{"id":208049,"date":"2026-07-20T14:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=208049"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:03:53","slug":"local-data-center-zoning-initiative-filed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/07\/20\/local-data-center-zoning-initiative-filed\/","title":{"rendered":"Local data center zoning initiative filed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Van Wert County Board of Elections is checking signatures on petitions filed for a ballot initiative that could eventually repeal an ordinance permitting data centers in industrial zones in the City of Van Wert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The petitions were submitted to the elections board last Friday by city resident Joe Jared in hopes of stopping QTS Data Centers from building a $10 billion data center at the Mega Site on Van Wert\u2019s east side. If approved by city voters, it would ban data centers in industrial zoned districts in the city. In May of this year, Van Wert City Council approved legislation allowing such facilities to be constructed in I-2 zoned districts in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert County Board of Elections Director Pam Henderson said Monday her office has 10 days to review and verify the signatures, which must come from registered voters living in the City of Van Wert. She also said she should be done long before the 10 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ballot language also needs approved, but that process is not part of the current review. Here is the language submitted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAn Ordinance Amending the Van Wert Zoning Code to Prohibit Data Centers in Industrial Zones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cData centers, server farms, and all facilities whose primary purpose is the storage, management, processing, or transmission of digital data for third parties \u2013 including any associated cooling systems, power generators, or utility infrastructure \u2013 shall be prohibited in all industrial zoning districts within the City of Van Wert. This prohibition does not apply to data processing facilities that are accessory to and located on the same site as a corporate headquarters or principal place of business. Ordinance No. 26-05-029 is hereby repealed in its entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If enough signatures on the initiative petitions are ruled valid and if the ballot language is approved, it would appear on the November 3 ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The Van Wert County Board of Elections is checking signatures on petitions filed for a ballot initiative that could eventually repeal an ordinance permitting data centers in industrial zones in the City of Van Wert. The petitions were submitted to the elections board last Friday by city resident Joe Jared in hopes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-28 16:55:09","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\/208049","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=208049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208050,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208049\/revisions\/208050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}