Ohio Supreme Court orders Trenton vote on data center ban
The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered the city of Trenton to hold a special election on a proposed charter amendment that would ban data centers requiring more than 25 megawatts within city limits. This ruling comes after the Trenton City Council initially rejected the citizen-led petition, prompting a challenge to the Supreme Court. While an existing Amazon data center project in Trenton would not be affected, the impact on a larger, proposed Amazon campus seeking annexation into Trenton remains uncertain.
The Ohio Supreme Court has mandated that the city of Trenton hold a special election for a proposed charter amendment that would prohibit large-scale data centers, specifically those requiring over 25 megawatts, within its city limits. This decision comes after Trenton City Council had previously rejected the citizen-led petition, arguing it did not meet the required signature threshold. However, the Supreme Court unanimously sided with the petitioners, determining that enough valid signatures had been collected under state law.
Trenton resident Barry Blankenship, organizer of the Woodsdale and Trenton Environmental Resistance (W.A.T.E.R) group, expressed relief and happiness over the ruling, stating that the group's next step is to educate residents on the ballot language. The city council had contended that 820 signatures were needed based on the number of registered voters, but the Supreme Court affirmed the petitioners' interpretation that the threshold should be 10% of votes cast in the last municipal election, which was 128 signatures.
The proposed ban, if approved by voters, would not impact the Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center campus currently under construction in Trenton, which is being developed by Prologis. However, the future of another larger AWS project, an 18-building campus on 600 acres in Madison and St. Clair townships that is seeking annexation into Trenton, remains unclear. Residents have voiced concerns about the environmental impact of data centers, including water usage, noise, light pollution, and strain on the electrical grid.