Findlay City Council Passes Data Center Moratorium

Findlay City Council approved an ordinance imposing a 12-month moratorium on data centers within city limits.

The ordinance says the moratorium would give the city time to review state and federal statutes, codes and regulations, and the city’s codified ordinances relative to such activity.

The ordinance was up for its second reading at Tuesday night’s council meeting but the third reading was waived and the vote was taken. The ordinance passed by a vote of 9-1. 

You can read the full ordinance below, and watch the April 21 City Council meeting below that.

Tiffin City Council also recently approved a 12-month moratorium on data centers.

 

ORDINANCE NO. 2026-042

AN ORDINANCE IMPOSING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON THE ESTABLISHMENT, CONVERSION OF OTHER STRUCTURES OR BUILDINGS INTO A DATA CENTER, INCLUDING THE DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF ANY BUILDING, STRUCTURE, USE OR CHANGE OF USE THAT WOULD ALLOW DATA CENTERS FOR A PERIOD OF TWELVE (12) MONTHS FROM THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS ORDINANCE IN ORDER TO ALLOW THE CITY ADMINISTRATION AND CITY COUNCIL TIME TO REVIEW APPLICABLE FEDERAL CODES, OHIO STATUTES, CODES AND REGULATIONS ALONG WITH THE CITY’S CODIFIED ORDINANCES RELATIVE TO SUCH ACTIVITY, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

 

WHEREAS, the Constitution of the State of Ohio, and the Ohio Revised Code, provide that

municipalities have the power to enact laws that are for the health, safety, and welfare of their

citizens which may include restricting areas used for certain businesses and trades, and;

 

WHEREAS, this Council finds it to be in the best interest of the health, safety, and general

welfare of the citizens of Findlay to adopt a twelve (12) month moratorium on the establishment.

construction, conversion of other structures for data centers or commencement of construction

of data centers within the City, while it undertakes a review and/or study of the ordinances of the

City of Findlay, including zoning, building, and business regulation sections of the City of Findlay

Codified Ordinances to assure that such facilities are properly zoned, safe for the community.

properly constructed or rehabilitated to mitigate the potential harmful impact such facilities can

have on residential and commercial area, and;

 

WHEREAS, Council wishes to study the impact of data centers on the public health and safety

of surrounding neighborhoods and consider and study the benefits that a data center may bring

to the community. Council acknowledges citizens have raised concerns about property values,

noise, safety, the power grid, the environment and water usage in areas surrounding these

facilities, and;

 

WHEREAS, this Council will be able to enact reasonable regulations to protect the health.

safety, welfare, peace, and comfort of the citizens of the City of Findlay more effectively if a

moratorium is in place.

 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the Council of the City of Findlay, State of Ohio:

 

SECTION 1: That the Council hereby imposes a twelve (12) month moratorium on the

consideration, approval or authorization of any licenses, permits, permitted uses, special uses,

accessory uses, site plans, conditional uses or variance that would enable the granting of any

permits, allow establishment, construction, conversion of other structures into data centers, or

commencement of construction of data centers within the City of Findlay. Said moratorium

extends to the submission, consideration or approval of all applications for licenses, permits,

general development plans, final development plans, special or accessory use permits,

occupancy permits, or building permits. Data centers are defined for this moratorium as Al data

centers, enterprise data centers, managed services data centers, colocation data centers, cloud

data centers or edge data centers, crypto mining data centers, as well as physical facilities that

organizations use to store their computing machines and related hardware.

 

 

This moratorium includes construction of structures that house information technology (IT)

systems, infrastructure like servers, data storage drives, and network equipment and

construction of accompanying accessory uses such as utilities, external mechanical equipment,

water towers, and security facilities that may be located on the same site of a data center. This

moratorium does not apply to the repairing or replacement of existing data centers contained in

existing businesses within the City of Findlay.

 

SECTION 2: That this moratorium shall become effective on the date that this ordinance

passes and following its passage by Council, shall remain in effect for twelve (12) months

unless extended upon a majority vote of Council. Council may also lift the moratorium prior to

its expiration

 

SECTION 3: That the City Administration is hereby directed to begin or take part in a study to

recommend what action, if any, the City of Findlay should take to preserve the public health,

safety and welfare through the provision of adequate planning, zoning, land-use, or other

regulatory controls that are specifically applicable to data centers.

 

SECTION 4: If any section, phrase, sentence, or portion of this ordinance is for any reason held

invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed a

separate, distinct, and independent provision, and such holding shall not affect the validity of the

remaining portions thereof.

 

SECTION 5: That it is found and determined that all formal actions of Council concerning and

relating to the adoption of this ordinance were taken in an open meeting of Council and that all

deliberations of Council and any of its committees that resulted in those formal actions were in

meetings open to the public, in compliance with all legal requirements.

SECTION 6: That this Ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure necessary

for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety of the inhabitants of the

City of Findlay, Ohio, and for the further reason it is immediately necessary to impose a

temporary moratorium on the consideration, approval or authorization of any applications for

any activities set forth herein in the City of Findlay to give City officials adequate time to

consider what, if any, changes are required to current ordinances to adequately protect the

public health, safety and welfare of the community,

SECTION 7: This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after the earliest period

provided by law.