Mount Orab

So it's going to tell a large story.

But whether it's in Hubbard or in places like Mount Orab, All across Ohio, residents are becoming aware of this because they're saying, hey, these things are popping up and nobody gave me a choice about it.

And that's one of the things that Jessica was talking about.

She said, in my county, I don't have a referendum on my ballot.

Uh, people don't want that in their backyard, and they're also concerned about, uh, what it will mean for their property value.

So we were about two hours south of, um, Columbus, which is the capital of Ohio, and spoke to a community there about their concerns, why they don't want to see a massive data center that's planned for a big plot of land right in the heart of their village, which is called Mount Oreb.

Uh, this is what they told us.

They intentionally targeted these small communities because of the cheap land they thought they could get.

Yeah, I know that NPR reported back in August that industry experts say that non-disclosure agreements are very common with data center projects across the country.

Locally, it's been reported that in Mount Oreb, village officials signed a non-disclosure agreement, and that drew some scrutiny from the public.

So it's not unheard of.

Yeah, yeah.

The discussion centers largely on the roughly 1,000-acre megasite on the southeast side of Mount Orb, Commissioner Shane Ogden said DBSTU LLC purchased property within the site with the intention of developing a data center.

Earlier this year, Mount Oreb officials scraped the village's newer zoning regulations and imposed a moratorium on data center construction.

I'm sorry, let me repeat that because I mispronounced something.

Earlier this year, Mount Oreb officials scrapped, not scraped, I apologize, scrapped village's newer zoning regulations and imposed a moratorium on data center construction following sustained public opposition.

Planning Commissioner Mike Kirk said the proposed HTO is intended to put additional restrictions on any future high-tech development, including larger residential setbacks, restrictions on truck traffic from residential roads, lower building heights, tighter noise limits, restrictions on generator testing, and additional landscaping and screening requirements.

Residents packed the public meeting and WCPO reported that when one speaker asked who opposed a data center in Mount Orb, every hand in the crowd went up.