Residents in Heath are trying to get ahead of the next data center before it breaks ground, pushing a proposed charter amendment that would ban large-scale facilities from the city altogether. Organizers say they've already gathered more than 400 signatures, and they're aiming to put the question directly to voters.
The push comes as a Microsoft data center is already under construction off Thornwood Drive in Heath, a project that was approved back in 2024, according to cwcolumbus.com. Organizers behind the new petition want to stop similar projects before they get that far along, with plans to submit their petition to the city on October 19. The proposed amendment would ban data centers that use at least 23 megawatts of power.
Steve Watling, a Heath resident and one of the petition's organizers, argues the city's roads simply can't handle what's coming. He said traffic in Heath could become severely congested as more facilities move in, and that data centers should be located outside the city rather than within it.
More Than 400 Signatures, Organizers Say
Petition organizers say they now have more than 400 signatures, which they describe as double the number Heath City Council requires. Fellow organizer Ruth Prince said Heath residents should have a voice in decisions about new data centers, rather than having projects approved without a public vote.
Prince also raised concerns about higher utility costs being passed on to the community, saying she believes increased costs are tied to the wave of data centers coming into Ohio. She put the statewide count at more than 220 data centers — a figure that differs from the roughly 200 data centers cited by the Ohio Capital Journal, which ranks the state fifth-highest nationally. Either way, the broader concern organizers describe is the same: facilities landing close to residential neighborhoods and straining local resources and traffic.
A Countywide and Statewide Pattern
Heath's fight isn't happening in isolation. Licking County is already home to 49 data centers that are approved, under construction, or operating, according to The Reporting Project, which also notes that residents in Pataskala, Granville and Johnstown have led similar petition drives.
Zoom out further and Ohio is the epicenter of this fight nationwide. Of the 38 data-center-related ballot measures tracked across the country, Ohio accounts for 20 of them, according to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Nine communities — Conneaut, Defiance, Granville, Oregon, Pataskala, Piqua, Sunbury, Trenton and Upper Sandusky — filed petitions mirroring a statewide push to ban data centers drawing more than 25 megawatts per month, per reporting from Cleveland Scene. Urbana voters were weighing a 7.5-megawatt threshold, while Hubbard was the only Ohio city voting on a full ban this November, the outlet reported. Not every effort has made it to the ballot, either — the Ohio Supreme Court denied a request to place a Wilmington citizen initiative regulating data centers on the November 3 ballot, according to the Wilmington News Journal.
Utility Costs and the Bigger Picture
The utility cost concerns organizers like Prince raise fit into a broader statewide trend. Ohio's average electricity price across all customer types rose about 34% from 2022 through the first three months of 2026, according to cleveland.com. That same reporting notes that the available records don't isolate how much data centers specifically contributed to that increase. Separately, AEP Ohio has contracts for 17,861 megawatts of data-center capacity scheduled to come online progressively through 2035, per cleveland.com's review.
What Happens Next With the Petition
Because the timeline for the 2026 November ballot has already passed, any approved amendment would next be eligible for the May 2027 ballot, and could require a special election if it moves forward. Petition organizers in Heath are aiming to force that special election on whether the city should allow data centers at all.
Disputes over petition signatures aren't unique to Heath. In Granville, election officials confirmed that petitioners submitted signatures twice and the board accepted the combined total as the final count, according to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 731.28, once a municipal petition is filed, the auditor or clerk must transmit it along with a certified copy of the proposed measure to the board of elections, which then examines the signatures to determine how many municipal electors actually signed.
