regulations.
The zoning ordinance would create a land use category specifically for data centers and offer districts in which they are allowed.
"Data centers tend to be located in cooler climates, in communities with good access to municipal water and electrical infrastructure, and in areas with proximate access to major metropolitan areas," said associate planner Eric Van Buskirk. "Champaign fits these key criteria, and the University of Illinois Research Park is exploring the opportunity to build a data center facility within the park."
The proposed regulations for data centers include that the facility is at least 200 feet from residential areas, and the on-site utility equipment is at least 60 feet from residential areas.
According to Van Buskirk, there is currently no industrial zoning within the university's research park. The university is reportedly planning to submit a rezoning application this month.
DCD has reached out to the University of Illinois for more information.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a campus initiative for a consolidated data center approach. According to the Technology Services Data Center, campus server rooms and data centers have been consolidated into three high-quality facilities. In 2022, the university spent $270,000 replacing the air conditioning units in the Benjamin Goldberg Research Center data center on the campus.
The research park is already home to a colocation facility called "EnterpriseWorks" which includes 15 enclosed, locked cabinets of rack space. Each cabinet has a capacity 42U.
The university also hosts the supercomputer "Delta" at its campus, which in 2023 was upgraded with an AI partition formed of Nvidia H100s.
