LORDSTOWN, Ohio - Lordstown Village Council voted unanimously to repeal the village’s recently passed data center ban before it was set to take effect.
 
The ban was set to go into effect Dec. 3.

The decision comes after council was given advice from the village solicitor and of two attorneys defending the Village in the Ohio Supreme Court case.

Despite every councilperson saying yes, there are still concerns

“I want to state that I'm still against the data centers coming here and concerned about the public health and safety of our residents. However, I'm following the advice of several lawyers to do what's best for the Village,” said Jessica Blank, Lordstown Village Councilperson. 

Instead, council will vote on a 180 day moratorium that would pause processing and granting permit applications for data centers.

“It gives municipalities an opportunity to explore a specific type of industry that may be coming to town, financial impacts to the community, environmental impacts, the community concerns that residents have over light pollution, noise pollution, traffic control, that type of thing,” said Matthew Ries, Lordstown Village Solicitor. “So it sort of preserves the status quo and allows the municipality to explore that specific type of industry. You see it a lot in other communities, especially with car wash facilities, vape shops, that type of thing.”

Ries said companies wanting to put a data center in the village would need to initiate the site plan review process, which takes at least half a year.

“What they can do is they can initiate the site plan review process. Work with us and our engineers. We would need more information from the data center. We would work with them on site plan review, which can typically take six to eight months,” said Ries.

Back in November, Lordstown Council unanimously voted to pass a ban on AI data centers in the village following a proposal from two companies, Bristolville 25 Developer LLC and BHGH Properties LLC, to build an AI data center in the village.

The two companies have since gotten into a back-and-forth argument with the village, with the companies arguing that the proposal was made before the ordinance banning data centers was passed, and that the ban does not even go into effect until one month after it was passed.

Using this logic, the companies are arguing that the village's zoning laws would have allowed the data center at the time it was proposed, so the ban should not apply to them.

Another argument the companies made against the village was that the village was refusing to review its proposal.

Ries told 21 News they haven't reviewed the proposal yet because it was "barebones" and information was missing, the companies argued that the missing information can only be given once the village engineer is engaged on the project through a work authorization.

Lordstown Village Council will hold a public hearing on the  moratorium January 5th at 5:30 p.m.

You can read much more about the data center ban and the back-and-forth fight between the village and the companies in the related coverage below.

RELATED COVERAGE:

https://www.wfmj.com/.../developers-ask-supreme-court-not...