Ohio Judge Approves Skipping Waiting Period for Wilmington Data Center

Judge Hein, on October 5th, ruled in favor of the City of Wilmington’s emergency order to bypass a waiting period to build a data center. The ruling explains that the plaintiff, Rachel Brooks, was unable to provide sufficient evidence. After receiving the ruling, attorney Joshua Engel publicly stated that they had filed an appeal. 

In the city of Wilmington, Ohio, the fight to prevent data centers from taking over local farmland has been a battle for over a year. However, the city council members and leaders in the community continue to shut down the conversation and push forward with their plans to allow AWS (Amazon Web Services) to build an AI data center on the 471 acres of land they purchased which has been annexed by the city. 

To expedite the building process, the city of Wilmington filed an emergency order for two ordinances, the first of which allows for the rezoning of farmland from residential to light industrial, and the second permitting data centers to be built on land zoned as light industrial. The emergency order allows the city to bypass the 30-day wait period in which citizens can petition the ordinances, calling for a referendum, and have the ordinances enforced immediately.