Pierce Township (Ohio)에서 제안된 300 MW 데이터센터 시설이 지역 개발 모라토리움에도 불구하고 추진되며, 입지 마찰을 드러낸다.

A San Francisco-based company is proposing a 300-megawatt data center in Pierce Township despite a community moratorium that lasts through May 2027. Crane Data Centers is eyeing 300 acres of wooded hillside across the street from the now-closed Walter C. Beckjord Generating Station, with plans to construct three buildings of 200,000 to 300,000 square feet each.

A Crane Data Centers representative presented the project to the Pierce Township Zoning Commission last week. The proposal includes a grid connection study to the Duke Energy transmission system near the former Beckjord plant, scheduled for September and October. Crane also plans to build a new substation to interconnect to the transmission system, which the company says would increase Pierce Township's grid reliability for the surrounding community.

However, the project faces substantial local opposition. Pierce Township Board of Trustees Chairman Allen Freeman stated that the board twice extended its moratorium on data centers, with the ban now extending through May 2027 to give the zoning commission time to create new regulations. "We're not entertaining any data centers, much less Crane," Freeman said. "One of the things that we've been really focused on is protecting our community from data centers. We wanted to get ahead of the curve and also put guardrails on where a data center should go, or whether we even want them in our community."

Freeman characterized Crane's presentation as "basically a sales pitch" that did not constitute a formal proposal or zoning request. He raised concerns common to all data center projects in the area: water usage, noise levels, and power usage. He also expressed strong opposition to Crane's plan to develop 300 acres of woodlands, potentially including hillside removal. "You start off at a deficit with me when you start talking about taking a piece of land that probably has a higher and better use as it stands now," Freeman said. "This is a township that, quite frankly, values its green space. And our public makes it very clear that it is something that's important to them and they're willing to fight over."

Crane initially targeted the Beckjord site itself before selecting the current location. Built in the 1950s as a coal-fired plant, Beckjord produced electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Southwest Ohio until Duke Energy closed it in 2014. Duke Energy sold the 1,400-acre site four years later to Missouri-based Commercial Liability Partners and its subsidiary, New Richmond Development Corp. In June 2026, the Clermont County Board of Commissioners issued a formal Notice of Intent to Sue the owners and former operators, giving them 90 days to remove billions of pounds of coal ash from the site and conduct safety and remediation efforts.

The contamination concern is significant: leftover coal ash is stored in unlined ash ponds in the Ohio River floodplain, which supplies drinking water for 5 million people in the region. The ash pits are just 1,000 feet from Clermont County's primary drinking water wells serving 145,000 residents. According to Crane spokesperson Connie Zweigle, "While we initially targeted the former Beckjord coal plant site with the understanding that the contamination had been remediated, we later discovered that significant contamination was still being addressed by the current owners. It's our understanding the current owners continue to remediate the contamination."

Crane emphasized that the site it is now considering is zoned "industrial" rather than "residential." Zweigle stated, "Our team does not target sites zoned 'residential' unless the local community requests us to do so. We specifically target industrial-zoned sites because the community has already identified them as places to encourage business and economic growth."

The proposed data center would serve enterprise customers such as banks, hospitals, and major tech firms. Crane's proposal includes sustainability features: a closed-loop cooling system that eliminates ongoing water needs, on-site solar, a rainwater harvesting system, sound-absorbing enclosures with acoustic baffles, and downward-directed and shielded fixtures to prevent light pollution. The company referenced a near-complete project in Forest Grove, Oregon, where the site layout was redesigned to preserve a historic community Sequoia tree. The Pierce Township proposal mentioned plans for recreational trails, family or dog parks, and picnic areas to "transform buffer acreage into active, accessible community assets that bring visitors and vitality to Pierce Township."

Freeman acknowledged that the area's proximity to the Duke Energy transmission system, major highways, and the Ohio River's water supply could make it attractive for data center development. However, he maintained that the township should move deliberately. "I think taking a slower approach to data centers is a wiser way to go," he said.

Freeman encouraged residents to attend the Pierce Township Zoning Commission meeting on October 6, where data center restrictions will be discussed. "Their voice needs to be heard in this matter. This is too important for people to not participate in. If you have an opinion or a thought, and you want to get it heard, October 6th is the day," Freeman said.