Ohio residents push data center ban as $5bn Amazon project faces November 10 hearing

A local truck driver who lives half a mile from a proposed $5 billion Amazon data center in Butler County, Ohio, has led a community campaign that could stop the technology giant's major expansion. Barry Blankenship, a resident of St. Clair Township and a key organizer with the Woodsdale and Trenton Environmental Resistance group, has led efforts to block the large computing project. A major hearing scheduled for 10 November before the Butler County Rural Zoning Commission is the latest important challenge facing the development. The proposed project, planned by Amazon Web Services, would include an 18-building data center spread across 600 acres of farmland between Wayne Madison Road and Hawkins Road.Township zoning commission pushes for data center banOpposition to the multi-billion-dollar project reached an important stage when the St. Clair Township Zoning Commission passed a resolution calling for a complete ban on data centers within its zoning area. The recommendation was then sent to the Butler County Rural Zoning Commission, which scheduled a public review for 10 November at 3:00 p.m. While the county commission reviews the proposal, the final decision will belong to St. C...