A twelve-month moratorium prohibits the establishment, construction, development, expansion, conversion, or operation of any High-Density Computing Facility or similar large-scale data-consuming facility in Grove City, including associated substations, cooling systems, backup generation, fuel storage, utility, water, fiber, and support infrastructure.

During the moratorium, applications and requests related to these facilities—including permits, rezonings, variances, planned unit developments, site plans, utility-coordination requests, and development proposals—may not be processed, reviewed, considered, approved, issued, advanced, or furthered.

Pending, future, incomplete, amended, or newly submitted applications for covered facilities may not proceed during the moratorium unless expressly authorized by a separate action of City Council.

No covered facility may receive final approval, zoning authorization, development approval, site-plan approval, annexation-related approval, permit approval, or equivalent land-use authorization until City Council completes the required review and adopts applicable standards, regulations, and review procedures.

The ordinance takes effect immediately as an emergency measure, so the moratorium applies without waiting for the ordinary effective-date period.

According to the Task Force report, Grove City currently has no code provision authorizing data centers; an applicant must therefore use a Use Approval application process similar to rezoning, in which approval is discretionary and the City may impose safeguards, standards, and restrictions.

Applications or development proposals may proceed during the 12-month moratorium if expressly authorized by separate action of Council, providing a potential case-by-case pathway for a data center to be approved despite the moratorium. unless expressly authorized by separate action of Council

A data center is treated as Heavy Industrial Development if it occupies or proposes to occupy at least 50 contiguous acres, draws more than 20 megawatts of peak electricity, or consumes more than 500,000 gallons of water per day. Related parcels, phases, entities, and nearby developments may be aggregated when calculating these thresholds.

No City approval may be granted for a qualifying data center—including rezoning, annexation, conditional-use, planned-development, or building approval—unless the applicant satisfies the amendment and obtains approval from a majority of City voters in a public referendum.

The referendum must describe the specific project, applicant, location, facility type, and acreage. Approval of the referendum does not guarantee zoning or other permits, and all other City requirements still apply.

Before its application can be considered complete, the applicant must deposit a Referendum Fund covering election costs, notices, the independent impact study, baseline measurements, and a 15% administrative reserve. Unused funds are returned after the election.

The applicant must hold at least two public informational meetings in Grove City on separate dates at least 30 days apart, with at least 14 days' public notice for each meeting.

The applicant must fund an independent impact study selected through a City-controlled process. The study must evaluate water, electricity, noise, infrasound, light, vibration, traffic, employment, tax revenue, infrastructure costs, stormwater, air quality, and heat-island effects, and must be posted publicly at least 60 days before the referendum.

The referendum cannot be placed on the next available general-election ballot unless all prerequisites are complete and at least 90 days remain after the City Auditor certifies that the prerequisites have been satisfied.

If voters reject a proposed data center, the City may not approve it, and the applicant may not reapply for the same or a Substantially Similar Development for 24 months after the election.

A qualifying project must meet enforceable operating limits at residential property lines, including 55 dB(A) daytime noise, 45 dB(A) nighttime noise, no more than 75 dB(G) infrasound, no measurable discrete tonal components below 20 Hz above ambient baseline, daytime and nighttime light-spillage limits of 1.0 and 0.1 foot-candles, and no measurable increase in vibration above the pre-construction baseline.

Before construction, the applicant must pay for comprehensive independent baseline measurements of noise, infrasound, light, and vibration at residential property lines and structures within one mile. Those measurements become the permanent compliance reference.

Required compliance measurements must be performed by a City-selected firm with no financial relationship to the applicant, using calibrated equipment and repeated measurement periods. The applicant funds the City's measurement-roster program through an annual oversight fee.

The applicant must pay an annual oversight fee beginning in the first year of operations and continuing annually. The fee covers quarterly compliance reviews, change-log maintenance, measurement-roster administration, website publication, and other duties under the amendment.

The City Law Director must make a written threshold determination for applications or pre-application requests that could meet or approach the acreage, electricity, or water thresholds. If the determination is not issued within 15 business days, the project is automatically treated as Heavy Industrial Development.

Before modifying an approved facility, the applicant must submit a Change Notice at least 30 days in advance. Failure to submit it within that period can void the referendum approval if the notice is not filed within a 14-day post-implementation cure period.

A new referendum is required for a cumulative material change, including more than a 10% increase in acreage, peak electrical demand, or daily water consumption; a change in primary use or facility type; relocation of the primary footprint by more than 500 feet; or transfer to a different ultimate beneficial owner.

