McDonald passes 1-year moratorium on data centers

McDONALD -- While recent meetings have lasted for two or more hours, village council at a special meeting Wednesday took less than five minutes to approve an emergency ordinance placing a one-year moratorium on data centers in the village.

Council voted 5-0 on the moratorium. Councilman Brian Bosheff was not able to attend.

The one-year moratorium means the village will not accept, process or consider any applications for any data centers in the village.

Council President Sean Schmidt said council and village officials will always do what is in the best interest of the village and its residents when making decisions. Schmidt said it is important the village get zoning in place dealing with data centers or other businesses.

He said the legislation is for a maximum of 12 months but at any time can be terminated if council decides to do so.

"We want to review our zoning ordinances related to the (McDonald Steel) mill property," Schmidt said.

Councilman Joe Sanson said the moratorium will allow the planning commission, council and the administration time to review data centers and update zoning ordinances.

"We want to make sure any data center would be built safely and responsibly in the village. We want to make informed decisions," Sanson said, noting he has a 33-year background in civil engineering.

The decision by council received applause from the more than 40 people at the meeting.

Resident Elizabeth Johnson said she was pleased with council's action. She said she is concerned with the proposed size of the data centers.

Resident Linda Lee said, "I am relieved to have a moratorium in place which will give us the time to find out more how a data center will affect us. All the effects of a data center are not known. I don't want this village to be a guinea pig to find out down the road all the noise, air and water pollution has led to catastrophic diseases.''

The meeting comes one day after an informational meeting took place with Oppidan officials who discussed proposed plans for eight to 12 data centers on the former McDonald Steel property.

Company officials said at Tuesday's meeting they would repurpose the property, clean it up and build eight to 12 data center buildings, with two to four administrative buildings.

Drew Johnson, senior vice president of development at Oppidan, said the data center would bring 250 jobs to the area and $7.3 million annually in income taxes. Johnson told more than 100 people at Tuesday's meeting the company would follow all local zoning guidelines and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency standards.