Champaign County Board Considers Data Center NDA and Tax Bans

The county board is pretty unified in all things related to data centers right now — very cautious, very much in favor of having strong regulations, very much in favor of transparency, Champaign County Board member John Farney said, highlighting a rare moment of broad political alignment as local officials move to block secret agreements and tax breaks for massive tech developments.

Facing mounting public pressure and rumors surrounding rural tech investments, the Champaign County Board is weighing two strict measures to govern future hyperscale data center projects, [removed: “GovTech reported”]. The proposals, slated for discussion during a committee-of-the-whole meeting, target the use of nondisclosure agreements by public officials and prohibit financial tax abatements for large-scale digital infrastructure.

Champaign County Board Proposes Strict NDA Ban and Tax Incentive Restrictions

The first proposal is a county-wide ordinance that would completely ban county board members and employees from entering into nondisclosure agreements regarding county business in any situation. According to board member Emily Rodriguez, who chairs the data-center activities task force, such secrecy measures represent poor governance. We are not interested in anything that dodges taxes, for example, Rodriguez said, adding that public servants should feel embarrassed to sign nondisclosure clauses requested by developers.

The second piece of legislation is a resolution drafted by Farney that forbids the negotiation of tax-abatement deals, payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements, and other financial concessions for hyperscale data centers. While no official applications have been submitted for rural Champaign County, Farney stated that developers must operate under the exact same property tax rules as every other taxpayer, forcing projects to succeed on their own merits without public subsidies.

Mahomet Project Discussions Spark Local Public Outcry and Policy Shift

The legislative push follows a controversial development proposal near Mahomet. On Sept. 28, the village of Mahomet announced it was in early talks with Clean Cloud Energy regarding a potential data center in a rural area west of Champaign. Public records obtained via a Freedom of Information Act filed by resident John Bambenek revealed that Mahomet officials had signed a nondisclosure agreement with Clean Cloud Energy in early 2026 before being released from it on Sept. 16.

Intense public backlash regarding a lack of transparency prompted Mahomet to end those discussions just one week after their public announcement. However, the episode alarmed county leaders. Because municipal annexation of unincorporated land removes it from county zoning oversight, both Farney and Rodriguez viewed the Mahomet talks as an attempt to bypass county regulations. I knew immediately, ‘OK, this is how the data-center developers are trying to do an end-around around the county and any other entities that are trying to regulate this,’ Farney said. Rodriguez noted that the episode caused broken trust, necessitating formal codification of the county’s stance.

County Moratorium Remains in Place as Task Force Drafts Rules

Champaign County currently maintains a temporary moratorium on data center developments featuring at least 10,000 square feet of processing area, which is scheduled to expire in April. In the interim, the data-center activities task force is developing comprehensive planning and zoning regulations.

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