Ohio now has over 125 active moratoriums on data centers. See where they are.

At least 138 Ohio municipalities and townships have active moratoriums on data centers as of Sept. 17, local government records and news reports show.

Meanwhile, 23 communities have effectively banned data centers, with at least 23 more across seven counties considering similar proposals. Many villages and small townships do not publish ordinances or meeting minutes online, making the true count likely even higher as more developments happen every day.

A moratorium is a temporary pause, usually on new construction in the case of data centers. While a permanent ban can require a lengthy zoning process only available to some communities, any municipality or township can pass a moratorium.

A Bowling Green State University poll released Wednesday found that 78% of Ohioans support data center moratoriums until more information can be gathered about their effects. Seventy-five percent oppose construction in their local communities, and 63% are against construction elsewhere in Ohio.

Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said his city’s one-year moratorium didn’t mean the local government was in favor of data centers or against them.

“We get so much information, particularly through social media. I don’t know if it’s always accurate, so we just wanted to take our time to look at it,” he said.

The data center industry responds

A lobbying group that represents major data center companies funded ads touting the benefits of data centers in seven states, including Ohio. Five of the state’s biggest data center developers announced donations to a program that helps Ohioans cover their utility bills in late August.

Pro-data center industry group behind ad campaign in Ohio, Oregon, five other states

The push comes as data centers have become politically toxic ahead of the November midterms. While only 9% of Ohioans in the BGSU poll listed data centers as the most important political issue for them, 47% said a candidate’s stance on data centers is very or extremely important to their vote in November.

A leaked memo from Republicans’ main campaign committee first reported by Axios warned that data centers could be the deciding factor against Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted if developers don’t explain “who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one.”

Capital University finance and economics professor Saurav Roychoudhury studies the economic impact of data centers on Ohio communities. Developers used to prioritize sites that were close to power and water sources, and tax incentives encouraged big names to choose Ohio, he said.

“Because there are these hyperscalers coming in, it puts Ohio onto the map,” he said. “If Amazon, Meta, and Google are all operating in Ohio … it’s a good place to do business.”

Now, Ohio’s state tax incentives for data centers are on hiatus, and politicians on both sides of the aisle are pushing to make that permanent. Many newer data centers also use water more efficiently, he added.

A new priority second to power generation has emerged: what Roychoudhury called “de-risked land.” Those are sites where developers are less likely to face community opposition or zoning issues, he said, as they try to get data centers online as soon as possible.

“Speed to market is essential,” he said. “If you are having moratoriums for six months or up to a year, and then you decide what will happen, some of these developers will just look somewhere else where it’s a little bit more friendly.”

Some developers dropped plans to build data centers after local communities proposed moratoriums, and others have persevered. Urbana, Lordstown, and Commercial Point are facing lawsuits from developers who claim that local officials collaborated on plans for potential sites before changing course and passing moratoriums.

What can communities do during a moratorium?

Moratoriums can be good for development if communities use the time to set clear rules and build public trust, Roychoudhury added. Massillon lifted its moratorium early after passing new zoning regulations for data centers.

State and federal lawmakers have floated several ideas to rein in data centers, and candidates in Ohio’s governor and U.S. Senate races outlined plans to regulate them if elected.

So far, little has been passed into law. At the federal level, environmental regulations for data centers and the plants that power them are getting rolled back. An amendment to the state’s 2025 budget bill that received little attention when it first passed is now a roadblock against community referendums on zoning for “any property involved in a megaproject.”

Still, local governments have full control over approving data center buildings, said Michael McGovern, the president of progressive policy organization Innovation Ohio.

Findlay, which is under a moratorium until April, is considering what the director of the Hancock Regional Planning Commission called the most complex ordinance he has ever written. In addition to setbacks and noise limits, which are fairly common in data center zoning regulations, the proposal would require third-party technical reports at the developer’s expense and a case-by-case cap on electrical demand.

Communities can also require workers to be hired from the local area, McGovern said, and demand proof of a contract signed by a developer and utility company that makes the developer pay for any new electrical infrastructure.

Developers could also do more to increase transparency, Roychoudhury added. They could create data dashboards where residents can monitor data centers’ energy efficiency and provide notice before turning on emergency generators, he said.

He emphasized that data center developers have to be committed to building long-term relationships in order to gain acceptance from local communities. Otherwise, he said a lack of information and a breakdown in public trust are driving the rise in moratoriums.

“If more of those moratoriums turn into outright bans, you’ll see many of the developers will move out of Ohio,” Roychoudhury said.

Will moratoriums become permanent bans?

Voters in four Ohio cities with active moratoriums will decide whether to ban data centers permanently this November.

Sunbury resident Trey Dockendorf said he helped gather signatures for a local ban on data centers that draw over 25 megawatts of power per month, even though the city is under a moratorium until January.

Amazon Web Services announced plans to build a data center in Sunbury in November 2024. The city commissioned two independent consultants to help develop zoning and land use regulations for data centers, but Dockendorf said he worried any regulations would be ineffective.

“A tiny municipality like Sunbury might not be able to afford the logistical and equipment costs to measure certain kinds of sound waves or pollution,” he said. “We didn’t feel like there was a way to regulate it correctly.”

Townships in multiple counties are coordinating with regional planning commissions to create uniform data center regulations, and in many cases, ban them. These are usually passed as amendments to local zoning resolutions, which require a monthslong process that includes a public hearing.

Zoning across Ohio’s townships vary widely, and many in southern and eastern Ohio don’t have zoning resolutions at all. For some, zoning is governed at the county level; Butler County passed a six-month moratorium for six of its 13 townships, and Fayette County is considering a one-year moratorium for eight of its 10 townships.

Data centers are getting banned en masse in nearby Logan, Union, and Champaign counties, where nearly all townships control their own zoning. The Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission, which provides feedback to townships that want to change their zoning codes, reviewed 28 nearly identical data center bans from April to September.

There are 43 townships across the three counties combined. The proposals would define data centers in the zoning code without specifying a use, effectively prohibiting them.

In Knox County to the east, at least four townships have proposed some kind of ban, whether by designating anything left out of a zoning resolution as prohibited or an explicit ban against data centers.

Marta Hill represents Liberty Township at the Knox County Regional Planning Commission and said township officials heard many concerns from residents about data centers. The county borders Licking and Delaware counties, both of which have data centers in development.

The township passed a resolution explicitly prohibiting data centers Sept. 3 because township officials wanted it to be clear that they weren’t welcome, Hill said.

“Until there are regulations, why would we want to permit something in here that’s not regulated?” she said.

Union County’s Jerome Township was one of the first in the state to pass a data center moratorium in September 2025, but today, it’s one of six townships in the county that has not proposed a ban. Its moratorium expired in June, and data centers are now in development under new land use restrictions passed in March.

A September 2025 report that Roychoudhury conducted for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce opened by stating that data centers have brought around $40 billion of investment to the state. Over 125 moratoriums and around a dozen bans later, that level of investment has proven to be an underestimate, he said.

“I think (data center development) is still possible in Ohio,” Roychoudhury said. “It’s growing despite the pushback.”