A Texas-based property rights group has launched a campaign defending Ohio landowners' right to sell and develop their land, including for data centers, just as dozens of communities across the state move to block the very projects it's defending. The group, called the Private Property Rights Institute, says its new Buildout America campaign is meant to counter what it sees as a one-sided fight that's leaving landowners without a voice.
A Multi-State Push Rooted in Texas
Buildout America targets six states altogether — Ohio, Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Nevada and Utah — according to NBC4 WCMH-TV. The Private Property Rights Institute is based in Texas and was founded in 2024 by Charlie Kolean, who serves as its president. Kolean has said Ohio is among the top six states for data center buildout, and the station reports the group plans to speak with state lawmakers to push pro-property-rights legislation forward.
Kolean frames the fight in stark terms: landowners who want to sell or develop their property, he says, are increasingly running into opposition from neighbors and local governments. He's argued that Ohio has thousands of laws limiting what property owners can do with their own land, and that data center discussions have become one-sided, failing to account for landowners' voices or the economic benefits tied to AI growth and development. The institute says it believes landowners generally know what's best for their own land and shouldn't be limited in how they use it. Its stated plans include educating the public about data centers' benefits and facilitating more transparent discussions between companies and the communities they'd move into.
What's Driving the Backlash
The timing isn't incidental. Ohio has seen some of the fastest data center growth in the country, a boom driven by cheap land, existing energy infrastructure and generous tax breaks, according to NPR. That growth has made data centers a hot topic heading into the state's 2026 midterm elections, the outlet reports. In Brown County, Nick Owens is leading an effort to stop hyperscale data center construction in communities like Mt. Orab, where property records reviewed by NPR show roughly 1,000 acres of farmland and trees were sold to a data center developer in 2024 and 2025.
The pushback isn't just rural. In Fairfield County, David Holley lives near a Google data center built within Lancaster city limits in Hocking Township. Holley told NBC4 the facility's noise wakes him at night and keeps him from opening his windows to sleep. Google has said it is installing landscape barriers around the site to provide visual and acoustic screening, the station reports.
Moratoriums, Bans and a Patchwork of Numbers
Just how big Ohio's data center footprint already is depends on who's counting. NBC4 reports the state is home to nearly 200 data center projects and has had data centers since 2012, while a fact sheet from the Ohio Consumers' Counsel puts the total above 200, ranking Ohio fifth nationally. The pushback has been just as hard to pin down precisely: the Ohio Capital Journal reported at least 138 municipalities and townships had active moratoriums as of Sept. 17, while a separate Ohio Capital Journal report described more than 100 moratoriums statewide. The outlet also found that 23 Ohio communities had effectively banned data centers outright, with at least 23 more across seven counties weighing similar proposals.
Public opinion appears to back the slowdown. A Bowling Green State University poll cited by the Ohio Capital Journal found 78% of Ohioans support moratoriums until more information is gathered about data centers' effects, with 75% opposed to construction in their own communities and 63% opposed to construction anywhere else in the state. Data centers typically require enormous amounts of energy and water and can strain nearby resources when protections aren't in place, while also producing noise, light and pollutants, per NBC4's reporting.
Water, Power and the Ballot Box
Water use has become a particular flashpoint. An Ohio Chamber of Commerce report found data centers will account for 8% of Central Ohio's human water consumption and between 0.25% and 0.5% of total available water resources by 2030, according to WYSO. That same report found the largest source of water demand will likely come from the energy generation needed to power the centers, not from cooling systems themselves.
Voters may end up settling some of this. NBC4's report on the Buildout America launch cited Ballotpedia figures putting Ohio's share at 21 of 39 nationwide ballot issues. Conserve Ohio, a group pushing in the opposite direction from Buildout America, has helped place charter amendments banning hyperscale data centers on 10 local ballots, according to Politico, and NPR reports the group is also pursuing a statewide constitutional amendment that would ban large-scale data centers altogether, with a goal of putting it before voters in 2027.
Not every fight has gone against the industry. In Cleveland, city officials rejected a permit application for a proposed $1.6 billion hyperscale data center on May 14 after it failed an initial zoning review, and the city council later approved a three-month moratorium on new stand-alone data centers and expansions, according to Cleveland.com. And the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled the village of Lordstown didn't have to review a proposed data center's site plan while its moratorium was in effect, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. NPR notes that despite the backlash, data centers do bring communities considerable tax revenue, money for schools, numerous construction jobs and a smaller number of permanent jobs — the trade-off now playing out in town halls and at the ballot box across the state.
