The Shalersville Township Board of Trustees convened a special meeting on January 27 at the Shalersville Town Hall to discuss the Amendment passed by the Shalersville Township Zoning Commission applicable to Conditional Use Permits for an Artificial Intelligence Data Center to be built and operated in Shalersville Township.
“We are looking at it if things arise and we get feedback from towns that have stuff,” said Board Chairman and Trustee Frank Ruehr, Jr. “Zoning is a living document. The zoning area has changed, it is a living document, and we look at it periodically. We are only looking at it to insure providing additional protection for the health, safety, and welfare of our constituents.”
The Board had placed a moratorium on any potential construction or application submissions for an AI Data Center which lasts until May,
Vice Chairman and Trustee Ron Kotkowski read the Amendment to the Shalersville Zoning Code for Conditional Use Permits passed by the Shalersville Township Zoning Commission on Jan. 8. The Portage County Regional Planning Commission staff had recommended approval of the Amendment which was then submitted to this Board for consideration.
The amendment was adopted to provide and ensure that the interest of public convenience, comfort, prosperity, and general welfare would still be maintained in the event that an AI Data Center was built in Shalersville Township, which included zoning requirements for noise regulation and utility usage that would not adversely affect the cost of utilities to the surrounding township areas or the township as a whole.
Kotkowski said that PCRPC considered all of the conditions to be reasonable and that each item needed to be demonstrated in writing prior to the satisfaction of the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Board was also speaking with its legal counsel, the law firm of Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffith & Dougherty, whom the Board had frequently used for joint economic district matters.
In attendance were representatives of the Geis Companies, a construction management firm from Streetsboro, which owns the land adjacent to the Ohio Turnpike west of State Route 44, which could be a prospective site for the AI Data Center. Geis’ representatives included President Bob Fridrich and company attorney Todd Hunt.
Resident Chris Martin asked if there was any consideration to retrofitting an existing building to become an AI Data Center. Ruehr, Jr. said that there had been no mention of retrofitting an existing building, as none of the current buildings were conducive to the operation of an AI Data Center.
Kotkowski added that the Board also had discussed the possibility of constructing a building primarily for Bitcoin Mining, which was the process of using specialized computers to solve complicated mathematical equations.
Fridrich stressed that there had been no official applications submitted to build an AI Data Center, as Geis’ attendance at the meeting was strictly to discuss the conditional use language that the STZC had adopted and calm any fears about the effect an AI Data Center would have on the Township and its residence.
Ruehr, Jr. informed the Geis representatives that their site was not the only site that could be deemed suitable for an AI Data Center, as there were several locations throughout Shalersville Township that would be suitable.
Fridrich also said that the size of the building was possibly being overstated.
“I think that you see stories of giant buildings, but the reality is that what we have heard from people in the news is it could be a lot of small ones. Data centers are not really new. Anybody who has a bank has a data center where your banking files are maintained and so they are in smaller buildings and rooms that banks hold, so I think there is this misunderstanding potentially of what it is,” he added.
According to Kotkowski, AI data centers are a hot topic and there was a lot of information to sift through, so it was difficult to figure out what was true and what wasn’t.
“We don’t want to be caught flat-footed,” he said. “We want to be ahead of the eight-ball just so if one comes in, then everyone is happy.”
Having reviewed the list of conditional use requirements, Hunt said that he noticed the STZC’s Amendment prohibited the Data Center’s use of well water and argued that it was an unrealistic request.
“We don’t know if we need to use well water but if we do have to use it, we have a right to use it, so if there is a major impact on some neighboring properties because of that, we understand that, but we still have a right to use the well water and to ban that completely is frankly unconstitutional,” he said.
Ruehr, Jr. acknowledged that Hunt’s argument was valid but added there could be significant consequences to the community if the AI Data Center relied too heavily on well water, as there was a chance that if they used too much water, neighbors would potentially run out of water for their households.
Fridrich said that Geis recently did a noise test on a building on its site and the measurements registered over an average of 50 decibels, which exceeded the maximum decibels allowed by the Amendment.
Martin then spoke about all the maintenance that was required to successfully operate an AI Data Center, including having glycol cooling and heating towers, geothermal cooling and the amount of wattage needed to support that equipment.
“How much power is too much?” he asked. “100 million? 200 million? 500 million? A billion watts? Your generators, are they going to be diesel? Are they going to be natural gas or butane?”
Martin added that he was not convinced that there would be much benefit for an AI Data Center to come to Shalersville Township and did not believe that there would be many full-time employment opportunities for residents.
Fridrich acknowledged that there were a lot of variables that Geis or the Township could not control regarding electrical output, as that was something that would probably be best regulated by the power company.
“We are trying to raise our hands and say it is not that we are against the concept,” he noted. “It almost feels like it should be a governmental type thing that someone there says that we will answer.”
Hunt informed the Board that once the public zoning meeting officially ended, the Board had 20 days to decide whether to approve the conditional requirements laid out by the STZC.
Ruehr, Jr. made a motion for the Board to table these discussions, extending the public zoning meeting so they could gather more information which included a potential walkthrough of Geis’ site to determine how suitable it may be for an AI Data Center.
“I would like to let our firm look at this more and we can talk to them about what you gentlemen said,” Ruehr, Jr. told Geis’ representatives. “I would like to make a motion to table this until such time is needed to address these concerns and we will post the meeting and contact you and give you 20 days’ notice and we will pick up where we left off.”
His motion carried unanimously, and the Board concluded the public special zoning meeting.
