When classified as a special use, a data center requires Development Review Board review, a public hearing and recommendation by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and City Council approval.

Data centers may not use cargo containers, railroad cars, semi-truck trailers, or similar storage containers for any part of their operations.

Data centers must be designed, constructed, operated, and maintained within applicable industrial-district noise limits.

Within 30 days after beginning operations, the building-permit applicant must submit an affidavit identifying the noise-measurement person and qualifications, measured decibel levels, measurement method, and compliance confirmation.

The City may require independent verification of a data center's noise measurements.

Each building or occupancy-permit application for a data center in an industrial district must include certification from an Illinois-licensed professional engineer that the building and proposed use comply with industrial performance standards.

The Zoning Administrator may require outside technical review of an industrial data center application, with the applicant reimbursing the City, and may withhold a building or occupancy permit for noncompliance with performance standards.

New construction or substantial additions or changes to a data center in an industrial district require Development Review Board site-plan review before approval.

Data centers must obtain zoning review with their building-permit or Development Review Board applications, and a new use or building generally may not be occupied until the Zoning Administrator approves a certificate of occupancy.

A zoning-compliance or exception certificate must be issued by the Zoning Administrator for development subject to the Unified Development Code.

Buildings, structures, and land uses are subject to compliance inspections, and violations may result in compliance notices and citations.

Construction or alteration involving a data-center site must comply with stream-buffer requirements, generally providing buffers at least 30 feet wide along streams draining less than one square mile and 50 feet wide along larger watersheds, including the entire 100-year floodway and generally prohibiting permanent structures and impervious cover within the buffer.

Projects subject to stream-buffer rules must submit a buffer plan with the grading plan, survey streams and wetlands, identify floodways, hydric soils, steep slopes, and existing vegetation, install boundary markers and conservation signs, and grant qualifying buffer areas to the City through a permanent drainage, conservation, and maintenance easement with recorded protective covenants.

Within privately owned stream buffers, clearing native vegetation, grading or other soil disturbance, filling or dumping, drainage work, most pesticide use, and motor-vehicle storage or operation are restricted unless approved by the Director of Community Development or Planning Director.

Stream-buffer waivers require Planning and Zoning Commission review and City Council approval and are limited to practical difficulty or financial hardship, public need without a feasible alternative, or certain buffer-width adjustments; no new structures may be built in the 100-year floodway.

Outdoor lighting for a data-center site must use downward-directed, horizontal, full-cutoff fixtures; parking-area fixtures may be no more than 45 feet high, pedestrian-area fixtures no more than 15 feet high, house-side shields may be required near residential property, and parking lighting may not exceed one-half foot-candle at the lot line.

Low-pressure sodium and mercury-vapor light sources, searchlights, and other high-intensity narrow-beam fixtures may not be used where their direct light is visible from adjacent public areas or properties.

Loading areas must generally be beside or behind the building at least 50 feet from a single-family residential district unless wholly enclosed, and must be fully screened from residential properties and public rights-of-way.

If a data center uses outdoor storage, limited outdoor storage may not exceed 12 feet in height, must be fully screened by a 100-percent opaque barrier, must generally be at least 15 feet from public rights-of-way and abutting residential districts, and must generally be located in the rear yard; general outdoor storage requires an opaque barrier at least eight feet high or high enough to conceal the storage from residential property.

Data-center signs require zoning review with building-permit applications, and permanent signs generally require permits and must comply with district-specific limits on type, number, size, height, location, illumination, and setbacks; external lighting must be shielded and sign illumination may not exceed 75 foot-candles.

Expansion of a legally established nonconforming data-center use requires special-use approval. Expansion of a nonconforming structure requires a special use or variance, and expansion of a nonconforming sign requires a special use.

The ordinance consolidates the subdivision, zoning, and land-development rules into one Unified Development Code, creating a single development-review framework.

Uses eligible for administrative approval may proceed through an administrative development-code review instead of a full legislative amendment process; the code does not state that data centers automatically qualify.

The Zoning Administrator may issue zoning-compliance and exception certificates, providing an administrative process for confirming compliance or approved exceptions.

The Zoning Administrator may approve certificates of occupancy for completed facilities.

Data centers are expressly classified as a Heavy Industrial use and included in the permitted-use framework, providing a defined zoning category for their location.

Where authorized through Special Use review, data centers may use the established special-use process, subject to site-plan review and applicable standards.

A traffic-impact analysis is discretionary for a permitted or special use, so it is not automatically required for every data center.

A legally established data center may continue as a nonconforming use unless it is voluntarily abandoned for more than 12 consecutive months. Expansion requires special-use approval, and a change to another nonconforming use is allowed if the new use is less intense and receives special-use approval.

Nonconforming structures may be maintained, and conforming expansions may proceed without special-use or variance approval. Expansions that remain nonconforming require the applicable special use or variance.

A damaged or destroyed nonconforming building may be restored if reconstruction costs do not exceed 50% of replacement cost, reconstruction begins within one year, and the work is completed within 24 months.

For an existing building or structure, the applicant may seek a waiver of some or all new landscaping, yard, or parking requirements triggered by repair, a use change, or expansion, based on practical difficulty or particular hardship.

A new nonresidential building or structure may be erected on a nonconforming lot if it satisfies all district requirements other than minimum lot area.

During site-plan review, the City may approve alternative landscaping approaches when they better satisfy landscaping standards and accommodate site conditions; raingardens, bioswales, native plantings, grasses, and perennials may count toward required landscaping.

Stream-buffer plans may use alternative compliance for unique site conditions if they fully achieve the stream-buffer standards. If the Director of Community Development denies the approach, the applicant may amend the plan or use the standard Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council process.

The City Council may waive stream-buffer requirements for practical difficulty or financial hardship, public-need projects with no feasible alternative, or projects that maintain the required average buffer width while narrowing the buffer in some locations. The waiver cannot authorize new structures in the 100-year floodway.

Limited outdoor storage may be approved with a permitted nonresidential use after site-plan approval, including fleet vehicles, vehicles awaiting repair, materials, and similar equipment, subject to location, setback, and opaque-screening requirements.

General outdoor storage may be approved with a permitted nonresidential use after site-plan approval, including shipping containers, lumber, pipe, steel, junk, and similar materials, subject to opaque-screening requirements.

After operations begin, a data center may demonstrate noise compliance through an affidavit submitted within 30 days identifying the measurement professional, decibel levels, measurement method, and compliance statement; independent verification is discretionary rather than automatic.