Eagle Creek Township
JTNWI is supporting the community in pushing back against the proposed Project Shirley data center by attending public meetings and hearings and supporting community members.
About the project shirley data center
Quick Facts
Data Center Name: Project Shirley
Developer: Sentinel Data Centers
End-User: Unknown
Investment: $5 billion
Address: 181st Avenue and Clay Street, Eagle Creek Township (near Lowell and Hebron)
Size: 4 two-story buildings | 164 acres
Generation: 500 megawatts
Status: Proposed (~2031 completion)
Permits & aGREEMENTS
lake county data center ordinance
Project Shirley is subject to Lake County’s data center ordinance, Ordinance No. 2590.
community Issues Spotlight
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Residents worry that Project Shirley may not be an isolated development but a sign of broader industrial change in the county. The community is tracking numerous simultaneous projects moving locally (an estimated 10). One of these is the recent acquisition of local land by Ceres Partners, now owned by global asset manager WisdomTree, which has explicitly cited “AI data infrastructure” as a key value driver, even though data centers were not previously its focus. This has led to suspicion that more data center projects will be proposed in the surrounding area.
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The surrounding area is home to wooded corridors and documented wildlife habitat, including many endangered and protected species. Large-scale land disturbance can irreparably alter habitat continuity.
This project sits within a connected watershed system, with a waterway that feeds directly into the Singleton Ditch and ultimately the Kankakee River. That raises serious environmental concerns, especially since another data center project (Amazon’s Project Orion) near the Kankakee River in Wheatfield already impacts the same interconnected watersheds, wetlands, and aquifers. The area relies on private wells and has no municipal or Lake Michigan water access; protection of both surface water and groundwater is essential.
