Van Wert City Council, in Van Wert County, Ohio, adopted a data-center zoning exclusion on May 11, 2026. Its status in this snapshot is enacted.
The record reads: "Van Wert City Council voted unanimously 6-0 with emergency provision to approve three ordinances: annexation of ~962 acres from Marsh Foundation, conditional zoning, and I-2 industrial zoning for the $10B Mega Site data center (escalated… (datacentertracker.org)."
Details
| Action | Class | Status | Date | MW threshold | Scope | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoning exclusion | restriction | enacted | May 11, 2026 | not county-wide | datacentertracker.org |
Jurisdiction type: municipality. County: Van Wert County. Dataset: datacentertracker. Snapshot August 15, 2026; documented actions, not a census.
Ohio context
Ohio has 89 documented local actions across 82 jurisdictions in this snapshot. At the state level, the state has an incentive rollback (in force, May 27, 2026) and AEP Ohio territory has a large-load tariff (in force, July 9, 2025).
A town that says no to a data center gives up local tax revenue, not jobs: one large campus pays $2M to $90M a year depending on the tax regime, against roughly 50 permanent jobs. The parent piece prices it and lists the conditions that beat a ban.