By 1808Delaware
Sunbury Mayor Joe St. John announced plans for a potential moratorium on data centers during Wednesday night’s State of the City event at Big Walnut High School, signaling a pause as the city considers one of its most significant development proposals in recent years.
The move comes as Sunbury reviews a rezoning request tied to a large Amazon-linked data center project planned for more than 300 acres in and around the city’s new industrial park off Vans Valley Road.
City officials say interest in data centers and artificial intelligence-related development has been accelerating across the country, bringing both economic opportunity and complex infrastructure and planning challenges. In Sunbury, that broader trend has taken shape in a proposal to rezone more than 330 acres for industrial and data center use. At the center of the request is a roughly 200-acre Amazon data center, part of a larger regional investment estimated at around $2 billion. The local facility itself is expected to create approximately 50 jobs.
Despite the scale of the proposal, city leadership is signaling a deliberate approach. The proposed moratorium would temporarily pause consideration of data center, hyperscaler, and AI-related projects to allow additional time for analysis, expert input, and public engagement.
The goal, according to city officials, is to ensure that decisions are based on a full understanding of infrastructure demands, long-term planning considerations, and potential community impacts.
The rezoning process has already experienced delays. An initial public hearing was postponed after errors were identified in parcel numbers within the application. The corrected proposal is now scheduled for a public hearing on March 23, when Sunbury City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission will gather public input before moving forward with recommendations or decisions. To support public understanding, the city has created a dedicated “Data Center” section on its website, including frequently asked questions, zoning materials, and summaries of recent meetings. It can be found here.
Community response has been strong and highly engaged. Recent Planning and Zoning Commission meetings have drawn large crowds, with residents expressing concerns about water usage, environmental impact, energy demand, and the potential strain on infrastructure and community character. At the same time, supporters point to the economic upside, including increased tax revenue and the broader ripple effects of data center investment across Delaware County and central Ohio.
Energy use has emerged as a central issue in the discussion. Hyperscale data centers can require electricity on the scale of tens of thousands of homes, raising questions about capacity, sustainability, and long-term planning.
City leadership has also begun outreach to stakeholders connected to the project. Early conversations suggest that involved parties are willing to participate in a broader public discussion and contribute research and testimony as the process moves forward. With a proposed moratorium under consideration and a key public hearing set for March 23, Sunbury is entering a critical phase—one that will shape how the community balances economic development with infrastructure realities and local priorities.
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