20 data centers and projects on our map in Ohio, including 13 projects we track in detail. Each one links to its source. Below: where they are by county, the projects in the news, and the latest reporting from both sides.
See Ohio on the map. Existing facilities come from OpenStreetMap, a community-maintained public map that is incomplete; proposed, under construction and blocked projects are tracked one by one from news, filings and official records.
Blocked, paused or withdrawn 18-month moratorium unanimously approved 2026-09-15
Lima, Allen
announced 2026-09-15
Lima City Council imposed an 18-month pause on new data center construction and on new city water requests from outside municipalities so it can develop siting, water and power standards. The existing city water agreement for a Google data center in American Township is not affected.
Issues raised: water, power, zoning, opposition
Blocked, paused or withdrawn Eight month moratorium adopted 2026-09-22, running through 2027-06-01
Washington Court House, Fayette County
announced 2026-09-22
Fayette County commissioners approved a moratorium covering seven unincorporated townships after public comment prompted one commissioner to reverse his opposition. Jefferson, Wayne and Union townships are excluded because they maintain independent zoning.
Issues raised: opposition, zoning, power
Blocked, paused or withdrawn 9-month moratorium adopted 6-0 on September 1, 2026
Miamisburg, Montgomery
announced 2026-09-01
Miamisburg's city council unanimously adopted a nine-month moratorium on data center development after residents raised concerns about a possible project at the former DP&L Hutchings Power Station. The pause is intended to allow the city to draft new development standards.
Issues raised: opposition, zoning
Blocked, paused or withdrawn Township zoning plan to bar data centers endorsed by the county planning commission
Alexandria, Licking County
St. Albans Township moved to become the first township in Licking County to effectively prohibit data centers through its zoning plan. The county sits next to the New Albany corridor, where large data center and chip projects have driven local debate over land, power and water.
Issues raised: zoning, power, water, opposition
Blocked, paused or withdrawn Six-month moratorium passed 6-0 on 2026-09-14
Pioneer, Williams
announced 2026-09-14
Pioneer's village council voted unanimously for a six-month freeze on data center approvals after a developer approached the planning commission the prior week. The measure can be lifted early and does not permanently prohibit future projects.
Issues raised: zoning, opposition, siting-standards
Blocked, paused or withdrawn six month moratorium unanimously approved September 30, 2026
Lebanon, Warren County
announced 2026-09-30
Warren County commissioners unanimously approved a six month moratorium on hyperscale data center development in county controlled areas, pausing projects pending a water impact study by the Ohio EPA and the Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments expected in November. Facilities of 10,000 square feet or larger are covered.
Issues raised: water, power, zoning, opposition
Proposed Preliminary feasibility disclosed by city 2026-10-13
Wapakoneta, Auglaize · Operator: Colocation Technology Services LLC
50 MW · $600 million · announced 2026-10-13
A $600 million, 50 megawatt data center under feasibility review on 30 acres at the West Central Ohio Industrial Center, with developer plans to possibly expand to 70 acres and 200 megawatts. The city says there is no application, no development agreement and no nondisclosure agreement.
Issues raised: power, water, jobs, transparency
Proposed Ohio Supreme Court on September 18 blocked citizens' ballot measure, city rezoning still contested
Wilmington, Clinton · Operator: Amazon Web Services
$4 billion
AWS is proposing a $4 billion data center campus in Wilmington after the city passed emergency rezoning ordinances in September. A resident lawsuit challenges the emergency process and the Ohio Supreme Court has blocked a related citizens' initiative to allow zoning suits against data centers.
Issues raised: zoning, opposition, transparency, power
Proposed Ohio Supreme Court cleared voter referendum to appear on November 3, 2026 ballot
Ashville, Pickaway · Operator: EdgeConneX
EdgeConneX has proposed two data centers and a natural gas power plant on about 195 acres of Ashville village property. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in August that a resident-led referendum could go on the November 3 ballot after finding the village had not shown an emergency justification for skipping the standard 30-day waiting period.
Issues raised: opposition, power, zoning
Proposed Advancing despite objections from local government
Cambridge, Guernsey County
A proposed data center in eastern Ohio that reporting says can proceed even though local officials objected. It is part of a wave of Ohio proposals that has produced township moratoriums and a proposed statewide ballot amendment.
Issues raised: power, zoning, opposition
Under construction Rapid build cluster targeted to come online in 2026
New Albany, Licking County · Operator: Meta
1000 MW · announced 2025-07
A roughly one gigawatt Meta AI cluster near Columbus that uses tent style rapid deployment structures and on site gas generation to shorten the time to first compute. The on site turbines and the speed of the build have drawn attention from air quality regulators and neighbors.
