Present at the Monday, May 4, Village Council meeting were, from left Councilors Stephanie Pearce, Senay Semere, Carmen Brown, Angie Hsu and Gavin DeVore Leonard, as well as Village Manager Johnnie Burns. (Video still)
Village Council considers data center moratorium in Yellow Springs
- Published: May 15, 2026
At the most recent regular Village Council meeting, Monday, May 4, Council members mulled over the implications of a future piece of legislation: imposing a year-long moratorium on the creation of any large-scale data center in Yellow Springs.
Council member Stephanie Pearce brought forth the proposed ordinance because large data center development “does not align with the scale, needs or values of our community,” she wrote in a memo to her colleagues ahead of Monday’s meeting.
“As communities across Ohio and the country see increased interest in large-scale data centers, Yellow Springs should act proactively rather than reactively,” Pearce wrote. “Data centers are a unique — therefore largely unregulated — and increasingly common land use that can place significant demands on local infrastructure.”
Should Council approve the moratorium at a future meeting, Yellow Springs would join the ranks of growing number of Ohio communities — at least 15 as of May — who have enacted moratoriums to momentarily pause the creation of data centers.
Among those are Twinsburg, Monroe Township, Sprigg Township, Avon, Wellington, Brownhelm Township and Muhlenberg — all of which enacted their moratoriums out of concerns over high energy demand, environmental impacts and strain on local grids, according to their recently passed laws.
Ohio currently has more than 200 data centers, making it the fifth-highest in the country. The majority of Ohio’s data centers are clustered about an hour east of Yellow Springs, or in the centermost part of the state where land availability, transmission access and proximity to consumers make development attractive, according to the Office of Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.
Generally, data centers store, process and move information that supports basic technological services like cloud storage, video streaming, apps, artificial intelligence, social media and more. In doing so, these data centers require large amounts of electricity, as well as water used for cooling systems to prevent servers from overheating.
Per the Consumers’ Counsel, large or “hyperscale” data centers can use as much electricity as 100,000 homes and millions of gallons of fresh water per day for cooling.
As Village Manager Johnnie Burns said at Monday’s meeting, Yellow Springs’ municipal infrastructure could in no way support that kind of energy drain. He specifically referenced some data centers requiring a constant supply of 100 megawatts of electricity.
“Right now, our peak demand is 11 megawatts — we have the capability of 14,” Burns said. “So when we talk about a data center coming here, number one, we’d have to figure out where they’d go, and number two, how to get them all the water and power they’d need.”
“We probably don’t even have a footprint that exists in the village for something this big,” Council President Gavin DeVore Leonard acknowledged.
There was unanimous agreement among Council members that the group ought to discourage the development of any large-scale data center — or at the very least, per the proposed moratorium, stall the development of any such center for at least 12 months.
Having broached the matter of fostering local economic development just a few minutes before the data center discussion, Burns asked for any forthcoming moratorium to specify the size and scale of what would not be allowed within Village limits.
Burns pointed out that the Yellow Springs-based Miami Valley Education Computer Association, or MVECA, is essentially a data center, albeit one substantially smaller than what the proposed ordinance is trying to ward off.
Bearing that in mind, Burns said he doesn’t want to discourage any small-scale, technology-driven development on the Center for Business and Education — the Village-owned 35 acre land on the western edge of town that has been for sale for more than a decade.
“So, we could narrow [the moratorium] by square footage, draw on the grid, water usage or any combination of those things,” Village Solicitor Amy Blankenship proposed.
Council members agreed to consider a new draft with specified language on scale at the group’s next regular meeting, Monday, May 18, when they will give a first reading to the moratorium ordinance.
That change in language notwithstanding, Council and staff members thanked Councilors Pearce and Brown for their joint work on drafting the proposal.
“I don’t think this is just a symbolic ordinance as if we’re just resting on our values,” Council member Senay Semere said. “I think it’s timely in response to what’s happening. In regional and state meetings, these conversations are very much happening. And these are conversations very close to us. So this is proactive in deterring this from coming to our doorsteps.”
In other Village Council business—
Personnel policy update approved
Village Council members gave a second reading to, held a public hearing on, and ultimately passed an ordinance to update the Village’s personnel policy manual, which sets the conditions of employment for municipal staffers.
As previously reported, most changes to the personnel policy deal with employee compensation and time off. Examples of the proposed changes include the establishment of a four-week, paid parental leave; the creation of longevity pay; more vacation time up front for new hires; and a guaranteed minimum number of paid hours when working certain events.
Thousands to Parks Dept.
Council gave an emergency reading to, and passed an ordinance to approve a supplemental appropriation — specifically, adding $14,124.54 to the Village budget.
• The Village received $2,080 in donations from Lucky Bunny Tattoo, Peach’s Grill, SG Miller and Pat Peters for the purpose of funding certifications and training for lifeguards at Gaunt Park pool for the coming season;
• $1,000 from the YS Community Foundation for the “Swimming for All” program that doles out pool passes for low-income swimmers;
• $200 from Jason and Amy Bailey for the Youth Center operations; $125 from Village T-shirt sales;
• $9,000 from the Community Foundation to cover the costs of painting the pool; and
• $1,719.54 as an insurance reimbursement for the rental of an electric department rental truck.
Trees to be trimmed
Council approved a resolution that authorizes Manager Burns to enter into an agreement with M&L Tree Services and Lawncare to trim branches around electric utility lines in public right-of-ways throughout much of the northwestern and central parts of Yellow Springs.
The Village will pay M&L $90,000 for their forthcoming work — $5,000 less than the Village paid the company last year, and an amount appropriated in the 2026 budget. M&L was the only bid in the Village’s search for the service.
Village Council’s next in-person meeting will be Monday, May 18, in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Bryan Center. Per the group’s routine, the meeting will begin at 5 p.m. with a work session that the public can watch but not participate in, which will be followed by a regular session at 6 p.m.
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