While a ban on large scale data centers won’t appear on the statewide November ballot, residents in two central Ohio communities aren’t waiting and are trying to place local bans before voters this fall.
Residents in Sunbury in Delaware County and Pataskala in Licking County are collecting signatures for charter amendments in their respective cities that would prohibit the construction of data centers with a peak load of more than 25 megawatts − a cap that would eliminate the hyperscale facilities being developed throughout central Ohio and the entire state.
Both groups are working with Conserve Ohio, a grassroots group collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment that would block most data centers. The language for the proposed charter amendments is based on Conserve Ohio’s proposed constitutional amendment. The group announced June 22 that it will not submit the more than 413,000 signatures needed to make the fall ballot by the July 1 deadline and will instead target the 2027 ballot.
Sunbury and Pataskala residents are among the communities across the state that have recently pushed back against data center projects. Amazon has proposed a $2-billion Amazon Data Service data center campus in Sunbury, and Aligned Data Centers wants to put a 200-megawatt facility in Pataskala.
Lee Guttentag, one of the Pataskala organizers, said she jumped at the idea of a local charter amendment while waiting for a potential statewide constitutional amendment. Guttentag lives less than half a mile from the proposed 89-acre Aligned site at Broad and Mink streets.
“I feel that it will complement what’s happening at the state level,” she said. “If we can get this on the ballot in multiple places, it’s just solidifying again how important this issue is to communities.”
Ohio has the sixth most data centers in the country – 224 throughout the state – with 139 of those in central Ohio, according to a list of all current and under-development listings provided by Data Center Map, a global data center directory.
But there’s growing opposition, statewide and nationally, against data center developments. Residents are wary of the drain on local water and energy resources, loss of farmland and rural community character, noise and light pollution, loss of habitat for local wildlife, potential negative health effects, and tax breaks for some of the wealthiest companies in the world like Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, among other grievances.
Sunbury has a data center development moratorium in place until Jan. 31, but Sunbury petition organizer Trey Dockendorf said residents are concerned that council will eventually approve the Amazon facility once it expires. A charter amendment would take the decision out of council members’ hands.
“I think a lot of people just don’t want this here, or they at least want to give the people the opportunity to vote on it,” he said.
To get on the ballot in Pataskala, the petition needs a minimum of 310 signatures and Guttentag said their goal is 500. She added that they were halfway to 310 in just two days as of June 25. Meanwhile, the Sunbury petition needs a minimum of 174 signatures, but organizers want to double that.
Organizers for both groups said they are collecting signatures through the July Fourth holiday and will turn petitions into their respective county boards of election the week of July 6.
Delaware County and eastern Columbus suburbs reporter Maria DeVito can be reached at mdevito@dispatch.com and @mariadevito13.dispatch.com on Bluesky and @MariaDeVito13 on X
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sunbury, Pataskala residents seek fall vote to block big data centers
Reporting by Maria DeVito, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Maria DeVito, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