Issues raised: power, air-pollution, water, zoning
Under construction Ground broken, targeted to operate in 2026
Lordstown, Trumbull County · Operator: SoftBank for OpenAI
announced 2025-09-23
A Stargate site on former auto manufacturing land in northeast Ohio, presented by backers as reuse of an industrial site that lost jobs. Debate in the region focuses on electricity cost effects for other ratepayers in the PJM grid.
Issues raised: power, jobs, transmission
New Albany, Licking County · Operator: Amazon Web Services
$3.5 billion
AWS already operates data centers on Beech Road in New Albany and is adding a five building campus of about 1.25 million square feet reported at roughly 3.5 billion dollars. The site anchors Ohio's data center boom and the criticism of a 30 year property tax abatement and the state sales tax exemption for data center equipment.
Issues raised: tax-incentives, power, water, jobs, opposition
Wapakoneta, Ohio administrators publicly described a $600 million, 50 megawatt proposal from Colocation Technology Services LLC for a 30 acre site at the West Central Ohio Industrial Center, with potential expansion to 70 acres and 200 megawatts. The city says talks are preliminary, with no application filed and no nondisclosure agreement. The developer projects 25 permanent jobs and 200 construction workers and describes a closed loop cooling system.
Check it: Nothing is approved yet, and the water, job and power figures come from the developer's description of the proposal.
Voters in Pataskala, Ohio will decide November 3 whether to amend the city charter to ban new data centers of 25 megawatts or more. Residents put the measure on the ballot by petition after the city council rejected an Aligned data center proposal in August. The question was drafted with language from Conserve Ohio, a coalition pushing for a statewide ban.
Check it: A charter amendment is binding and harder to reverse than a council moratorium, but it has not yet been voted on.
Allen Township, Ohio trustees adopted zoning that restricts data centers to I 2 districts, requires a 1,250 foot setback from homes and caps water, noise and total load at 10,000 gallons per day, 40 decibels and 10 megawatts. Trustees also added a last minute amendment exempting data centers located in a Planned Unit Development, which could allow a pending developer to proceed.
Check it: The PUD exemption may let a specific developer bypass the main setback and load caps; watch which site uses it.
Warren County commissioners unanimously approved a six month moratorium on hyperscale data centers, defined as facilities 10,000 square feet or larger, while the Ohio EPA and the Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments complete a water impact study expected in November. Commissioner Tom Grossmann said he wanted more study of size and location rather than an outright ban.
Check it: The moratorium only covers county controlled areas; townships such as Clearcreek and Hamilton already have longer pauses and Lebanon, Deerfield Township, and Mason already host small data centers.
Democratic candidate for Ohio governor Amy Acton urged lawmakers meeting in a special session to take up data centers, arguing they are driving residential electricity bills higher and require statewide restrictions. Republican leaders dismissed the proposal and pointed to existing regulatory processes. Every Ohio gubernatorial candidate has now proposed some form of data center pause or condition; the state has more than 125 active local moratoriums.
Check it: Whether the Ohio legislature actually places data centers on its special session agenda or defers the issue.
Fayette County commissioners in Ohio approved a data center moratorium running through June 1, 2027 covering seven unincorporated townships, after a commissioner reversed his opposition in response to public comment. Jefferson, Wayne and Union townships are excluded because they maintain independent zoning codes.
Check it: Commissioners retain authority to modify, rescind or extend the pause before its expiration and townships with their own zoning are unaffected.
The Ohio Capital Journal reports that a House proposal to cut Ohio's sales tax exemption for new data centers from 100 percent to 50 percent has not advanced despite support from the House speaker, even as multiple legislative and statewide candidates have made data center regulation a campaign issue. Local moratoriums have continued to spread across Ohio in the absence of state action.
Check it: The exemption remains at 100 percent unless the General Assembly acts. Existing project agreements would be governed by their signed terms even if statute changes.
Coverage of the Ohio Supreme Court's September 18 ruling that a proposed citizen ordinance regulating a Wilmington data center cannot appear on the November ballot because it would create a private right of action outside city authority. Backers of the ballot measure say they will look for other regulatory paths, while the developer says existing zoning already addresses the concerns.