The City Law Director must issue a written materiality determination within 20 business days after receiving a Change Notice. If the determination is not timely issued, the proposed change is automatically treated as material and requires a new referendum.

During a material-change referendum, the facility may operate only at or below its most recently approved baseline and may not expand or exceed approved capacity. The applicant must file the new referendum application within 30 days of the materiality determination.

Beginning after operations commence, the applicant must submit quarterly public reports stating peak electrical demand, average daily water consumption, occupied or developing acreage, monitoring data, ownership or operational-control changes, and a responsible-officer certification.

Operating above a baseline threshold or Community Impact Standard, transferring ownership or operational control without notice, filing a materially false or incomplete quarterly report, or failing to pay the oversight fee constitutes a violation.

After a violation, the City Law Director must issue an immediate order capping operations at baseline levels. Civil fines accrue daily, escalating from $25,000 per day during days 1–7 to $500,000 per day beginning on day 91, with a possible threefold multiplier for willful violations.

City approvals may be suspended until the facility returns to baseline and Community Impact Standard compliance and pays all fines, or completes a new referendum and obtains voter approval. The City may also seek an injunction requiring operational reductions.

Before receiving City approval after a successful referendum, the applicant must provide a performance bond or equivalent security sufficient to cover decommissioning, site remediation, infrastructure restoration, and a 25% contingency.

The applicant must establish and maintain a separate decommissioning fund sufficient to cover full facility decommissioning costs. The fund must be reviewed and potentially increased every five years, and the City's access cannot depend on the applicant's continued solvency.

The amendment's obligations—including operating standards, reporting, fines, and decommissioning funding—run with the land and bind successors and assigns.

A Grove City resident may sue to compel enforcement if a violation is documented and the City has not initiated enforcement within 30 days. A prevailing resident may recover reasonable attorney fees and costs from the applicant.

Projects involving adjacent townships must trigger City efforts to negotiate a coordinated referendum process. If no agreement is reached within 180 days, the City must request a nonbinding township advisory vote on the same ballot, and City Council must make written findings addressing a majority township vote against the project.

The amendment bars circumvention through parcel subdivision, multiple entities, phased development, multiple jurisdictions, or annexation arrangements. Land proposed for annexation is treated as part of the project, and township approvals obtained in anticipation of annexation cannot satisfy the amendment's requirements.

Existing facilities operating at or above a threshold when the amendment takes effect must file a Baseline Declaration within 180 days to receive grandfathered status for current operations. They must then file quarterly reports, undergo current baseline measurements, and remain subject to the amendment's operating standards and penalties.

Grandfathered facilities may not materially expand without the full referendum process. A cumulative expansion exceeding 10% of the declared baseline in acreage, electricity, or water, or another material change, triggers a new referendum.

City Council may not suspend, waive, amend, or repeal the amendment by ordinance or resolution. Any amendment or repeal requires approval by Grove City voters at a general election.

A facility already operating at or above a threshold when the amendment takes effect can preserve its existing operations without a referendum by filing a Baseline Declaration within 180 days. This grandfathered status protects current operations from the referendum requirement, but not future expansions.

Facilities operating below all thresholds when the amendment takes effect are unaffected unless they later independently meet or exceed a threshold.

A facility required to seek approval for a material change may continue operating at its previously approved baseline levels while a new referendum is conducted, provided it files the referendum application within 30 days and does not expand during that period.

If a referendum for a material expansion fails, the facility may continue operating under its existing approval and baseline; the failed vote rejects only the proposed expansion.

A successful referendum does not itself guarantee approval, but it allows the City to consider the project through the normal zoning and permitting processes rather than requiring another voter approval for the originally approved project.

Township residents affected by a project outside the city do not receive a binding veto: if no intergovernmental agreement is reached, their vote is only advisory, although City Council must formally consider and respond to an adverse advisory result.

Internal reorganizations, mergers, or restructurings among entities with the same ultimate beneficial owner are not treated as a transfer of operational control requiring a new referendum, if the required notice is filed with the City Clerk within 30 days.

An applicant may appeal a Law Director's materiality determination to City Council, and the facility can continue operating at approved baseline levels while the appeal or required referendum process proceeds.

An applicant may appeal a Stop-Work or Operational Cap Order to City Council within 15 days; the appeal preserves a formal review opportunity even though the order remains effective during the appeal.

Unused money deposited in the Referendum Fund must be returned to the applicant after the referendum election.