SUNBURY — Sunbury voters will decide this fall whether to amend the city’s charter to prohibit the construction of large data centers after city council voted Wednesday to place a citizen-led initiative on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The proposed amendment would shift the decision over whether large-scale data centers can be built in Sunbury from city council to the city’s charter.
The initiative was spearheaded by Big Walnut for Responsible Growth, a local group that collected signatures to place the proposed charter amendment before voters.
City Manager Daryl Hennessy reported to council on July 15 that the Delaware County Board of Elections certified 351 valid signatures, more than double the 172 required to qualify the measure for the ballot.
With the signature requirement met, city council unanimously approved an ordinance directing the city clerk to certify the proposed charter amendment to the Board of Elections for placement on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The ordinance approved Wednesday does not itself amend the charter. Instead, it certifies the proposed amendment to the Board of Elections so voters can decide whether to adopt it during the Nov. 3 general election.
If approved by voters, the amendment would add Article XI, Section 11.05, “Prohibition of Construction of a Data Center,” to the city’s charter.
Below is a copy of the ordinance council passed Wednesday, story continues below:
Mayor Joe St. John acknowledged the work of petition organizers before council voted.
“The only thing that I would say right now is, I acknowledge the petitioners’ efforts to obtain these signatures that have been validated in a very short period of time,” he said. “So to everybody that was involved in that process, we are taking this through the process.”
Sunbury will continue its educational meetings for the public on the impact of data centers.
A special data center meeting is planned for August 27 at 6:30 p.m. (location is still pending) and the city is considering “land use/zoning, economic development and a review of the different types of data centers” as topics for the meeting.
What’s the proposed amendment?
According to a statement from Big Walnut for Responsible Growth, the proposed charter amendment would prohibit the construction of data centers with an aggregate power demand exceeding 25 megawatts.
The language is based on an Ohio constitutional amendment being proposed by Conserve Ohio, a grassroots organization seeking to place the measure before statewide voters in 2027. Organizers from Conserve Ohio also supported Sunbury residents in gathering signatures.
Conserve Ohio states on their website that 25 megawatts is “the threshold between a manageable, community-friendly facility and an industrial-scale data center that can use as much power as a small town.”
Petition organizers for Big Walnut for Responsible Growth gathered roughly 450 signatures in 10 days, according to a statement on the group’s Facebook page.
“We hope this petition effort will give the residents of Sunbury the opportunity to have their voices be heard in November on something that would impact the area for generations,” petition committee member Trey Dockendorf said.
The future of data centers statewide
The proposed charter amendment follows months of public debate over Amazon’s planned data center and the city’s temporary moratorium on new data center development.
City officials in Sunbury spent more than a year laying the groundwork for data center development before Amazon Web Services publicly announced plans for a proposed $2 billion campus. Records released by the city show officials worked on zoning changes, tax agreements, utility planning and infrastructure beginning in 2023.
Public opposition intensified after details of the project became known earlier this year.
In April, city council unanimously approved Mayor Joe St. John’s request for a temporary moratorium on new data center development through Jan. 31, 2027, halting rezoning and other development activity while officials reviewed the city’s approach.
“The moratorium is a pause on any rezoning,” St. John said at the time. “Basically, it halts the advancement of any data center activity in the city.”
Data centers have also been receiving pushback at the state level.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on May 27 that the state will pause consideration of new data center tax exemption requests while lawmakers study the rapid growth of data centers across Ohio.
The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny over the true cost of Ohio’s data center tax incentives. Reporting from Signal Statewide found the state’s sales tax exemption for data centers cost Ohio roughly $1.6 billion in 2025 — 11 times higher than earlier projections.
