CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Ohio voters rejected data centers in every one of the 21 local ballot tests on Nov. 3, and Chillicothe — which had no measure on its own ballot — is now writing its rules for the industry before a decision is forced on it. The city is drafting new zoning rules for data centers, data halls, battery storage facilities, and cryptocurrency operations, and will take public input on Nov. 16 at the Armory building in Yoctangee Park, J News Network reported.
Statewide, voters approved a ban, a limit, or a voter-approval requirement in all 21 measures across 18 communities, according to unofficial results posted by county boards of elections and counted by Ballotpedia, J News Network reported. Ohio decided more data center questions than any other state — 21 of the 41 measures on ballots in 10 states, according to Ballotpedia’s count.
Ross County’s debate has a specific address. Chillicothe City Council rescinded its 60-day data center moratorium in September after a February letter from the city’s chief building official surfaced showing the city had already certified that a data center is a permitted use at the former paper mill site, where SOAR AI is developing an AI data center campus, J News Network reported. That history is why the zoning rewrite matters: the permitted-use question at the mill site and the rules for everywhere else in the city are now on separate tracks…