Check it: The ruling turns on Ohio home-rule authority over private causes of action and does not decide the merits of the underlying noise, water and air concerns raised by residents.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Clinton County Board of Elections could keep a proposed Wilmington ordinance off the November ballot. The measure would have created noise, water and pollution standards for data centers and let residents sue for violations, and the court said only the state legislature can create such a private cause of action. Opponents of a proposed $4 billion Amazon Web Services campus in Wilmington said they will continue separate challenges to emergency rezoning ordinances.
Check it: Read the court's per curiam decision to see whether it turned on the private right of action alone or on broader home rule limits.
Ohio Capital Journal counted 138 local moratoriums and 23 outright bans across the state as of September 17, concentrated in Logan, Union and Champaign counties. A Bowling Green State University poll of 1,000 likely voters released September 16 found 78 percent support pausing new data centers pending more information, and 47 percent say a candidate's stance is very or extremely important. Industry backers point to Ohio's operating fleet and pipeline, and opponents cite grid, tax and water concerns.
Check it: Compare the OCJ tally to the BGSU sample and margin of error, and check whether the counted moratoriums include expired or non-binding measures.
The report lays out proposals from Ohio lawmakers and Policy Matters Ohio to eliminate the sales tax exemption and property tax abatements that data centers receive through JobsOhio and local enterprise zones. Supporters of ending the incentives cite low permanent job counts and lost school revenue, and industry backers argue the tax breaks are what attracted more than $50 billion in announced investment.
Check it: Ask what share of new data center property in Ohio is actually abated versus fully taxed at local rates, since the incentive mix varies by county.
Columbus City Council took first reading of an ordinance directing the city's water and power utility to design a new rate class for high-volume users like data centers, with recommendations due by October 26. Second reading is scheduled for September 28, and if adopted the framework would require large-load users to pay for the infrastructure their demand triggers rather than shifting it to residential and small business ratepayers.
Check it: The ordinance does not itself set a new rate; it authorizes the utility to propose one, which then would need council approval.
Financial disclosure filings show Republican Vivek Ramaswamy holds more than a dozen positions in companies tied to data centers while pledging on day one to require new facilities to generate their own power and pay for local electricity offsets. Democrat Amy Acton holds Microsoft and Iron Mountain stock and supports a conditional moratorium unless cost, labor, transparency and community benefit conditions are met. Libertarian Don Kissick, who opposes new data centers outright, reports no related holdings.
Check it: Passive index funds can appear as data center exposure on disclosures without direct control; check whether holdings are individual stocks or mutual funds.
State-level analysis cited by regional news estimates Ohio's existing data center sales tax exemption has cost the state more than $2 billion in forgone revenue, prompting Governor Mike DeWine's executive pause on new incentives while a replacement policy is developed. Scioto Analysis is expected to release a cost-benefit study of Ohio data center projects this fall.
Check it: Forgone-revenue estimates depend on assumptions about whether the projects would have located in Ohio without the exemption; the DeWine pause is administrative, not a legislative repeal.
Lima City Council approved an 18-month moratorium on new data center construction and on new city water requests from outside municipalities, so that staff can study siting, water and power standards. Mayor Sharetta Smith cited Ohio's rapid data center growth. The moratorium does not affect the existing water agreement for a Google data center under development in American Township.
Check it: Whether the pause covers new applications only or freezes projects already in the pipeline, and how the Google American Township carve-out is worded.
Pioneer village council voted 6-0 to impose a six-month moratorium on data center approvals after a developer approached the planning commission the prior week. The measure blocks the council from acting on any proposed data center during the pause but does not permanently prohibit them and can be shortened by later council action.
Check it: Whether the developer that prompted the pause has publicly named a site or capacity, and whether the six-month clock could be extended.
The Miamisburg City Council voted 6-0 to impose a nine-month moratorium on new data center development after concerns about a possible project at the former DP&L Hutchings Power Station site. The city says the pause will allow it to draft development standards.
Check it: Verify whether the moratorium covers previously submitted applications and confirm the exact expiration date.
For the arguments behind these fights, see the case for data centers, the case against, and the questions people ask, each answered from both sides.
Searches every argument, question, number, source, report, update and correction on this site. Your query stays in your browser.
Before you download
The handbook is free and always will be. It takes no money from data center operators, utilities or industry groups, which is exactly why you can trust what is in it. If it is worth a dollar, now is the easy moment.
No thanks, just download itOne tap through Stripe. Your download starts either way.
Anything you wish this site had, or anything that was missing or wrong? One line is plenty, it comes straight to a person, and it is what the next version gets built from.
Nobody pays for this but readers. Chip in $1 if it was worth it.