Grove City, OH 5/18/26 council meeting summary and updates

ICYMI: CITY COUNCIL EDITION 5/18/26

GROVE CITY COUNCIL MEETING SUMMARY – REGULAR MEETING

Next City Council Meeting: Monday, June 1 – 7 pm – Grove City Hall, 4035 Broadway. Note: Council President Berry indicated June 1 may be moved up (caucus 5:30 pm, regular meeting 6:00 pm) if a data center pre-development plan is submitted by end of May. Watch the city website for the official notice. Come see your city government in action.

Summary based on meeting transcript and agenda packet; minor errors possible. Names and attributions may contain minor misspellings due to audio clarity.

Original post by Jen Marple, trimmed to just Data Center related topics.

ROLL CALL

All members present except Jodi Burroughs, who was excused.

THE BIG STORY: DATA CENTERS

Data centers weren’t on the agenda. They dominated the room anyway.

Eight residents spoke during new business asking council to enact a 12-month moratorium on data center applications. 10TV was in the room recording.

Themes from public comment (not in order):

Jennifer Marple argued that the city attorney’s framing – that a moratorium is unnecessary because data centers are “already prohibited” – confuses “not a permitted use” with “prohibited.” She pointed to two districts (OLR Section 1135.09 and PUD Industrial) with open-ended approval clauses that could allow a data center on a simple Council or Planning Commission vote with no defined criteria. Her precedent: Council unanimously used emergency authority 14 days prior for electric aggregation, and the same tool was used for marijuana – a new use, no standards, study first.

Jen Belt walked council through Ohio House Bill 15 (signed into law May 25). The law can fast-track on-site energy generation (natural gas, fuel cells, future nuclear) for data center projects through the Ohio Power Siting Board in as little as 45 days, with reduced local oversight. She pointed to Hilliard, where residents are fighting a proposed 72.9MW fuel cell tied to an Amazon data center campus, across from a school and next to a subdivision. Belt also corrected an earlier speaker on the petition count: nearly 3,000 residents have signed the moratorium petition, not 1,500.

Bob Ruth described the developer strategy as speed, pushing approval through over the summer while voters are away on vacation. John Ruth read from a recent 10TV report on AEP saying rising central Ohio electricity costs are tied to data center demand on the grid, with small modular nuclear reactors being marketed to those same data centers by companies funded by Microsoft, Facebook, and Google. He noted that recent state legislation has shifted siting authority for these reactors to the state, away from cities.

Patricia Spillman read aloud the names of about half of the 45 township families she said she’d visited in person over the previous weekend, all in the proposed Beatty Road area. Her message: those families thought they were already part of Grove City. She said Headwaters, the developer, has been approaching landowners since May 2025 with offers at 150% of market value.

Dr. Amy Watson Grace told council she’d recently learned that Headwaters had been telling some property owners that adjacent neighbors “had already agreed to sell,” as a pressure tactic. She asked whether any city official had signed an NDA related to the project. President Berry stated for the record that no city official has signed any NDA on this matter. Holinga also said in closing comments that if anyone asked him to sign an NDA, it would be an automatic no.

Reverend Ron Campbell told council that if a data center is approved without explicit public consent, he will personally go door to door to collect signatures to remove every council member and the mayor who votes for it. He framed it as a promise of civic accountability.

Charles Johnson read from a July 2025 American Prospect piece on data centers, fossil fuel power, and increases in cancer, asthma, and respiratory disease costs, and asked council whether they would take responsibility for adding to those health burdens locally.

COUNCIL MEMBER POSITIONS IN CLOSING COMMENTS

• Alan Sturm said the city needs measurable benchmarks and enforceable protections codified in the city code before any high-impact project moves forward. He named the categories he wants standards for: noise, water use, energy demand, emissions, infrastructure impacts, fiscal impact, and public safety. His framing quote: “We literally just passed an ordinance to add chickens to our city code. If we can add chickens to our city code, I think we can do something with the data center.”

• Mohamed Omar said he personally supports a 12-month moratorium. He also revealed for the record that a moratorium ordinance has been drafted with the city attorney and is “sitting in our inbox.” He said he isn’t sure when it will come before council.

• Melissa Anderson said she’s reading every email and hearing residents, and called for formal work sessions and more research. She did not state a position for or against a moratorium.

• George Holinga said he’s skeptical of much of the data center information he’s received from all sides and won’t vote on anything until he has all the information he can possibly absorb. He confirmed he would not sign an NDA. He did not state a position for or against a moratorium.

• Randy Holt said he’d side with Sturm: he needs to see the facts and the information, and council will work through it in June.

ANTICIPATED PROCESS (PER PRESIDENT BERRY)

• The Headwater law firm has told the city it anticipates dropping a pre-development plan by the end of May.

• If submitted, the June 1 council meeting will be moved up: caucus 5:30 pm, regular meeting 6:00 pm. Headwater would be invited to give a special presentation under new business.

• Planning Commission anticipated to hear the matter July 7 at 1:30 pm.

• Residents can submit written questions to the Clerk of Council; questions due June 22.

• A council and administration round-table discussion on those questions is set for June 29 at 5:30 pm, videotaped and public.

Berry stressed that a pre-development plan is not an annexation, rezoning, use approval, or construction approval. Each step requires its own piece of legislation. He also said his personal position on data centers is “the same as it was two years ago,” without further specifying what that position is.

Watch the full meeting recording: https://grovecityohio.new.swagit.com/videos/388233

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