By 1808Delaware
On Monday at 6:30 PM, the Sunbury Planning and Zoning Commission was set to conduct a public hearing on a rezoning request tied to more than 330 acres on the city’s east side. Instead, according to the City’s Agenda Center, the public hearing has been rescheduled to March 23 to allow for verification of parcel numbers.
The applicant, Sunbury 37 LLC, is asking to rezone four parcels from “Not Zoned” to Limited Industrial District, or LI. On paper, that is a technical land-use change. In practice, it has become one of the most closely watched development questions in the community.
At the center of the conversation is a proposed expansion possibly tied to the existing AWS footprint near Vans Valley.
The Land in Question
The rezoning request covers parcels that form a multi-hundred-acre block, widely reported to total more than 330 acres. If approved, the land would shift into Sunbury’s Limited Industrial District. Under Sunbury’s code, LI zoning allows a range of industrial and technology uses. That includes research facilities, tech campuses, light manufacturing, and logistics. The formal notice does not mention a data center.
But many local people are treating this as an abstract zoning exercise.
Why This Is Seen as an AWS Expansion
The parcels sit near the existing Amazon Web Services operations in the Vans Valley area. Regional coverage and local organizing efforts describe the proposal as paving the way for a large-scale AWS data center campus expansion.
Sunbury has already approved a 30-year Community Reinvestment Area tax abatement tied to the broader development. That incentive package has intensified scrutiny, particularly among residents who are weighing long-term trade-offs. So while the application simply requests LI zoning, the clear understanding locally is that the intended anchor use is a hyperscale data center campus. Other LI-compatible development could follow, but AWS is widely viewed as the primary driver.
Where Residents Can Review the Details
A copy of the Sunbury 37 LLC rezoning application is available for public inspection at the Sunbury Administrative Office, 9 East Granville Street.
That file should include:
- The exact acreage and parcel boundaries
- Any conceptual site layout submitted
- Supporting materials explaining the rezoning rationale
For residents who want to engage substantively on March 23, reviewing that file is essential. Zoning decisions hinge on specifics.
What Opponents Are Saying
Opposition has coalesced around several core concerns. Not everyone is against data centers in principle. But many question whether this location and scale are appropriate. Residents raising concerns about the proposal point to several recurring issues:
Loss of rural character and agricultural identity
Water consumption and potential environmental impacts
Proximity to homes, schools, farms, and existing pipelines
Noise from cooling systems and backup generators
Air quality and expanded electric or gas infrastructure
Construction traffic and long-term strain on local roads
Long-term tax abatements versus relatively modest permanent jobs
A Broader Identity Question
Beneath the technical zoning language is a deeper issue: what Sunbury wants to be. For some residents, the city’s growth trajectory is inevitable, especially given its position along SR 37 and proximity to the Columbus metro expansion. They see tech investment as part of that future. For others, the proposal represents a turning point. They describe a concern about losing the rural character and agricultural identity that has defined the area for generations.
What Happens Next
The public hearing is now set for March 23, 2026. At 6:30 PM, the Planning and Zoning Commission will revisit the request after parcel verification is complete. From there, recommendations would typically move to City Council for final action.
This is where the conversation shifts from abstract to binding. Zoning decisions shape land use for decades. Once land is classified LI, the range of permitted uses expands significantly.
At this stage, it is formally a rezoning request. In reality, it may be a referendum on the scale and speed of Sunbury’s next chapter.
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Bookmark it to explore ongoing coverage.
