Two resident-led petitions are reshaping the fight over a proposed data center in Urbana, Ohio: one would keep hyperscale facilities out of the city, while the other targets the mayor with a recall tied to concerns about transparency.
What's happening?
What began as opposition to the proposed Urbana Technology Hub has widened into a broader argument about development, farmland, and confidence in city leadership, prompting residents to organize.
According to WYSO, Urbana resident Nicole Nawman started a petition on July 7 to put a charter amendment before voters in November. If approved, it would block hyperscale data centers from operating in Urbana unless a later ballot measure reverses that ban.
She said the campaign has already moved past the required signature mark, a threshold set at 10% of ballots from Urbana's last municipal election, and that the petition packet was submitted Tuesday for verification.
The ballot effort comes after Thor Equities proposed the project in Urbana, leading city council to revise zoning rules and adopt a one-year pause on data center construction.
Thor is also suing so its proposal can be considered. The company says it has already spent more than $19 million on the project and that the development would generate $3 million a year in tax revenue.
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A second petition, launched that same day by Urbana resident James Cropper, seeks to recall Mayor Bill Bean. This effort needs a higher bar, 15% of the same ballot count, and Cropper said it has already collected more than half of that total.
Why does it matter?
Beyond a single project, the fight in Urbana is testing how much control a community has over land use when a major tech development arrives promising economic benefits while raising local concerns.
For opponents, the issue goes beyond the size of the proposed facility to whether residents had a meaningful chance to weigh in. Nawman, who lives about half a mile from the site, said the petition is meant to make those concerns impossible to ignore.
Urbana resident Grace Coleman cast the debate in broader terms, saying, "We want to conserve Ohio the best we can. Our farmland is so important."
A hyperscale data center in a smaller community can affect land use and electricity demand alike, which is part of why the fight over the Urbana proposal has drawn so much local attention.
What's being done?
That has produced a two-track response: a ballot effort aimed at blocking future hyperscale data centers in Urbana and a recall push meant to hold elected leaders accountable.
Nawman said the city petition grew out of her work leading Champaign County's arm of the Conserve Ohio campaign, which is pushing a similar ban onto next year's statewide ballot.
"We are basically putting pen to paper that 'you guys come vote,'" she said. "So we're doing everything we can, everything we could pull out of our toolbox, to say we tried and we're not quitting."
The recall campaign, meanwhile, is focused on what Cropper and other residents describe as a collapse in openness from city leadership. If enough signatures are certified, Bean would get a five-day window to step down before voters decide his fate in a recall election.
Cropper also pointed to several lawsuits involving the city, including Thor's court actions and the recent resignation of Urbana's law director, WYSO reported.
"I never thought that our community would be facing something like this," Coleman said.
Cropper added, "We feel obviously lied to but [also] betrayed," and "we're just gonna fight back every way we can."
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