Voters in at least 14 Ohio municipalities approved data center bans or other restrictions on Nov. 3, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported in an article republished by Yahoo. The report identified 10 municipalities that passed bans and four that passed other restrictions. Fortune reporter Sasha Rogelberg reported that voters across 18 municipalities considered 21 data center measures. That is the number of measures on the ballot, not the number that passed.
The votes did not all impose the same rule. In Trenton, almost 80% of voters approved Issue 17, which bans data centers using more than 25 megawatts of electricity within city limits, according to the Enquirer’s report. In Wilmington, around 80% of voters rejected rezoning for land intended to accommodate a data center project in four separate referendums. That was a vote against the rezoning, not a blanket ban on data centers.
The Trenton ban does not affect a four-building Amazon Web Services data center already under construction, Journal-News reporter Bryn Dippold wrote. It could affect a proposed 18-building AWS project on land in neighboring townships if that land is annexed into the city. The Enquirer reported that the proposed project could move forward if the land remains outside Trenton.
The at-least-14 count was a reported snapshot, not a final tally. The Enquirer said Oregon had not reported results by midnight Nov. 4, while results for Monroe and Sprigg townships and Monroeville were not yet available.
