CONNEAUT, Ohio — The debate over data centers is reaching the ballot box in Conneaut, where voters will decide in November whether to ban data center developments larger than 25 megawatts.
A group of residents gathered enough signatures to place a charter amendment on the ballot.
Read the charter amendment here:
Among those who rallied the signatures are Julia Barton and Susan Ferritto, who understand the allure for businesses to come to Conneaut.
“Our infrastructure is absolutely the most attractive, maybe in the state,” Ferritto said. “We’ve got the lake, the rail, the highways.”
At Northridge by Octagon Acres, Julia Barton and her family grow blueberries, strawberries and chestnuts. Barton said concerns about protecting the area's natural resources are part of why she is paying close attention to the data center debate.
Watch the story here:
“If we don’t protect the natural resources, the soil, the land, the water, the air that sustains us, then we won’t be able to eat,” Barton said.
Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, the area's economic development organization, says on its website that a developer is conducting a feasibility study at a Conneaut industrial park. The organization also identifies two other sites that are being explored as potential locations for data centers.
The effort comes despite Conneaut City Manager Nick Sanford saying the city has never received a formal proposal from a data center company.
“We don’t have a proposal for a data center, we never have, it’s just been due diligence,” Sanford said.
Two months ago, the city declined to impose a one-year moratorium on data centers.
“It has become a critically hot-button issue,” Sanford said. “A charter amendment, I don’t believe, has ever happened in the city’s history."
Supporters of the ballot measure say they want the community to determine what kinds of development it accepts rather than waiting until a project is formally proposed.
“We do not have to take the first thing that comes to us for revenue, for jobs, for the growth in our community,” Ferritto said.
“Communities should have a say with what happens where they live,” Barton said.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
