Cheers erupted in Pataskala City Hall and hugs abounded after the city council voted unanimously to reject a proposal for a large-scale data center in the city’s industrial park.
“It’s a good day when democracy wins,” said Leatrice Guttenberg who moved to a serene corner of Pataskala 20 years ago after having escaped one of the Twin Towers hit during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
Her house and five acres are a half mile from the proposed data center site in the Pataskala Corporate Park, and she has been among the residents who have packed the council chambers during meetings when officials from Aligned Data Centers presented details of their proposed 200 megawatt data center.
So many people attended the meeting that began at 5:30 p.m. and ended about 9 p.m. that when nearly 60 people filled the council chambers, the city set up an overflow viewing with a television in the city hall lobby, where the cheering was especially loud.
“It was a bold move,” council member Kip Rooks said after the 7-0 vote – and after a hug from Guttenberg. “It was bold but easy because it was necessary and the right thing to do for our citizens.”
In the end, there was one detail the Aligned Data officials couldn’t provide, and it was cited by each council member before they voted to accept the recommendation of the city’s planning and zoning commission in June, which was to reject a site plan for the data center.
| Read more: Pataskala planning board says city council should reject Aligned Data Centers proposal
The data center officials couldn’t provide specific information about power for the proposed center, which would have been three large buildings on about 89 acres – along with a utility yard for a natural-gas fuel cell to generate electricity, along with an electrical substation and connection to the American Electric Power grid.
And they couldn’t provide that information because it would have been decided by the Ohio Power Siting Board after city approval of the site plan.
“My major concern is electricity use, because it’s in limbo with AEP and the power siting board,” said council member Chad Wagy. “I’m not satisfied with what’s been presented to us.”
Not everyone was cheering after the vote. A group of glum-faced Aligned Data Center executives and consultants stood quietly at the back of the room.
“We’ll reflect and regroup,” said David Robinson, general counsel and executive vice president for strategic development at Aligned Data Centers, who spent hours in meetings with both the planning and zoning aboard and the city council making a case for the center.
He said the site is a perfect location for the data center because it is zoned for industrial uses, including data centers, and it is next to American Electric Power facilities that could supply power to the site.
On Nov. 3, voters in Pataskala and Granville will vote on a proposal to ban large data centers in those communities. And on Tuesday, many Pataskala residents who spoke to the council asked them to allow residents to decide whether Pataskala will be home to data centers. Another, by Microsoft, has been proposed for a site on Refugee Road.
Residents said Tuesday they disagreed with Robinson about Pataskala being a perfect spot for data centers, and the council members mentioned repeatedly that they were impressed by the turnout and the passion from residents who opposed the data center for many reasons.
Newly appointed council member Tim Hickin said the water issue raised by some residents wasn’t an issue for him, because Aligned Data proposed a “closed-loop” system that re-uses water rather than drawing millions of gallons of fresh water a day for cooling.
“The power plan for this is not adequate, therefore, I will not vote for it,” he said.
Council President Brandon Galik echoed that sentiment, saying the “plan is incomplete,” and he wasn’t comfortable voting for an incomplete plan. He made the motion to accept the planning and zoning commission recommendation to reject the plan.
Council member Mary Hite said, “We need to see exactly what we’re voting on.”
Member Deborah Kohman said she was also concerned about an Aligned Data Centers response to a council question about construction timeline. The company goal was to build out the site in four years, but an executive acknowledged that it could take longer depending on certain factors, such as a final agreement with AEP to serve the site.
And Rooks said he “can’t make decisions based on guesses.”
Before the vote, council member Jude Hampshire said she didn’t know exactly which way she would vote, but that she appreciated the strong turnout and how personal the proposal was to so many people, including council members. “It is personal, and we do care,” she said, and she ended up voting with the majority.
Prior to the vote, the council heard three and a half hours of testimony from Aligned Data Centers executives and consultants, as well as comments from a long line of residents.
The testimony and the comments were virtually the same as were heard during the four-hour planning and zoning commission meeting on June 3 – and from many of the same people.
Aligned Data Centers paid $13.9 million in 2023 to buy 89.4 acres in the Pataskala Corporate Park – a 1,000-acre site designated by the city nearly 20 years ago as the place for industrial development. Zoning for the land specifically allows data centers, which Robinson said is one of the reasons Aligned Data was drawn to the site.
Aligned Data filed an application to begin the review process in November 2025. The planning staff said that the company had answered its questions and the questions posed by the commission and the public in three earlier hearings.
Maritza Motino, who lives across Broad Street from where Aligned Data Centers wants to build a hyperscale center, offered one of the most emotional statements of all who spoke on Aug. 25.
“I don’t have a sophisticated speech,” she said. “I live across the street from this monstrosity. I purchased my house 25 years ago. It is my dream house.”
And she broke into tears talking about how, at 68, she had signed a contract to renovate the house so that she could live out her days tending her flowers and feeding the birds in that special place.
“I ask you, please, do not let them come here and destroy our community,” she said to the council.
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.