In late April 2025, Pekin City Council announced its plan to sell 320 acres of land to the Western Hospitality Partners, a New York-based developer. What most residents didn’t realize was the city council’s plan to build a technology park, including a large data center.
Once the city officially announced the project, Pekin residents strongly opposed it, leading to a temporary cancellation of the plans in early March. But it didn’t last long, as the city’s legal team announced on March 24 that it could return.
This is a major cause for concern for residents of Pekin.
Data centers require massive amounts of energy, equivalent to that of about a thousand homes, which means placing data centers in cities causes a significant increase in local resource demand. This often leads to higher electric bills for the residents due to the strain on power grids.
But data centers don’t just impact your bills. They raise several environmental concerns as well.
Larger data centers can use up to five million gallons of water per day for cooling. To put it into perspective, the average American uses only 82-100 gallons of water per day. Not only does this further raise utility prices, but it can also be a devastating strain on local resources and sustainability, especially in dry regions.
On top of that, the backup generators used for data centers can cause air pollution, potentially making it unsafe for residents.
With technological advancements, especially in artificial intelligence, it makes sense that data centers are becoming more common. What doesn’t make sense is a city making attempts to follow through on a plan that will heavily impact its residents without regard for their opinions.
Despite a seeming lack of care from Pekin’s City Council, residents continue to fight against the data center. Meanwhile, Pekin city officials are preparing for the possibility of being sued by Western Hospitality Partners for the attempt to breach their contract by cancelling plans to move forward.
Perhaps this might not have happened if the city had consulted its residents before signing the contract.
Will the city of Pekin listen, or will they continue to fight against their own residents?
