Will 2026 be the Year of the Data Center in Ohio?
Vol. III, No. 210 - Data Centers will Dominate Community Conversations Next Year
Next year may well be remembered as the year Ohio finally decided what it wants to do about data centers. Not because they are new, but because their footprint, their secrecy, and their political weight are becoming too large to ignore.
Across the state, these facilities are being sold as the future. They come with eye‑popping investment figures, sophisticated financing tools, and renderings that look like progress. What they do not bring, at least in proportion, are jobs. For all the capital poured into them, most data centers end up employing a relatively small number of full‑time workers while generating a growing catalog of questions about noise, water use, grid strain, and long‑term environmental impacts. Residents are learning that “high tech” does not automatically mean “high benefit” for the people who actually live next door.
Communities have not responded in a uniform way. Some, like Piqua, have rolled out the welcome mat, moving quickly to approve incentives, infrastructure commitments, and complex tax arrangements designed to land a project before it slips away to a competing site. Others have moved just as decisively in the opposite direction, adopting moratoriums or pauses on new data centers so they can update zoning or simply buy time to understand what they are being asked to absorb. Those moratoriums are not permanent. When they expire, trustees and councilmembers will have to make an unambiguous choice: are these facilities welcome, or not?
And it will inevitably be a question that every community must answer. As our world is becoming more and more online, the need for these data centers are only going to increase, and these data centers don’t need thousands of acres, even modest amounts of land can house these facilities.
The challenge for residents is that by the time their community reaches that decision point, much of the real action has already taken place out of public view. Data centers tend to arrive under bland or opaque labels—limited liability companies with generic names and little searchable history. Formal project descriptions come later, after land options are secured and legal frameworks are drafted. Non‑disclosure agreements compound the opacity, giving developers leverage and giving local governments a ready-made excuse to say as little as possible. The basic facts of who is coming, what is being built, and what it will demand from local water, power, and public safety systems can remain fuzzy until the moment a vote is scheduled.
All of this guarantees that data centers will not just be a local land‑use story in 2026. They are on track to become a recurring feature of state‑level political debate. The General Assembly has already shown it can move quickly when the pressure is high enough; this year’s property tax relief measures were shaped in no small part by the looming threat of a referendum and the drumbeat of complaints from homeowners who felt blindsided by rising bills. It is not hard to imagine similar pressure building as more communities confront the cumulative effects of an industry that consumes massive amounts of electricity and water while asking for generous tax treatment.
Complicating matters is the calendar. A statewide election year usually means lawmakers spend less time in Columbus and more time shaking hands at local festivals and candidate forums. That does not mean nothing will happen, but it does mean large, complicated questions—who should decide where data centers go, who pays to serve them, and what protections communities deserve—are likely to be filtered through campaign rhetoric as much as committee hearings on Captiol Squre.
The race for governor will only heighten the contrast. Both major-party candidates, Dr. Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy, are expected to emerge from their primaries and head into a general election that will help define Ohio’s economic story for the futre.
Ramaswamy has talked openly about turning Ohio into the next Silicon Valley, a line that surely resonates with those eager to shed a rust‑belt image and embrace something sleeker and more modern. Data centers fit neatly into that vision on paper. They look like proof that Ohio is wired into the digital economy. But on the ground—in townships, small cities, and outer‑ring suburbs—the picture is more complicated. Residents may like the idea of a high‑tech economy in the abstract. They are less enthusiastic about heavy infrastructure on their doorstep, higher utility demands, and a planning process where key details arrive late, if at all.
Whether 2026 is truly “the year of the data center” will depend less on how many new campuses are announced and more on how honestly Ohio’s leaders grapple with the tradeoffs. Local officials and state policymakers alike are going to have to answer hard questions that, so far, have been too easy to dodge. What kinds of jobs are actually being created, and for whom. What long‑term economic benefits justify the incentives being offered. Whether everyday residents will see higher water and electric bills as part of the bargain. Whether low‑frequency noise, increased truck traffic, or new transmission lines will change the character of neighborhoods that never asked to be on the front lines of the digital economy.
Right now, there are more questions than answers. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to pay attention. If 2026 becomes the year of the data center, it should also become the year Ohio decides that big promises and closed‑door deals are no longer enough.
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