Plans are being made for a data center comprising 12 three-story buildings on the south end of Joliet.

The project would be constructed on what is now farmland outside the city and south of the Chicagoland Speedway.

A proposed annexation agreement will go to the Joliet Plan Commission on Oct. 16 for a recommendation.

A date for a City Council vote for approval, however, has not been set.

Joliet Director of Community Development Dustin Anderson said the plan will not go to the council for a vote until the city and developer have worked out issues for a potential development agreement.

“It’s reasonable that residents of Joliet would have curiosity about this,” Anderson said. “It’s also reasonable for us to have a conversation with the developer to answer those questions.”

Two major questions include how much electricity and water the complex may use.

Data centers typically use large quantities of both as they process data to feed the growing market for digital information. The amount of electricity used by data centers has been cited as one cause for the rising cost of electricity.

Anderson said the Joliet plan includes construction of a ComEd substation at the data center. The developer, however, would pay the cost of the substation.

“ComEd rate payers will not be subsidizing that substation,” Anderson said.

The data center would be developed by HW Technology Park Development LLC, a division of Texas-based Hillwood.

Hillwood has been active in Joliet as a developer of warehouses. The data center would be a distribution center of a different sort, distributing electronic data.

Anderson said the data center is expected to employ 15 to 20 workers per building in jobs related to processing electronic data.

The 24 buildings would not likely be built at one time, he said.

But HW Technology Park Development hopes to have the first building constructed in 2027, Anderson said.

He referred questions about the construction timeline to the developer, but an HW Technology representative did not return a phone call Friday.

The data center complex would be located in an area that is bordered by Schweitzer Road on the north and Millsdale Road on the south.

Ridge Road is on the eastern border.

The west border is a utility easement that runs near Route 53, but the data center would not extend to Route 53, Anderson said.

Several signs notifying area residents about the Plan Commission meeting have been posted on Schweitzer Road and Ridge Road.

The commission meets at 4 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 150 W. Jefferson St.

The data center boundaries put it south of the Chicagoland Speedway and north of the massive warehouse business park planned by NorthPoint Development, which has faced general opposition from residents in the area.

The area planned for the data center complex does not encompass any large subdivisions, but a number of houses and farmsteads line Schweitzer and Ridge roads.