Joliet city staff now wants plans for a 795-acre data center to be put on hold “indefinitely.”

An annexation agreement for the project was to go to the Plan Commission for a vote at its Thursday meeting after being tabled last month at the request of staff.

“There are a number of questions that the community raised that the city is interested in hearing answers on,” Joliet Director of Community Development Dustin Anderson said Tuesday.

Anderson said staff is waiting to hear back from developer HW Technology Park Development regarding concerns about water consumption, electricity usage and noise at the proposed operation.

On Thursday, staff will ask the commission to delay a vote again without setting a future agenda date.

“City staff is requesting the subject petitions be deferred indefinitely to give staff and the developer additional time to prepare the annexation and development agreement,” states a staff memo attached to the commission’s agenda. “Due to the size and complexity of the proposed development, additional analysis is needed to properly evaluate the subject proposal and to draft an optimal annexation and development agreement.”

Nearly identical language was used in a staff memo in October when the plan was tabled.

Anderson said there is not an estimated date at which the plan may be brought back to the Plan Commission.

The plan is to build the data center on what is now largely farm fields in the area of Rowell and Bernhard roads. The land, south of Chicagoland Speedway and in an area east of Illinois Route 53, is outside of city limits.

HW Technology Park Development, a division of Texas-based Hillwood, has planned 12 three-story buildings for the site.