They’re retired, they’re organized, and they’re taking on an Atlanta-based data center developer to stop a 1.2-gigawatt AI hyperscale campus from swallowing their community. Today, we’ll hear their side of the story.
T5 Data Center Company’s own marketing says, “The world's biggest companies trust T5 with their data center operations.”
But trust with corporate clients isn’t the same as trust with neighbors living a few hundred yards from the build. Saddlebrook Farms residents say no one from T5 ever came to them directly—no town halls, no answered questions, and no real engagement (except a marketing pamphlet touting the benefits) before 10.1 million square feet across 20 buildings on 472 acres started going up at the southern edge of Grayslake, Illinois, in Chicago’s far northwest suburbs.
We talk with Marion Eickhoff and Gabriela Appelt, plaintiff’s in the lawsuit against T5, who live in that 55+ community of about 3,000 residents.
They walk through the mismatch between the “light industrial” zoning on the books and what’s really being built. They share their worries that include the 600 diesel backup generators, the noise, the future of their well water, the ComEd rate hikes already hitting fixed incomes, and trying to speak up at board meetings where speaking times keeps shrinking.
Find out what happens next as their lawsuit heads to court in November, and as they insist this fight is far from over.
See their story in the Chicago Tribune.
You can read the full lawsuit below.
Learn more about Lake County IL Data Center Opposition Coalition on their Facebook page.
