PERRY VILLAGE, Ohio — The statewide debate over data centers took center stage this week in Lake County, where a crowd gathered outside the Perry Village Municipal Center and dozens of people packed a council meeting to protest a potential billion-dollar project.
The proposed data-center campus wasn’t even on Thursday night’s council agenda. But that didn’t prevent nearby homeowners — and people from neighboring communities — from peppering public officials with questions.
“This isn’t about being for or against development. It’s about whether the people who live here still have a real voice,” said Nick McNamee, a village resident who kicked off an hourlong stretch of public comments at the council meeting.
Province Group, a California-based developer, has designs on long-fallow property in the center of town. The land, owned by Perry Village, neighboring Perry Township and a government partnership called the Perry Joint Economic Development District, is a former nursery in a stretch of the state with a history of producing trees, shrubs and other plants.
In July 2024, a Province Group affiliate inked a deal to buy 163 acres from the village for $8.4 million, according to public records. The developer later signed agreements to buy 22 adjacent acres from the township for $1.4 million and another 30 acres from the Perry JEDD for $1.95 million.
The property, off Route 20, hasn’t changed hands yet. But Province Group recently wrapped up a lengthy investigation of the site.
Now village officials are waiting to see the developer’s request for local tax breaks or public financing — and the potential trade-offs, such as direct payments to the public schools.
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Mayor James Gessic hopes to have clarity on the path forward this summer.
But he wasn’t expecting all this pushback, particularly two years into discussions.
“I kind of was proud of this project at the beginning,” Gessic said during an interview Friday. “And I still am. But it’s disheartening that a lot of people think that data centers are evil.”
Across the Buckeye State, people are balking at the growing spread — and increasing size — of data centers.
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These computing hubs have existed for decades, storing, processing and delivering information. Now they’re multiplying, driven by demand for instant access to online services, from video streaming and virtual meetings to electronic medical records.
Artificial intelligence, which requires huge amounts of power, is adding fuel to the fire.
Now, a data-center construction boom is reaching north from the Columbus area. And communities like Perry Village are grappling with what that means for them.
“I never got a say or vote on this,” said Gayle Wills, who owns a 3,700-square-foot house southwest of the future data-center site, with a view of fields and the Perry Nuclear Power plant in the distance. “Who decided for us? … Who sold us out?”
Wills and her husband built their “dream home” in 2004. The property has doubled in value over the last decade. Now she’s worried about the future of that dream.
“Do you want to live next to a data center?” she asked Thursday evening, during the protest on the lawn outside the village hall.
Other people who live in Perry and nearby communities said they felt surprised and frustrated. They didn’t know about the data-center proposal — or didn’t realize that it was still moving forward, despite a tussle over tweaks to the village’s zoning code last year.
“I would just like transparency on the whole thing,” said Jennifer Sturgill, who spoke from the podium during the council meeting. “And it seems like you guys are just really being hush-hush.”
Sturgill and other speakers said they want to know more about the project's scope, timeline and potential fiscal impact, particularly for the local school district.
Province Group CEO Mark Kerslake did not respond to an inquiry from News 5.
Real estate databases show the company is behind plans for sprawling data-center campuses in Indiana and Virginia. But Province Group’s website doesn’t list any completed data-center projects. The company highlights its experience choosing sites and taking them through the government approval — or entitlement — process.
Gessic said Perry Village hasn’t received a site plan yet for the campus. But the developer is talking about six buildings, each of them totaling about 250,000 square feet. The buildings would be 65 feet tall.
“If this thing goes through, they won’t even break ground for two years. Then it’ll be a five- to six-year buildout,” he said during an interview Friday.
He views the project as a solution to fiscal challenges. There’s less money flowing in from the nearby power plant. The local fire district is facing a cash crunch and asking voters to approve a levy in May. Public school districts across the state are searching for ways to plug funding holes.
“It would establish a tax base for us,” he said.
Gessic also believes a data center won’t put a strain on infrastructure in the village. The entire campus might employ 200 to 300 people, he said, generating nowhere near the amount of traffic that a manufacturing plant or other commercial use might.
“What drew me to it was … it’s just computers in a building,” he said.
But those buildings, with all those computers, consume huge amounts of electricity. That’s just one of the things critics are worried about.
Outside the village hall Thursday night, Wills held up a handmade sign outlining her concerns about water use, lights, noise and pollution. She’s also skeptical about any promises of financial gains.
John Bell, who lives in nearby Madison and showed up for Thursday night’s protest, is fretting about all those things, too. And he views artificial intelligence as a job-killer.
“The way that we’re using AI disenfranchises artists, disenfranchises anybody in any sort of data field, simply by giving those jobs to, essentially, a toaster with delusions of intelligence,” Bell said.
Gessic said he doesn’t know who the end users — the company or companies that might want data storage in Perry Village — would be. He believes the campus could serve customers across a large swath of the United States, providing cloud storage and other services.
“It’s a complicated conversation, right?” said Lake County Commissioner Morris Beverage III, who showed up at Thursday’s protest to hear what his neighbors had to say.
Beverage lives in Perry Village and doesn’t necessarily object to data centers. But he’s opposed to this project, at this moment, in the heart of town. And he’s frustrated by what seems like a lack of concrete information — and a lot of misinformation swirling around.
“I don’t think the village is properly listening to the voters,” he said.
The former nursery site is zoned to allow for a broad range of uses. Documents posted on the village’s website show prospective buyers have bypassed the property for senior housing, mixed-use development and a hydroponic tomato-growing operation.
The school district, which previously owned the land, had a deed restriction placed on the site to limit residential development to 50 homes. That low number drove away builders. And Gessic believes the village already has enough housing.
Beverage said the people who live in Perry Village should have the final say on what happens.
“I don’t envy village council in trying to disseminate the information,” he said. “I get it. I understand it. It’s tough sometimes to get people engaged. But I think the community’s engaged now. … We need to start to have some actual answers as to what is going on.”
Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.
