MANSFIELD — Richland County commissioners repeated again Tuesday their opposition to a proposed data center in Franklin Township.
But they also don’t have the authority to ban such facilities in the county, according to Commissioner Tony Vero.
“(We) don’t have legal authority to do that,” Vero said. “County (commissioners) are not a legislative body. So we can’t just place a data center moratorium on the whole county.”
His comments came in response to a request from county resident Pam Taylor, who is helping spearhead a local effort to ensure such a data center is not built in Franklin Township.
Under Ohio law, cities, villages and townships can block such projects through local ordinances. Earlier this month, for example, Ontario City Council approved a six-month moratorium on any such project.
That moratorium includes consideration, acceptance and/or granting of any applications relating to data centers supporting artificial intelligence within the city of Ontario.
Vero said the 2025 move by commissioners to ban commercial wind/solar projects in 11 of the county’s 18 townships “was a little different because the state of Ohio gave us authority to prohibit large wind and solar.”
No such authority has been issued with regards to data centers.
Mansfield mayor announces plans will not go forward
Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry said April 21 the city would not move forward on a proposed data center project that could include annexing land from Franklin Township into the city.
The mayor’s announcement came after Shawn Cutter, the founder and CEO of EnergiAcres, announced his intention to bring a power plant and data center north of Mansfield at a community meeting in Franklin Township.
Perry said the city routinely works on potential projects with developers in a variety of sectors. But traditionally, details are ironed out before those projects are shared publicly, she said.
According to Perry, the proposed data center started as a concept with a much smaller scope. As it grew larger and more complex, the city “engaged regional and state resources” to assist.
“The project still had many important unanswered questions, which were essential to being able to consider it fully,” Perry said.
“We made it clear to EnergiAcres that we needed further definition, coordination, and answers to key questions before taking any further steps.”
Nevertheless, Perry said EnergiAcres moved forward with a meeting in Franklin Township last week “without prior local coordination.”
“This made clear that we are not in alignment, and so we have communicated to them that we will no longer pursue the project,” the mayor said in a written statement.
“Projects of this scale must be fully vetted, as well as coordinated and aligned with the community before they can move forward. Ultimately, a development must work for the community, not just in the community.”
Vero told Taylor he received an email Sunday evening asking him not to support a data center in the township.
“Here’s what I responded … just so I can’t be any more clear about my position. ‘Good evening. Mayor Perry terminated any potential relationship with the data center developer several weeks ago. This county is supporting her decision without question,'” Vero said he responded via email.
Taylor says residents don’t know who to trust
Taylor, who helped form a Facebook group, Mansfield Oh-Franklin Township Petition against Data Center, applauded the commissioners, but said residents “don’t know who to trust” about the proposed project.
She said the group now has 750 members.
“We the people have never completely been sure that (Perry’s decision) is the truth. Many are unsure of their future in their own homes. It is affecting their families. It’s affecting their health,” she said.
“It has been nothing less than a roller coaster ride on which we are all just trying to hang on, all the while screaming at the top of the lungs (to) please make it stop.
“I still get intel from people who live in that area that say that the project is moving forward. The covert operations need to stop. We seek the truth,” Taylor said.
Taylor mentioned a statewide petition now being circulated to get a proposed constitutional amendment to prevent new, large data centers in Ohio on the November ballot.
She said the petition has 1,000 signatures in Richland County as of Monday for an issue that would prohibit the construction of data centers with a peak load of more than 25 megawatts per month, effectively blocking most modern data centers.
That statewide effort was launched by Ohio Residents for Responsible Development, a grassroots organization and a group of southwest Ohio residents, according to a story April 3 in the Ohio Capital Journal.
The OCJ story said the amendment will need more than 413,000 signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties — 10 percent of the total vote cast for governor during the last gubernatorial election — by July 1 in order to get on the ballot.
According to that story, lawmakers in at least 11 states — Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin — have introduced legislation that would at least temporarily ban data centers.
There is also legislation working in the Ohio Statehouse on the topic. Ohio House Bill 646, now being considered in the state senate, would create a data center study commission. The bill would set regulations for where and how data centers can be built in Ohio.
“We want the building of those structures north of town in our backyard to be completely shot down,” Taylor said. “And we want exact proof (that the data center won’t happen).
“I’m getting intel from different people who live out there who are telling me things like what they’re doing is just taking and modifying whose land they’re going to use and that kind of stuff and repositioning it,” Taylor said.
Vero said Perry’s statement explaining her decision to not go forward was “spot on.”
“Anytime an economic development opportunity presents itself, she has a duty to evaluate it in the best interests of her constituency in the community,” Vero said. “But as she went along, it was pretty clear to her and then us that this was not a developer that the city wanted to enter into an agreement with.”
