Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The meeting hall at Woodville Township Fire Department was filled, even spilling into open hallways as residents and neighboring citizens packed in for the Woodville Township trustees meeting Oct. 15. Word had quickly spread online and by word of mouth of the meeting, which was said to address talks of a new data center in the township — one that clearly faces steep opposition — with rumors of the developers and realtor, Danberry National Ltd., being in attendance to answer questions.
Community questions were answered at the meeting, but not by parties representing the alleged data center. Instead, what transpired was an open dialogue between trustees and their fellow neighbors.
“Our stance is to be open and transparent about all issues in the government,” Paul Runion, Woodville Township trustee chairman, said in an opening statement to the crowd.
The property in question is off of Anderson Road, covering approximately 450 acres across Woodville Township, Gibsonburg, and Madison Township. There is also land north of this location that could potentially be used for supplemental products and services for the data center. Currently, the land in question is zoned for agriculture.
Runion specified that work being done on County Road 107 is an unrelated project for Amplex.
The potential data center was first brought to the Woodville Township trustees’ attention at the Sept. 22 zoning meeting, when a couple of landowners who have been approached by a realtor and developer attended. But according to Runion, that was the beginning and end of the discussion, with no further action being taken.
If two or more trustees are approached, a public meeting on the subject would be required to take place. However, not wanting a public meeting, one landowner approached only one of the township trustees for an informational conversation.
According to Woodville Township trustee Bill Hammer, one property owner is still on the fence.
“He has given permission for the realtor to list his property, but he is not one hundred percent sold on this data center,” Hammer said.
Runion was glad the landowner spoke with this trustee about what was going on with developers, so trustees weren’t completely blindsided when word began taking a life of its own online.
“It’s been said on Facebook that there have been private meetings,” he said. “That is not the case.”
Further addressing Facebook rumors, Runion said: “There’s some things that are not accurate - like one, like we’re all on board with it. No one here has made a decision. No one. We’re in the very infant stage of even talking with them.”
At this point, Woodville Township representatives are searching for more information.
“We’re being proactive as we can be,” Runion said. “[A] lot of us get our information from the internet, but there’s other resources, and we’re checking with other data centers.”
“We’re also talking to other townships that have [data centers] and other trustees that have these in their jurisdiction to try to get their pros and cons off of this as well,” Hammer said.
Hammer also spoke with Mike Beazley, former City of Oregon administrator, who is working with the unnamed developer of the data center. It was unclear how informative this conversation was.
Township trustees reiterated that a resolution or rezoning request would have to be presented first, and that has yet to happen.
“For requests to be submitted, there would be several steps for the zoning changes to be made, reviewed, and modified — including public hearings, reviews from the Sandusky County Regional Planning Board, approval or denial of the amendment of the zoning request by the Woodville Township Zoning Commission, and then finally a public hearing for the trustees will have the final vote to accept, deny, or modify the zoning changes,” Hammer said. “All these will be announced to the public.”
“We’re here to serve the people,” Hammer said. “That is what we’re here to do.”
“But it’s David and Goliath,” a concerned citizen said.
“Yeah, David did okay on that one,” Runion said, lightening the mood and eliciting laughter from the crowd.
“What else can we do in the meantime — between meetings — as citizens of the area,” another attendee asked. “Besides sit here and wait?”
Runion’s answer — do your homework. He encouraged community members to research data centers and their concerns — so if there is a public hearing, residents have real data to make an impact on decision-makers.
Woodville Township zoning inspector Steve Michaelis was also present at the meeting. As tensions rose during the discussion, Michaelis stepped in to clarify the process that needs to take place and reassure the public that nothing has taken place without their knowledge.
“Legally, anybody that brings something to us, we have to process it. (It) doesn’t mean we have to approve it. It means we have to process it,” Michaelis said. “We have not received an application or anything from the landowners.
“If they send us a requested change to the zoning resolution, we have to have a public hearing. At that hearing, we can approve it, we can deny it, we can change it. At that point, we send it to Regional Planning. They give their recommendation — and all they do is say, ‘Yes, we think this is a good idea,’ or, ‘No, we don’t think it’s a good idea.’ At that point, it goes to the trustees. They have a public hearing. Now they can either approve it, deny it, or change it.
“So regardless of what else happens, there’s going to be two public hearings.”
“With the mass of the numbers of those here tonight, they might decide they don’t want to pursue this any further,” Hammer said, looking out at the crowd before him. “We have no idea. That’s between the landowners and the developers.”
When asked for a show of hands where individuals in attendance were from, over half in the crowd raised their hands as citizens of Gibsonburg. Runion estimated it was 60/40.
Gibsonburg hosted their regular council meeting on Oct. 16. It was not a special meeting related to the topic of the proposed data center, Gibsonburg mayor Steve Fought specified in a public statement preceding the meeting.
“However, I will be making a statement about the current situation and discussing other economic development related things that are relevant to this entire situation in general,” Fought said in a Facebook post.
“As stated before, there are no specifics known regarding an official Data Center proposal/plan, but I will share what is generally known about the topic.”
Fought took questions in an open forum from the public at the meeting.
The next Woodville Township trustee meeting will take place on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Fiscal Office of the Woodville Township Fire Department, located at 321 E. Main Street. The Woodville Township Zoning Commission’s last scheduled meeting for the year will be on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. Additional information can be found at woodvilletownship.org, and residents can voice questions and concerns by emailing woodvilletwp@gmail.com.
