SUNBURY — Sunbury’s much-anticipated Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Monday came to an end after about 30 public comments and three hours, as residents spoke up about a looming Amazon data center.
The city’s third-floor council chambers could only accommodate 60 people. About 125 showed up, even though the data center wasn’t on the agenda.
The other half of concerned residents lined the first-floor walls, watched the meeting on TV screens and showed out with signs everywhere.
The city’s manager, Daryl Hennessey, trekked up and down the stairs as he checked and double-checked a list of those who wished to address the commission.
In between, Hennessey took notes and addressed the commission on some common categories the city is further researching in response to the public’s comments.
The categories are as follows:
- Quality of life and property values
- Environmental health concerns
- Infrastructure and utilities
- Community character and growth
- Whether the economic benefits are worth the long-term risks
- The public starting to have a lack of trust in the city
- The proper decibel requirements in the city’s zoning code
- A “give-and-take workshop” with the public and city officials
- A larger space for future meetings about the data center
- Paying close attention to Ohio House bills 646 and 15
Closing out the night, Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena) shared how the data center topic is a bipartisan issue and broke down where things stand from a legislative perspective.
“What we are going to be working on is collecting information from experts, and I’ve heard a lot of really great testimonies tonight,” Lear said.
“About the environmental, about the noise, about all of it — we need folks like you to come with your evidence and present before the committee.”
The city’s data center project timeline, so far:
- Nov. 1, 2023, to Feb. 21, 2024: Sunbury City Council held four meetings and ultimately annexed 378.6 acres of land for the data center project.
- Feb. 26, 2024, to May 29, 2024: Sunbury Planning and Zoning Commission held two meetings, City Council held three, and approved Sunbury Land Company’s rezoning application.
- Nov. 20, 2024: Sunbury City Council granted the Community Reinvestment Area economic development incentive for Amazon Data Services Inc.
- Feb. 23, 2026: Planning and Zoning Commission rescheduled zoning public hearing for four parcels linked to the data center.
- March 23, 2026: Planning and Zoning Commission met, did not discuss zoning for the four parcels, and heard 30 public comments related to the data center.
Public comments
Speaker 1:
“I’m here tonight because the decision before you is not just about a data center,” a Sunbury resident said.
“Its about whether this community will remain rural or whether we are opening the door to industrialization.
People choose to live here for a reason. They choose quiet roads, farmland, dark night skies and a small town community where families know each other and kids grow up in strong local schools.
“That character did not happen by accident; it happened because previous leaders protected it. Now, that protection is being tested.”
The resident went on to say that data centers are not quiet neighbors, create permanent light pollution, transform landscapes, etc.
Speaker 2:
“These big centers, we should be scared of them because they’re big boxes with information about you,” a Galena resident said.
“I’ve got two kids, and we’re trying to move out of Galena, and I’m considering Sunbury or Centerburg — now I don’t know where to go.
“It might be safer in the city than the country, where the fresh air is supposed to keep you healthy.”
Speaker 3:
“This is my third meeting … I’m a graduate of Big Walnut, and I’ve lived here for 45 years,” a Sunbury resident said.
“Thank you for letting me speak. I’ll thank you more after you cancel the whole data center project.
“I know you incentivized Amazon to come here, Mr. Mayor, and I don’t blame you for trying to grow Sunbury.”
This is a generational type of problem; this is a generational decision. Like the other lovely lady said, we’d be glad to pay more taxes if the tradeoff is a massive data center.
This speaker went on to say that as a doctor, he holds himself to the “do no harm” standard. Using that standard, the speaker read the first paragraph of the commission’s zoning code, which uses similar terminology to “do no harm.”
Speaker 4:
“My husband and I moved here six months ago. We heard data center, and our hearts dropped,” a Sunbury resident said.
“We thought we found home, and that vision was gone.
“One of the things I am most concerned about is the by-right land legislation.
“What that does is it streamlines development by allowing projects. As long as they are proposed and follow all the zoning guidelines, they are very hard to stop.
“Cities can face lawsuits from those companies because, technically, their proposal follows zoning guidelines. So, how you zone that land is so important.”
Speaker 5:
“I reside at Vans Valley Road, directly next to the land which you are considering for rezoning,” a Trenton Township resident said.
“I am the owner of three acres you are attempting to surround on three sides with your expansion plans.
“This is being done with land that Sunbury has annexed from Trenton Township and increased its own city size by nearly 50 percent.
“I say this because, as a resident of Trenton Township, I had no say in the representation of local leaders making these decisions.
“The decisions that are attempting to completely surround me with a mega site that will impact me and my family’s health, quality of life and our environmental wellbeing.”
For more information on Sunbury’s possible data center, check out the links below from the City of Sunbury.
