Findlay leaders 'blown away' by data center tour

FINDLAY — Four Findlay leaders traveled to New Albany on Aug. 25 for an invitation-only tour of the city's data center and industrial development operations. The tour came just two weeks after a closed-door, virtual meeting between Findlay City Council members and that city's economic development group was cancelled due to transparency concerns. Council President David Murphy, a Republican; councilmen Dan DeArment, R-4, and Brad Wagner, R-at-large; and Matt Cordonnier, director of the Hancock Regional Planning Commission, made a three-hour visit that included a one-hour economic development briefing and a bus tour of multiple data center and industrial sites. The trip was disclosed at Tuesday's regular meeting of Findlay City Council after Councilman Dan DeLong, R-7, asked who went and whether they would share their observations. DeLong said he received an invitation to attend the tour from Mayor Christina Muryn. On Tuesday, Muryn said she sent the invitation to all council members. DeArment said the tour was hosted by Regional Growth Partnership, which opened the session with an extended briefing before leading the bus tour. He said other public officials from the cities of Defiance, Oregon, Gibsonburg and Metamora also attended the tour. Earlier this year, RGP held several private, invitation-only briefings for government officials across northwest Ohio on data centers. RGP, a Toledo-based private economic development group, serves a 17-county region and works with JobsOhio and local governments on site searches and early-stage project development. Because it is privately led, the group often works upstream of public disclosure on large industrial and technology projects. RGP has told local officials it wants northwest Ohio to have seven to 10 data center operations. The tour follows the Aug. 12 cancellation of a closed-door virtual briefing with the New Albany Economic Development group, a public entity that manages the New Albany International Business Park, home to Intel's $28 billion semiconductor campus. That session was called off hours before it was set to occur by Muryn, who cited requests from "a number of city council members" objecting to holding the informational briefing privately. The mayor's statement also included a link for the presentation New Albany officials were expected to present to council: datacenters.newalbanyohio.org. Council members who attended the New Albany tour in late August offered strong praise for what they saw. DeArment said the briefing was led by "a really smart guy" who "rattled off data for an hour." He said the group saw nice buildings, picket fences and an overall environment similar to Findlay's Tall Timbers Industrial Park at 1800 Industrial Drive. He said New Albany has 28 data centers, and that number is expected to grow to 40 soon. Wagner called it "an amazing tour" and said he was "blown away with what I was able to consume in just about three hours. I easily could have spent a week down there… We are lucky to have this city in our state. It is mind-blowing." Wagner said the experience was like taking a drink out of a fire hose. Murphy said New Albany's "huge" industrial park was impressive. Council has been actively discussing data centers for months. A 12-month moratorium on data center construction is already in place until April 2027, and the Planning and Zoning Committee has spent recent meetings reviewing a long list of proposed regulations. The Planning and Zoning Committee is expected to continue its discussion of the proposed ordinance at a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Findlay Municipal Building, 318 Dorney Plaza. All committee meetings are open to the public. The meeting will be livestreamed on the city's YouTube channel: FindlayOhio. The Planning & Zoning Committee is chaired by Councilwoman Heather Kensinger, R-at-large, and includes council members Nichole Coleman, R-1; Kevin Cullen, I-5; DeLong and Wagner. As for the public meeting on data centers that council requested last month in the interest of transparency, Muryn said she's working on it. She said the New Albany group is no longer providing "meeting services," and she's attempting to locate a third-party, unbiased presenter. The city of Findlay is maintaining a public information page detailing discussions about the proposed zoning for data centers in the city on its website: www.findlayohio.gov, listed on the Zoning Department's sub-page. The page outlines why the city is creating regulations for large-scale data centers, how the conditional use review process would work within an I-3 Large Scale Industrial District, and the specific infrastructure, noise, safety, and setback standards developers would be required to meet. It also provides documents like the proposed ordinance and a public feedback form. EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to accurately attribute the "like taking a drink out of a fire hose" comment to Wagner. An earlier version inaccurately attributed the comment to DeArment.