Ohio ‘brothers’ Look To Disrupt Data Center Blitz One Town At A Time

Nick Owens and Austin Baurichter couldn't be further apart politically. But they've found not just common ground but a common purpose on data centers that's changed the game in Ohio.

Owens, 42, is a lifelong Republican who voted for President Donald Trump. Baurichter, 33, describes himself as a “left-leaning independent.”

Together, the two men are the driving force behind Conserve Ohio, a political action committee that’s helped put charter amendments to ban hyperscale data centers on 10 local ballots next month. The towns are mostly small in size, are spread across the state and — like the group’s founders — are bound by little else but a distrust of data centers and Big Tech.

“I told Nick the day I met him, I was like, ‘Dude, you and me might have some hard conversations at some point, but right now, brother, let's look each other in the eye and shake hands and say, "Let's do it."’” Baurichter said.

The local initiatives tap into anti-data-center sentiment that’s shaping races across Ohio, including the U.S. Senate contest between Sen. Jon Husted (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) and governor’s race between Amy Acton (D) and Vivek Ramaswamy (R).

A September poll by Bowling Green State University showed 75% of Ohioans oppose the construction of data centers in their communities — significantly above the national average. A recent POLITICO poll showed half of Americans oppose data centers within three miles of their home.

The backlash has spurred political candidates of both parties to call for regulation of the industry, and success at the local level in the Buckeye State could encourage more cities to follow suit and compel state officials to take action.

“It's so frustrating and irritating, scary in some ways, how nonresponsive local, state and federal governments have been on this issue,” Owens said in an interview.

Even so, leaders in some cities have fought back against citizen initiatives to put the issue before voters — leaving it to the courts to decide.

Of the 10 Ohio cities that Conserve Ohio worked with, nine of the measures would prohibit data centers with energy demand greater than 25 megawatts. Another would ban data centers completely.

Another eight Ohio communities will also vote on referendums, ballot initiatives and advisory votes on data center development and related zoning issues next week.

The industry’s trade association, the Data Center Coalition, warns that by closing the door to all development the 10 cities risk missing out on real economic benefits — an opportunity that won’t last forever.

“The window of this kind of build-out of the industry is not going to continue at this pace in perpetuity,” said Brad Tietz, who heads up government affairs in the Midwest for the coalition. He added the cities may regret turning their back on an opportunity to add jobs and tax revenue.

The group's main message is “regulate us, don’t ban us,” Tietz said. By enacting a blanket prohibition, “you're doing a disservice to the community long term, despite where things are at in terms of this hostility towards the industry.”

From statewide to local

Helping residents fight data center projects at the local level wasn’t Conserve Ohio’s initial vision.

The group first sought to pass a statewide constitutional amendment banning data centers over 25 megawatts. But they had to abandon that approach because they couldn’t get the necessary 413,000 signatures before July 1.

But the group quickly pivoted to plan B: local charter amendments.

Owens discovered that under the Ohio Constitution, communities with more than 5,000 people have home rule authority — that is, the power to establish a local constitution, or charter, and govern itself.

For cities with a charter, state law spells out what it takes to amend it by citizen initiative: signatures equal to at least 10% of the votes cast in the last general municipal election.

In a city like Trenton, Ohio, in the southwest corner of the state, that meant the group needed only 128 signatures to get the charter amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot. Residents collected almost three times that number.

But the City Council, which had already approved the development of a data center that will cover close to 1 million square feet, refused to certify the amendment. The council, which is also courting a much larger project by Amazon Web Services, claimed Ohio law required signatures from 10% of all eligible voters.

Owens and Baurichter, on behalf of five Trenton residents, filed a lawsuit at the Ohio Supreme Court in August challenging the council.

Less than a month later, justices sided with the residents over objections from the data center developer, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Municipal League, all of which filed briefs in support of the City Council.

The city’s mayor and vice mayor didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

Amazon, meanwhile, held open houses this month in Trenton and Sunbury, another Ohio town where the company’s plans are running up against a local ballot measure to prohibit large data centers. There, they answered residents’ questions about water, energy and noise.

“Regardless of the outcome of any single measure, our commitment to the communities where we operate remains the same,” the company said in a statement.

The legal victory was further validation for the mission of Conserve Ohio, whose core principle is allowing residents to decide whether they want large data centers. Baurichter calls it “people’s veto.”

The win was also fuel for Owens, Baurichter and other core members of the group, which holds Sunday night meetings to plot their next moves to slow, if not stop, hyperscale data center development in Ohio.

The friendship that’s developed over the past seven months — Owens says they’re “brothers from another mother" — isn’t something either would have seen coming if not for their shared concern about the impact of data center development.

Like the broader data center resistance movement, their friendship cuts across political and ideological lines.

Owens worked as a staffer for then-Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) before law school. A former state Board of Education member, he ran unsuccessfully for the Ohio House in 2020 and was a delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Meanwhile, Baurichter jokes that some of his political views make “Bernie Sanders look like a Republican.” Until earlier this year, he worked as an associate attorney at Bricker Graydon Wyatt, a large law firm in Ohio and surrounding states.

He began as a paralegal at the firm in 2019 and worked his way through night law school. However, he resigned in February after learning through a Facebook post the firm was working on data center projects.

“I can't be lending my time, talent and efforts to a firm that's freaking screwing over my neighbors,” he said.

Bricker Graydon Wyatt did not respond to a request for comment.

'Intensifying' local opposition

In at least some of the Ohio cities where data centers are on the ballot, the industry and its allies are fighting back.

In Oregon, a city of fewer than 20,000 people, Vantage Data Centers gave $250,000 to a political action committee the company created called Opportunity on the Bay that aims to defeat the city’s anti-data-center measure.

Vantage Data Centers acknowledged its involvement and said, “We respect residents’ right to decide the charter amendment and will evaluate the implications for our proposal once the results are known.”

Ohio has emerged as a data center hot spot. A report last month from real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield identified the Columbus area — and specifically suburban New Albany — as among the most active markets.

The report notes, however, that political and regulatory scrutiny is prominent and “local opposition is also intensifying.”

Piqua, Ohio, a city of about 20,000 people a half hour north of Dayton, is one example. There, social media giant Meta is planning a $1 billion data center codenamed Project Klondike on just over 600 acres. Many residents are unhappy with how it unfolded.

Its development over the last two years followed a pattern familiar across Ohio and the country: land deals, shell companies and nondisclosure agreements that left residents in the dark, said Alisha Lange, who’s leading the charge locally to ban large data centers in Piqua.

Lange stumbled on the project through an unrelated public records request to the Ohio EPA. “I remember seeing Project Klondike, and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?'” she recalls.

Lange, who has earned the nickname “FOIA queen” for her doggedness in pursuing public records under the Freedom of Information Act, helped Conserve Ohio gather signatures for the statewide constitutional amendment. When that fell through, they decided to pursue a local charter amendment using language drafted by Owens and Baurichter.

Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Piqua group isn’t stopping there. Also on the ballot on Nov. 3 are measures seeking to recall three City Council members.

And in February, voters in the city will return to the polls to consider three more issues that stem from citizen petitions, including a total ban on data centers and cryptocurrency mining.

For all the frustration, Lange said coming together with others to gather petition signatures and make their voice heard has been a source of hope.

“We had Democrats, Republicans and a couple people that profess to be independent all behind the same table together every day standing aligned with the same goals,” Lange said. “It was a beautiful thing.”