Last week, the Athens County Independent reported that New York company Saadia Holding LLC wants to build a data center in Athens County. This is the first local wave in a larger trend of governments and companies rushing data center development despite public disapproval.
Public opposition to data centers is valid: Data centers are loud, bright, smelly, and polluting. They use large amounts of water and electricity. They contribute to economic inequality and enable surveillance. Perhaps most alarmingly, as is the case in Athens, their development processes are usually closed to the public and move fast.
Recent state legislation has already removed local governments’ ability to review “behind-the-meter” power generation that fuels large data centers. Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has called for the expansion of data centers, streamlined permits, and further removal of regulations.
Such momentum fuels a pervasive myth that untethered data center construction is inevitable — that democracy has failed, that it is already too late, that they are coming for us all eventually. If these myths were true, there would not be such a rush to develop data centers outside of the public eye. In other words, “that’s what they want you to think.”
Do not fall for it. The problems we face today do not point to the inevitability of irresponsible rapid data center construction, but rather are alarms indicating that now is the time to act.
Athens may have been caught unprepared, but we are well-equipped with the people and resources to define data center development on our own terms. The first and immediate step is to hit the pause button on all fronts now, at the local, county, and state levels, and implement an effective moratorium as soon as possible.
The property that Saadia wants to build on lies in both Athens and Dover townships, so shared guardrails are helpful in this particular case. We can request that Athens Township and Dover Township trustees place a data center moratorium resolution on their next agenda, leveraging their zoning authority under ORC §519 and following the precedent of Shawnee, Jackson, Clay, and Boardman townships, who all implemented data center moratoriums this year. Other townships can preemptively follow suit.
We can urge Athens County officials to leverage their authority, particularly regarding floodplain and subdivision review; and to legislatively close gaps leaving places outside of village or municipal regulation vulnerable to unchecked data center development.
We can demand that state legislators protect the local right of towns and counties to consent to data center development, and establish safeguards to ensure public involvement and oversight over data center development in Ohio.
Across the board, we can stay active and make ourselves heard to your representatives. Sign petitions, join protests, and offer your unique skills and expertise on offense. Most importantly, vote.
Once a moratorium is effectively in place, we need to identify our own priorities and requirements for tech and large scale development in Athens county and as a state; then implement permanent data center-specific zoning amendments accordingly.
Rather than banning data centers outright, offering an alternative is a position of greater strength. I am reminded of the Athens Farmers Market, the Ohio University Credit Union, and all of the carpenters and farmers and artists who put their craftsmanship into building Athens County from the ground up (not the top down). In a market dominated Big Tech companies, corporate shells, and AI and crypto black boxes, why not use Athens’ tradition of makership as a competitive advantage to innovate across open source technology, community-driven tech development, and collaborative data governance models — building the tech that we want, on our terms, led by local people and supportive of our values.
In Athens, we are fortunate to host a university, a rich network of non-profit organizations, a community of local and family owned companies, and an accountable government. We can hold town halls and design sessions to identify priorities and develop conditions for upholding them. We can host public workshops to build in accordance with our own needs, artistry, and oversight. We have the tools we need to locally shape the future of our own technology and development.
Whether it’s art, music, football, or beer, we in Athens County have a tradition of doing things best when we do them our way, together. The same is true when it comes to data centers. Let’s protect and keep building the Athens County that we love.
Max Kortlander is an independent writer and researcher of democracy and technology, and a Senior Research Associate at Post-X Society. His family has lived in Athens County since the 1950s, and he is currently building a home in the county. He formerly worked at the Ohio University Credit Union (now OUCU Financial).