Voters in Upper Sandusky approved a city charter amendment on Tuesday, November 3, prohibiting the construction of large data centers within the city limits, capping months of organizing that began after a roughly $900 million project was proposed near the Wyandot County seat. The Cincinnati Enquirer listed Upper Sandusky among 10 Ohio municipalities that passed data center bans on Election Day, and organizer Angela Sue Huffman, in a first-person account published on Substack on November 4, reported 76.92 percent of city voters backed the amendment.
The amendment, which became Ordinance 85-14, prohibits data centers with an electrical demand or peak load exceeding 25 megawatts inside the city, according to Huffman’s account in her Substack post. Huffman wrote that local residents worked with attorneys at Conserve Ohio to draft the charter language, and that Upper Sandusky was one of 10 Ohio communities where Conserve Ohio supported ballot initiatives aimed at prohibiting large data centers.
The fight started in June, when Smartland Energy proposed a data center and power-generation facility on about 146 acres near the northern edge of the city of about 6,600 people, according to Huffman’s Substack account. Huffman wrote the proposal included a 150-megawatt natural gas power plant, and residents raised questions about water, wastewater, traffic and infrastructure in a community already weighing a major new soybean processing plant.
Residents filled public meetings and pressed city officials for answers, Huffman wrote, and Smartland later withdrew its request for approval under the city’s existing industrial zoning rules while continuing to promote the project, including at a public information event at a local church. On July 6, City Council unanimously approved a six-month moratorium on data centers and associated power-generation facilities, a step Huffman described as important but not permanent.
Getting the permanent ban before voters nearly failed at the filing deadline, according to Huffman’s Substack account. Organizers submitted petitions carrying 301 signatures on August 3, but election officials accepted only 192, and the charter required 212 valid signatures. With hours left, organizers collected signatures again and submitted 50 more on August 5, of which 37 were accepted, for a final total of 229 valid signatures — 17 more than required.
Upper Sandusky’s vote was part of a statewide wave. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported voters in 18 Ohio municipalities weighed data center measures on November 3, the most of any state, and voters in at least 14 municipalities passed bans or other restrictions. Defiance, also in northwest Ohio, was among the communities that passed a ban, the Enquirer reported; Ballotpedia, citing Decision Desk HQ results, put support for the Defiance charter amendment at 62.55 percent.
What happens next reaches beyond the city line. Huffman wrote the amendment covers only land inside Upper Sandusky, while much of Wyandot County is unincorporated and lacks zoning protections, and residents are now asking county commissioners to consider a moratorium and zoning restrictions in those areas. A separate statewide effort is also collecting signatures for a proposed data center ban on Ohio’s November 2027 ballot, according to Huffman’s account.