Residents will now have a say whether developers build any data centers in Liberty Township.
Trustees of the Butler County township voted 3-0 Tuesday night in favor of a zoning change that would require any project proposal to go through the township’s planned unit development process — which entails a public hearing and final vote by the trustees — before receiving approval.
The move is an outlier in a state where many local governments have signed non-disclosure agreements about data centers, said Molly Bryden, a climate and sustainability researcher with the progressive think tank Policy Matters Ohio.
“The lack of transparency and local democracy in these decisions has really emerged as a throughline that's making residents feel like they've been left out of these decisions,” Bryden said.
The Liberty Township trustees’ decision adds an important layer of accountability to the process, Bryden said.
Under the current regulations, Board of Trustees President Todd Minniear said developers could build data centers with a greenlight from the township’s board of zoning appeals, or in some cases, without any approval at all.
Minniear said he is not aware of any proposed data centers for Liberty Township, but the trustees decided to approve the change because there are data centers being built elsewhere in Butler County.
In nearby Trenton, construction on a data center is ongoing despite resident pushback.
“Our land cost is higher, and we just don't have as much large undeveloped real estate as what some of these other communities have,” Minniear said. “But we do have some, so it could definitely be something that could come to us.”
Minniear said he’s appreciated township residents sharing their opposition to data centers.
“It's probably the most surfaced topic with the board of trustees at this point,” Minniear said, adding that his concerns about energy costs, water use and noise would need to be answered, too, before he votes in favor of a project.
Liberty Township is not the only local government in the county concerned about data centers in its backyard. In June, the Butler County Commission approved a six-month moratorium on data centers for six townships under the county’s zoning control.
But Minniear said the expiration date on moratoriums led him and Liberty Township’s other trustees to opt for a more permanent change.
“We didn't feel comfortable that the issues around data centers were going to be clearly solved over the next 12 months,” Minniear said. “We're a lot more comfortable just saying that any of these plans that are being considered for the township need to officially come to the trustees.”
“And when they come to the trustees, they would be coming to the public as well,” Minniear added.
Bryden said moratoria can be an effective tool for local governments to revisit existing zoning laws but are ineffective in the long term without meaningful efforts to do so.
“[What] Liberty Township passed yesterday is an example of something that lawmakers can do in the meantime while those moratoria are in place,” Bryden said. “But at the same time, while these local guardrails are critical for Ohio communities, we also need stronger state regulation.”
Liberty Township’s new regulations go into effect Aug. 21.
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