{"id":205300,"date":"2026-04-27T21:26:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=205300"},"modified":"2026-04-27T23:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:01:35","slug":"proposed-data-center-discussed-during-city-council-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/04\/27\/proposed-data-center-discussed-during-city-council-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed data center discussed during council meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
Fourth Ward Councilman Eric Hurless answers questions about the proposed data center during Monday night’s meeting of Van Wert City Council. A public hearing about the data center, which has become a hot button topic among city and county residents, will be held on Monday, May 4 at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only mention of a possible data center on Monday\u2019s Van Wert City Council agenda was a reminder about a public hearing scheduled for next Monday. Nonetheless, discussion of a proposed data center dominated the the one hour and 15 minute meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public comments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those in attendance at the meeting had comments, shared concerns or had questions about the proposed data center and related legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One resident asked why there seems to be a rush to pass data center-related legislation, specifically emergency legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a business wants to locate somewhere they want things to move quickly,\u201d Fourth Ward Councilman Eric Hurless explained. \u201cThey\u2019ve got their own deadlines \u2013 if they don\u2019t meet those deadlines, they could be out tens of millions of dollars depending on the business, so when a business comes to a city wanting to locate in that town and they\u2019re asking for an expedited process, we have a balacing act of protecting our constituents, doing our due diligence to research the changes that might come about with the zoning or code. Yet, we also want to make sure we do things in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done exhaustive research on data centers and AI (artificial intelligence) \u2013 I hear about it every day at my job,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve known about this coming for quite some time. I feel that we\u2019ve done our due diligence and still continue to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another audience member questioned why the data center wasn\u2019t put on the ballot for residents to decide, but it was noted that residents don\u2019t vote on incoming businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Recent trip to central Ohio data center<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurless, other council members and city officials recently toured a data center park in New Albany, which is home to 40 data centers with 28 more under construction. He said the group learned things good and bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had five complaints (about noise) since 2015 and four out of the five were resolved within days,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is one that\u2019s ongoing with one data center but they\u2019re fixing it. My point is it wasn\u2019t all rainbows and unicorns at this presentation, we were learning about all of the benefits and some of the issues that they\u2019ve had and learned from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also noted that in New Albany the data centers are near residential areas with very minimal noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are so quiet that we got off the bus and couldn\u2019t tell,\u201d Third Ward Councilwoman Julie Moore said. \u201cI have mopeds that drive by my house louder than what these are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 4 ground rules<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public hearing on a petition to re-zone the property I-2 General Industrial upon annexation into the city will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 4, in the First Federal Lecture Hall at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be sign up sheets for anyone wishing to speak \u2013 one for city residents, one for residents adjacent to the property, one for county residents and one for people living outside the county. While signing up to speak won\u2019t be mandatory, those who decline to do so will have to wait until those who did sign up have finished speaking. Each speaker will be heard once and will have two minutes to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost importantly, we\u2019re not going to tolerate disruption, we\u2019re not going to tolerate incivility,\u201d Council President Thad Eikenbary said. \u201cIf you speak, you\u2019re going to speak at the mic, we\u2019re not going to have sidebars and outbursts in the gallery. I was pretty displeased with the outbursts at the last several meetings and it\u2019s not the way we should do business. Let\u2019s be civil, let\u2019s be respectful and we\u2019ll have a productive meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday, May 11 is when a council vote is expected on the proposed annexation and re-zoning legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One council member to abstain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Ward Councilman Greg Roberts informed the rest of council and the administration that he will abstain from upcoming decisions related to the data center, due to his employment with the Marsh Foundation, which previously owned the land in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier on Monday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late Monday afternoon, the city\u2019s planning commission voted 3-0 to recommend amendments to city ordinances regarding acceptable use in I-2 General Industrial zoned areas. The proposed changes including the addition of the definition for data centers, adding a definition of a public service facility and allowing a data center as permitted use in an I-2 zoned area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 30 people were in attendance at that meeting and approximately a dozen spoke, with at least one accusing city officials of \u201clining their pockets.\u201d Another had evironmental concerns and another asked for a six month or one year moritorium. Yet another threatened a recall election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After hearing public comments, the planning commission cast the 3-0 vote to recommend the amendments to Van Wert City Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The only mention of a possible data center on Monday\u2019s Van Wert City Council agenda was a reminder about a public hearing scheduled for next Monday. Nonetheless, discussion of a proposed data center dominated the the one hour and 15 minute meeting. Public comments Many of those in attendance at the meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-topstory"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 04:16:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205300"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205325,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205300\/revisions\/205325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}