CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Ohio voters rejected data centers in every one of the 21 local ballot tests on Nov. 3, and Chillicothe — which had no measure on its own ballot — is now writing its rules for the industry before a decision is forced on it. The city is drafting new zoning rules for data centers, data halls, battery storage facilities, and cryptocurrency operations, and will take public input on Nov. 16 at the Armory building in Yoctangee Park, J News Network reported.
Statewide, voters approved a ban, a limit, or a voter-approval requirement in all 21 measures across 18 communities, according to unofficial results posted by county boards of elections and counted by Ballotpedia, J News Network reported. Ohio decided more data center questions than any other state — 21 of the 41 measures on ballots in 10 states, according to Ballotpedia’s count.
Ross County’s debate has a specific address. Chillicothe City Council rescinded its 60-day data center moratorium in September after a February letter from the city’s chief building official surfaced showing the city had already certified that a data center is a permitted use at the former paper mill site, where SOAR AI is developing an AI data center campus, J News Network reported. That history is why the zoning rewrite matters: the permitted-use question at the mill site and the rules for everywhere else in the city are now on separate tracks.
The ballot results elsewhere show how Chillicothe’s neighbors are moving. In Licking County, Pataskala voters approved a charter amendment banning data centers that use more than 25 megawatts, by 5,418 votes to 1,941, J News Network reported from unofficial county results. Sunbury, Grove City, and Trenton passed their own bans or consent requirements by similarly wide margins.
Ohio has nearly 250 data centers in 66 of its 88 counties, with 27 under construction and 57 more planned as of Nov. 4, according to Data Center Map figures cited by J News Network. All of Tuesday’s results remain unofficial; county boards of elections must certify their results within 21 days of the election.
The conversation continues this week for Ross County residents. U.S. Rep. Dave Taylor, whose district includes Ross County, will hold a telephone town hall on artificial intelligence and data centers at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, J News Network reported.
What happens next: Chillicothe takes public input on its draft data center zoning rules on Nov. 16 at the Armory building in Yoctangee Park, and Rep. Taylor’s telephone town hall on AI and data centers is set for 8 p.m. Nov. 10.
[…] “We’re not against the township growing or businesses coming in,” Glenn told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s just we want to make sure it’s a business that’s good for everybody in the community, not just a handful of people.” The fight has a recent statewide echo: Ohio voters sided against large data centers in a series of local ballot tests on November 3, a wave NewsForce247 covered in Chillicothe and across the state. […]