Multiple Central Ohio cities voting on permanent data center bans

While Central Ohio is a hotbed for data center development, many municipalities across the area are pushing back against the trend.

Over the summer, Grove City became the latest Central Ohio city to approve a year-long moratorium—a legal ban—on data center development.

The moratorium was approved by Grove City City Council in June, and now residents will vote on a permanent ban on data center development in the upcoming elections this November.

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Opponents of data centers, like Grove City’s Sam Ronan, who’s running for Congress in Ohio’s 15th district. often cite data centers’ strain on local electrical grids, resource consumption, and environmental impact.

Grove City is one of more than 130 Ohio municipalities to approve moratoriums on data center development, a list that includes Granville, Pataskala, Sunbury, South Bloomfield, Asheville, and more.

Cities like Granville, Pataskala, Sunbury, and now Grove City have placed ballot items on the Nov. 3 elections that would indefinitely prohibit the construction of “large” data centers, those with a load of more than 25 megawatts.

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