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The Data Center Divide

City of Wilmington

Mixed Data Center Policies

Ohio offers qualifying data centers significant sales-tax exemptions on equipment, subject to investment, payroll, reporting, and other conditions, while fees apply to participants. New exemption requests are paused, which may raise costs for new projects; data centers are not banned.

Rating and summary from Ohio statewide as there are no scored current or future laws outside temporary restrictions for City of Wilmington.

repealed · City of Wilmington
Establishes maximum permitted noise levels of 55–75 dBA at receiving properties, varying by the source property’s use, receiving property’s use, and time of day under Section 1.2.c.City of Wilmington Ordinance No. O-24-70, Section 1.2.c (2024)

What this means

The order could meaningfully delay data center construction because the planning commission cannot approve or deny a site plan until the city council reenacts the named ordinances (cannot take action on a site plan). A limited operating benefit is that emergency-use generators are exempt from the noise rules during power outages (generators utilized for emergency use).

Timing

Ends
When the Wilmington City Council ratifies, replaces, or otherwise reenacts Ordinances No. O-24-70, O-25-36, and O-25-48, and the relevant action takes legal effect, or upon further order of the Court

The Court order temporarily bars the Planning Commission from approving, conditionally approving, or denying a proposed data-center site plan. The parties may later seek modification or dissolution of the order.

People behind it

  • Proposed and enacted Ordinance No. O-24-70 amending the city's planning and zoning code.

  • Designated to approve the ordinance.

  • Designated to attest the ordinance.

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  • Administers the site-plan review process governed by the court order.

Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements8

  • The Planning Commission may not approve, conditionally approve, or deny a proposed data-center site plan until the City Council ratifies, replaces, or reenacts Ordinances O-24-70, O-25-36, and O-25-48, or their replacements, and those measures take legal effect.

  • Before that legislative action takes effect, the Planning Commission may consider site-plan additions or revisions only for informational purposes and may not take approval action.

  • Any Planning Commission meeting addressing a proposed data-center site plan must be public, with at least 14 days’ advance email notice to the plaintiffs’ counsel and delivery of the agenda and all application materials.

  • At a meeting where the Planning Commission acts on a proposed data-center site plan, participants must be allowed to present arguments, offer and examine witnesses, cross-examine opposing witnesses, and offer rebuttal evidence, arguments, and testimony.

  • The Planning Commission must apply the law in effect on the date it decides a proposed data-center site plan, rather than the law in effect when the application was filed.

  • Activities on private property may not emit noise above the ordinance’s maximum levels, unless the existing ambient noise already meets or exceeds the limit, in which case the source may add no more than 2 dBA. Depending on the source and receiving-property categories, the limits range from 55 to 75 dBA and vary by daytime hours of 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and nighttime hours of 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.

  • Noise must be measured with an A-weighted sound meter, and the Zoning Administrator may require measurement at the source property line or anywhere beyond it; the measurement property need not be next to the property producing the noise.

  • The noise limits do not apply to critical infrastructure, including generators used for emergency purposes during electrical power outages, or to other listed exemptions such as aircraft, railroads, emergency equipment, daytime construction activity, and essential utility repairs.

Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions5

  • Critical infrastructure, including generators used for emergency power outages for public or private entities, is exempt from the noise standards at all times.

  • Construction equipment and construction activity are exempt from the noise standards between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.

  • Installation of utility services is exempt from the noise standards between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.

  • Until the City Council ratifies, replaces, or reenacts the specified zoning ordinances and those measures take effect, the Planning Commission may not approve, conditionally approve, or deny a proposed data-center site plan.

  • At a public meeting where the Planning Commission acts on a proposed data-center site plan, participants may present arguments, offer and examine witnesses, cross-examine opposing witnesses, and offer rebuttal evidence, arguments, and testimony.

Sources

repealed · City of Wilmington
Adds data centers as permitted uses in the listed LI and GI zoning districts, subject to site-plan review, and defines them as facilities housing computer systems and related telecommunications and storage equipment.Wilmington Zoning Code Section 1141.03(j), Data Centers (2025)

What this means

The measure lists data centers as permitted in two industrial districts, which could make it clearer where they may be built (permitted use). But it also requires site plan review, a 200-foot distance from residential districts, and noise controls and study, so the practical benefits and added burdens roughly balance (data center standards).

People behind it

  • Proposed and enacted the ordinance amending the Wilmington Planning and Zoning Code.

Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements5

  • Data centers are permitted as principal uses only in the LI and GI zoning districts, and they require site plan review.

  • Data center buildings, cooling or ventilation equipment, generators, and other power-supply equipment must be at least 200 feet from the lot line of any City residential district, including MF, MH, RR, SN, TN, and applicable PUD districts.

  • Cooling, ventilation, operating equipment, generators, and other power-supply equipment must be fully enclosed unless an approved noise study supports alternative mitigation, such as a wall or barrier, added buffering or landscaping, increased distance from the property line, or another strategy approved by the Zoning Administrator.

  • Power generators must have critical-grade silencers.

  • Before site plan approval, the applicant must submit a noise study demonstrating to the Zoning Administrator's satisfaction that the data center will comply with Section 1151.04(m)(2).

Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions1

  • The zoning table lists Data Centers as a permitted use in the Light Industrial (LI) and General Industrial (GI) districts, subject to site-plan review rather than requiring conditional-use approval.

Sources

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