ATHENS, Ohio — The Athens County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday adopted a resolution declaring that “the county cannot support the building of or the resources needed to fulfill the needs of the development of Data Centers.”
On Saturday, Aug. 1, the Athens Township trustees passed a one-year moratorium on data center development. Athens City Council passed its own one-year moratorium at its meeting Monday night. The Village of Albany banned data centers in 2025.
Unlike those actions, however, the commissioner’s resolution is non-binding because there is no countywide zoning policy affecting construction.
Roxanne Groff, a former Athens County commissioner and environmental activist, introduced a draft of the anti-data center resolution at the commissioner’s meeting last week. However, the resolution was not on the commissioners’ meeting agenda, released prior to the meeting.
“It’s clear our commissioners understand the extraordinary burden on a community and the landscape and resources destruction by data centers,” Groff said in a Buckeye Environmental Network press release. “We applaud them for getting out in front of serious inquiries and letting it be known they are not welcome in Athens County.”
In a recording of the commissioners’ meeting obtained by the Independent, the commissioners shared their thoughts on data centers. They noted economic concerns about the future of artificial intelligence data centers, tax abatements and job creation.
“It’s a potential financial bubble that people are worried about,” Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel said.
Commissioner Lenny Eliason shared Chmiel’s sentiment, calling data centers “the new Silicon Valley bubble.”
Chmiel later added that “[people are] concerned about the environmental impacts, but they’re also concerned about other things like economics [and] jobs.”
Athens County Commissioner Charlie Adkins took issue with the property tax abatements the state has granted to data centers. Signal Ohio previously reported that Ohio has given at least $2.3 billion in tax breaks for data centers.
“One of the things that just aggravates me is that people don’t know and they don’t understand, is our elected officials who give millions of dollars to these companies so these companies don’t have to pay [taxes],” Adkins said. “At the same time [they] take local monies that used to come to the local governments, like Athens County, away. Then they give all these breaks to these multibillion-dollar companies with no concern about the people in these communities’ lives and what it costs them.”
In May, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a pause on future data center tax exemptions as the Ohio legislature analyzes the economic impact of data centers on local communities. The same Signal Ohio article reported that DeWine’s was motivated by the discovery that data center tax exemptions cost Ohio $1.6 billion in lost revenue in 2025.
The commissioners approved a 60% tax abatement for 15 years — the maximum allowable under Ohio law — through an enterprise zone agreement. The enterprise zone agreements mean that CCC Plastics would only pay 40% of the taxes on improved property value for the next 15 years.
The Athens County commissioners meet at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays at the Athens County Courthouse, 15 S. Court St., 2nd floor annex, commissioners’ conference room, Athens.
