A $3.6 billion, 133‑acre data center project in Lordstown is now a full-blown legal fight over whether the village is stalling approvals despite repealing its formal ban.
The developers are pushing the Ohio Supreme Court to force Lordstown to process their application, arguing data centers were permitted when they filed and that the village used a not-yet-passed ban and office closure as a blocking tactic.
This is a large-scale AI-era facility profile: 1,600 construction jobs, 120 high-wage permanent roles, plus a proposed $10.8 million payment for water infrastructure and a community fund, signaling major power and cooling demands that hinge on upgraded utilities.
Operationally, the project is stuck because village officials still haven’t authorized the engineer’s formal review, and a new six-month moratorium on data centers adds more uncertainty to timing and risk.
For GPU capacity and regional AI build-out, the key signal is that local zoning politics and infrastructure bargaining are now gating factors on billion-dollar data center footprints.
Vendors and operators should read this as a reminder that power, water, and municipal risk are now as strategic as GPUs and land when planning AI-scale sites.
The full filing and timeline detail make the linked piece useful for anyone tracking how local policy can shape where the next wave of AI data centers actually lands.
Source: Data center developer submits evidence in lawsuit against Lordstown – WFMJ.com
