A zoning fight over data centers drew a crowd of Canton, Ohio, residents this week, with people warning officials that the facilities could reshape nearby neighborhoods in unwanted ways.
But even after an emotional meeting that filled the chamber, the city moved forward with zoning changes for the fast-growing industry.
What happened?
At a July 27 City Council meeting, the chambers were full as residents spoke against data centers and detailed what they fear the projects would bring to residential areas — including glare, noise, rising electricity demand, heavy water use, and the impact of large industrial-scale buildings near homes, Spectrum News 1 reported.
Samuel A. Smith, a Canton resident, said he went to the microphone after a Spectrum News 1 report informed him that a proposed facility might be built behind his home.
"I am not in support of the data centers," Smith said. "Being as how they are in my backyard. We have 10 acres, and we bordered 161 acres for 40 years, and now the proposed center will be taken up at 161 acres, and I'm not happy about it."
Council nonetheless approved the zoning ordinance 8-3, expanding the city code's definition of "Data Center" and adding a chapter that sets development requirements for those facilities.
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Bill Smuckler, an at-large Canton City Council member, said the issue now is less whether Canton will get data centers than how Canton will control them.
Why does it matter?
The dispute in Canton reflects a broader conflict playing out across Ohio, where large-scale data centers — facilities larger than 10,000 square feet — have been expanding for roughly the past decade.
For nearby residents, that can mean brighter night skies, more industrial traffic, steady mechanical sound, and greater pressure on local water and electric systems.
One Canton resident told council members, "You don't have enough of anything that's going to protect any of us. Need for a moratorium on this for at least a year till you least amend this where it is going to protect your citizens."
New industries can move in faster than zoning laws are updated, leaving officials to write rules after projects are already underway.
What's being done?
City leaders say the ordinance is meant to start closing that gap.
Matt Bailey, secretary of the Canton City Planning Commission, wrote in a memo that in 2024, data centers were presented "as a relatively new type of land use that many jurisdictions had not yet addressed or defined in their zoning ordinances."
Smuckler said Canton previously had no direct regulations for data centers because they had been grouped with broader industrial and commercial categories. The new ordinance is intended to establish development standards, including setbacks, for future facilities.
He also said a data center is already being built on Trump Avenue, and officials still do not know whether that project will meet the new rules. Residents therefore remain concerned about enforcement, oversight, and environmental impacts.
"There's one being built inside the city limits," Smuckler said. "We don't know whether they are going to follow these regulations. We hope they're going to follow these regulations."
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