Ohio Leads a Wave of Local Data Center Bans

Eleven states considered 41 data center–related ballot measures on Tuesday. Over half of these were in Ohio—21 measures in 18 jurisdictions. While some ballot measures included carveouts for smaller facilities, it appears voters overwhelmingly chose to oppose the development of so-called hyperscalers—data centers with an aggregate monthly demand or peak load greater than 25 megawatts.

Even when they weren't on the ballot, they may have been a factor in the elections: NBC's exit polls report that artificial intelligence and data centers were a "crucial or a major factor" for 56 percent of voters.

Here's how the most restrictive data center–related ballot measures fared:

Ohio

Until recently, Ohio was one of the best states for prospective data center development. But on Election Day, several towns voted to restrict the structures. This includes  Upper Sandusky—a northwestern Ohio town with a population of 6,661 people—where residents voted to add their data center ban to the town charter.

They weren't alone. Voters in Conneaut, Trenton, Pataskala, and Piqua—sparsely populated towns near Ohio's largest metro areas—also added data center bans to their town charters.

In the Ohio towns of Oregon and Sunbury, residents limited their bans to hyperscalers. That distinction preserves the development of small, enterprise data centers, which make up 52 percent of the facilities in the Buckeye State.

At least one Ohio city seemed open to data center development. However, in Monroeville, a small town near Lake Erie, voters resoundingly rejected a nonbinding ballot referral to give the town's officials leeway to pursue potential data center developments that comply with zoning regulations. 

Florida

Initiated by the City Council, a ballot measure in Edgewater, Florida, amends the town charter to "prohibit the approval, construction, expansion, or operation of new data centers within the City," including "issuing development approvals or permits authorizing such facilities." It hardly seems necessary, even if you don't like data centers, given that no data centers operate in the city, no public plans exist to develop any, and none are currently under development.

The measure doubles down on the City Council's efforts in September, when members voted to institute a permanent ban on "data centers, hyperscale data centers, artificial intelligence data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities, and other high-energy data processing facilities."

California

Voters in Alhambra, California, decided Tuesday to join Monterey Park as the only cities in the Golden State to ban data centers. Their ballot measure—which prohibits data centers "in all zones of the City"—is the brainchild of Amy J. Wong, an Alhambra resident who also promoted the data center ban in Monterey Park. She told the Pasadena Star News earlier this year that she and others campaigned "across the region to pass anti-data center bans similar to Monterey Park's."

The ballot measure builds on a citywide ordinance passed in June that prohibits data center development within Alhambra limits. Yet no data centers operate in Alhambra, and the Pasadena Star News reported in July that the city has "no current data center applications."

Kansas

Named for the mythical South American city of gold, the Kansas town of El Dorado approved a citizen-initiated petition that prohibits the "installation and operation of High Impact Data Centers" and certain energy storage systems for a period of 10 years, to "protect the health, safety, and welfare" of its residents. El Dorado officials have a list of favored industries—including oil and gas—they'd like to attract to the city, but data centers didn't make the cut. Evidently, the city's residents don't want that kind of gold mine. 

El Dorado was one of three Kansas cities to ban data centers on Tuesday. In Emporia, a citizen-led ballot initiative passed prohibiting the "construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of High Impact Data Centers," meaning developers will almost certainly have to scrap already announced plans for a hyperscale data center. Backlash from locals in Ottawa led to the approval of a citizen-initiated petition Tuesday, prohibiting the construction of any data center that uses more than 25 megawatts. Residents had already successfully lobbied to cancel a proposed data center in the city, according to KSHB, a local NBC affiliate.

Illinois

In May, the Bloomington City Council passed a six-month moratorium on the "submission or processing of any application related to Data Center uses with a design capacity of greater than 5 megawatts." On Tuesday, voters passed a ballot initiative advising the city council to "impose a moratorium on building large-scale data centers," giving them the ability to effectively extend the current moratorium indefinitely. Voters were no more enthusiastic about building data centers in Joliet, a Chicago suburb and the Prairie State's third-largest city. On a ballot referral asking voters if they supported advising the Joliet City Council to "approve the construction of AI data centers," 79 percent of residents voted "no."

As these results show, data centers, for all their economic potential, remain deeply unpopular in much of America. And while these initiatives were mostly restricted to small towns, the success of anti-AI politicians at the federal level on Tuesday could allow the backlash to extend beyond Main Street to inundate policymaking in Washington. 

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