LORDSTOWN — Village officials have hired an attorney to represent them following a lawsuit filed against Lordstown last week by a data center company.

Village Solicitor Matt Ries said at Monday’s meeting the village has until 3 p.m. Friday to file a response to the Ohio Supreme Court following the mandamus action. Attorneys representing Bristolville 25 Developer LLC of Columbus and BHGH Properties LLC of Warren asked the high court on Wednesday to issue a peremptory writ of mandamus against the village.

Lordstown council on Nov. 3 voted to ban data centers, but the company claims it had already submitted its plans for the data center prior to council’s vote. Bristolville said it sent representatives to Lordstown to deliver its site plan Oct. 20 despite the village’s planning and zoning office being closed that day and Oct. 21. It also forwarded the plans through email.

The ordinance implementing the ban goes into effect Dec. 3, so the company wants the process to be expedited so it can get permits from the village for the data center.

Bristolville officials said previously the proposed data center would be built on 133 acres straddling Trumbull and Mahoning counties in Lordstown and Jackson Township and employ 120 full-time workers making $84 per hour.

Following the meeting, council met in executive session to discuss the lawsuit.

Council President Robert Bond said after the executive session, council voted to hire an attorney to represent the village since Ries is named a defendant in the suit. Also named, besides council, is planning and zoning director Kellie Bordner.

The company wants to compel the village to review its data center plans.

Attorneys for the developers said at the Nov. 3 meeting that the village failed to comply with state law by not holding public hearings and not providing a 30-day notice for a hearing regarding a ban on the data centers. The developers claim their right to proceed with the project was established when they filed their application under existing legal rules.

Ries said the village has complied with laws and procedures regarding the data center application. Residents at the Nov. 3 meeting said they were concerned a data center would cause environmental issues and affect electric and water costs since the data centers use a lot of both in their processes.

If the court supports Bristolville’s petition, Lordstown would be compelled to conduct a site plan review process for a $3.6 billion, 1.65 million square-foot campus. It would be located south of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank Group Corp.’s Stargate campus on the site of the former GM complex.

“Data centers are permitted currently,” said attorney Cary M. Snyder, representing Bristolville. “They were permitted on Oct. 20 when Bristolville submitted its site plan review materials. They were permitted Nov. 12 when we received Mr. Ries’ letter.”

Ries’ letter stated, “Based on our initial review, there are numerous issues with the conceptual plan that are preventing our Engineer from preparing a work authorization, including the lack of stormwater management plans / reports and utility information, and there was no Preliminary Planning Evaluation Form submitted by your client.”

Bristolville failed to address the wetlands on the property or that one of the proposed buildings is on a village waterline, Ries wrote.

Snyder said the lawsuit was filed because Lordstown is committed to following the data center ban and not observing current law.