Heading off a local landowner’s apparent desire to site a data center on his property, Ravenna City Council on April 20 unanimously authorized a one-year moratorium on such facilities.
Ravenna property owner Ray Harner had unofficially approached city officials about using his property on state Route 14, across from UH Portage Medical Center, for a data center. The land houses the former GE manufacturing plant, part of which is already being used for a 500-server Bitcoin mining operation.
Harner’s proposal got the attention of council member Carmen Laudato, who heads Ravenna’s planning committee. She knew the city’s zoning code doesn’t address data centers, so the planning commission would have no reason to deny anyone’s application for one.
Laudato also believed that data centers of any size are not appropriate for Ravenna. She led the planning committee’s April 10 decision to forward a moratorium proposal to council. Now the city has breathing room to “adopt clear, consistent, and legally defensible regulations governing data centers and similar uses,” the ordinance states.
Though it may be extended to include new applications, pending applications that are not currently approved and expansions or modifications of existing facilities, the moratorium currently affects building permits, site plan approvals, conditional use permits, zoning certificates, variances or other land use regulatory approvals.
Ravenna is not alone in saying no to data centers.
Kent City Council authorized a one-year moratorium on April 15. Streetsboro City Council is set on April 27 to consider a temporary moratorium on all planning, zoning and building permits, certificates and approvals on data centers, crypto mining facilities and substantially similar uses.
And at the state level, a petition is circulating to pass a constitutional amendment banning new, large data center.
Such facilities constitute a significant burden on local infrastructure, Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska said.
“They are just a huge draw on electricity, and history has shown that it does lend itself to an increase in cost for the local community for electricity,” he said. “They are also a huge draw on water. We get our water from Portage County, and we use about 1.6 million gallons a day. Adding a significant amount of water could have a huge impact on the availability of water in our system.”
Broska also said he is mindful of people’s health, safety and welfare, only partly because of the constant "monotonous hum” that emanates from data centers.
Efficient use of Streetsboro’s limited industrial land is also on Broska’s radar. Once construction is done and the facility is up and running, data centers have far fewer employees than other manufacturers. That, he said, translates to less payroll tax revenue to the city.
Shalersville has had moratoriums in place since October 2024, with trustees signing the latest six-month extension April 7. At issue in that township are rumors that Geis Co. wants to market its massive buildings near the Ohio Turnpike interchange as data centers and wants the trustees to greenlight them as conditionally permitted uses.
The current Shalersville moratorium extended to Nov. 3, 2026.
Windham Township is also poised to consider a temporary moratorium. Trustee Rich Gano noted the township’s sole parcel of industrial land is not hooked up to sewer or water and, because it is a reclaimed EPA brownfield, can’t support septic or well installations. Windham Township will likely follow Shalersville’s lead, he said.
Wendy DiAlesandro
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.