Rossford residents who do not want a data center in their city have taken their case to the ballot box’s front door: the advocacy group Conserve Ohio has submitted a petition bearing more than 500 signatures seeking to limit future data centers in Rossford to under 25 megawatts, according to the Toledo News Today briefing of November 10, which summarized local reporting on the filing.
The timing was deliberate. The petition was submitted just ahead of a planning commission hearing on a permit application for a proposed data center facility, according to the Toledo News Today briefing. That means Rossford officials are now weighing a specific project application at the same time voters are asking to change the city’s charter to cap the size of any such facility.
If the county board of elections validates the signatures, the charter amendment could trigger a special election this spring, the briefing reported — matching similar local efforts in Whitehouse and Waterville, two other Lucas-area communities where data center fights have moved from council chambers to the ballot. Together, the three neighboring communities have made Northwest Ohio one of the most active fronts in Ohio’s data center debate, with residents in each place choosing the petition-and-vote route over simply testifying against a project and going home…