More Northeast Ohio communities are blocking data centers. Business leaders are worried.
Multiple communities in Northeast Ohio, including Twinsburg, Ravenna, Avon, and Painesville Township, have enacted short-term moratoriums on data center development, while Cleveland City Council is considering a similar measure. Business groups like the Greater Cleveland Partnership are urging against blanket bans, advocating for individual project reviews and sensible regulations. Statewide, a grassroots campaign seeks a constitutional amendment to ban large-scale data centers, and lawmakers are considering new regulations and changes to tax incentives.
The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), a prominent metropolitan chamber of commerce, has urged Northeast Ohio communities to reconsider their growing trend of imposing moratoriums on data center development. GCP President and CEO Baiju Shah articulated concerns that such prohibitions deter investment and signal a lack of openness for growth, advocating instead for the assessment of each data center proposal on its own merits rather than through blanket bans.
This call to action comes as several communities, including Twinsburg, Ravenna, Avon, and Painesville Township, have recently enacted temporary moratoriums ranging from six months to a year. Cleveland City Council is also deliberating a yearlong moratorium to more thoroughly examine zoning regulations and other local rules. Simultaneously, a grassroots movement is attempting to secure a constitutional amendment to ban new large-scale data centers across Ohio, though they are still far from collecting the necessary signatures for the November ballot.
Both the GCP and the Cleveland Building & Construction Trades Council argue for "sensible regulations" over development pauses, highlighting data centers as critical infrastructure for various sectors and warning that communities blocking projects risk losing revenue, jobs, and influence. The GCP has outlined guiding principles for data center projects, emphasizing operators' responsibility for full power costs and grid upgrades, minimal water use, heat capture, noise mitigation, community benefits, and local sourcing.
Amid mounting public pushback and concerns, Ohio lawmakers have established a bipartisan committee to study the impacts of data centers. Pending legislation includes proposals to eliminate state sales-tax exemptions for new projects, remove all data center incentives, or conversely, restrict the ability of state and local governments to limit data center development. A legal firm, Vorys, has also cautioned that temporary government restrictions could lead to legal disputes.