Trending
HUBBARD -- Data centers have been a hot topic across Trumbull County over the past year and Hubbard voters will decide Nov. 3 if they want to ban them from the city.
Hubbard residents collected more than 750 signatures -- nearly twice the minimum 370 required -- in July for an initiative allowing Hubbard residents to decide whether they want to keep or outright ban data centers in the city.
The option comes after residents expressed concerns about a data center development around Deer Creek Golf Course as part of Project Milo, which Mayor Ben Kyle previously spoke of in February 2025. In November 2024, he said the project was still in the site selection and utility research phases, which the unnamed company was doing in five other communities across Ohio.
In May, Kyle confirmed signing a nondisclosure agreement in December 2024, intending to allow the city to gather the “technical and utility” information needed to see whether the city could accommodate something of that scale.
City council passed a one-year halt on the construction, placement, or operation of a data center within the city and declared an emergency a month later.
The election is Nov. 3. Early voting started Tuesday.
Jim Frederick, a Niles resident who spends time in both Niles and Hubbard and helped write the ballot language for the initiative, said he isn't totally against data centers, but he is totally against giving up green space for them.
"If you have property that’s open fields, and it’s not near residential areas, and it can be developed, and no one’s going to sacrifice their quality of life for it, then I’m not really against it," Frederick said. "But I am against it for Hubbard and Hubbard Township because it’s just not that kind of community."
"Nobody moved here because it’s a commercial, industrial mecca. We moved here because it’s a semi-rural area with a very, very nice lifestyle, and we want to keep that."
Frederick said he didn't think he would have suggested writing up the ban and getting a petition together if Kyle, at the first meeting where residents were upset, had diffused any concerns about a data center entering the community.
"He was almost silent in that meeting, and that just left me with a really uneasy feeling, like the thought of a data center here would not bother him," Frederick said.
Sarah Lee, a township property owner who has lived in the city for over a year, said she moved back to the area from Columbus because she wanted her daughter to know her roots.
"I think that the data center just kills everything; no one’s going to want to stay here -- there’s nothing attractive about a data center when they’re in the ground," Lee said. "It sounds attractive -- it’s like a blind date -- you build everything up, you get it in your head what it is, and it never matches reality."
Lee, who has a background in public health, said she's concerned about the community's soil and water, noting that "it doesn't take a genius" to know that the city will not have a population that wants to live there, and their property values will be worthless if their soil and water are negatively affected.
"When the soil and water goes to shit and our electricity rates quadruple because we’re paying for it, are we going to be left with a livable small town community? Absolutely not," she said.
Lee said she's learned and understood the messaging and coordination that has happened behind the scenes, adding that the data center companies are preying on small communities they know are in economic danger.
"They're not going after Poland; you're not seeing anything happening in Canfield; you're not even seeing anything proposed for Boardman," Lee said.
Lee said if the community allows a data center to be built, it'll be outdated in less than five years, adding that she doesn't think people have a clear picture of what they are.
"I think they see, 'Oh, it’s going to be this massive building, it’s going to have a lot of workers,' or they see the ‘Well, it’s going to create all these jobs,'" Lee said. "Construction jobs are temporary; you don't retire from constructing one building for 50 years; you get done and move on. That's not sustainable growth."
Larry LaCivita, a co-owner of Deer Creek Golf Course, explained that Project Milo involved San Francisco-based Crane Data Centers, with which they signed a purchase agreement almost two years ago.
LaCivita said they had to sign NDAs as soon as the city caught wind of the company, meaning he couldn't talk about it with even his wife.
LaCivita called the project the town's "savior," adding that he has that opinion of any data center company that wishes to enter Hubbard.
"Our infrastructure was built back in the ’50s and ’60s. It needs updating. It is tapped out. I talked to the guy who’s head of electrical and Eddie Palestro, who’s the service manager," LaCivita said. They’re 99% tapped out. They can’t add any more industry because they don’t have the power to power them up."
LaCivita said the data center company would rebuild the city's electrical grid, previously noting at a city council meeting that such a feat could cost $15 million to $20 million.
LaCivita said he has developers who want to put an industrial park, data centers or housing on the property, but questioned who would supply the power for it, adding that he's stuck with 170 acres because the city can't supply the infrastructure there.
LaCivita said the data center companies make billions, and they were going to come to the community and rebuild that infrastructure, pay millions in taxes, with no tax abatement attached.
He said he attended the public meeting in McDonald, where a proposed data center at the former McDonald Steel site was projected to generate $7.3 million annually in local taxes. Village council later voted to place a one-year moratorium on the fasciitis.
"I went and talked to the data center there and said, ‘ You interested in this over here?" LaCivita said.
He said the data centers will not ruin residents' wells, as they operate on a closed-loop system, adding that the reason the company wanted the golf course was for the high-tension lines that go right through it, and they would tie the lines into their own substation.
"Crane was going to come in here, they were going to put their data center on one nine, and they were going to keep the other nine as a golf course," LaCivita said.
In terms of how close Milo was to completion, LaCivita said they were at the stage where they were going to come to Hubbard and educate the community.
"I’m sure that we were not the only piece of land they were looking at, but we were the cheapest piece of land," LaCivita said.
LaCivita said Crane representatives became hesitant after seeing news footage of a Hubbard city council meeting where more than 200 residents attended, adding that he pulled the plug on them after they did so.
LaCivita said he believed Milo was a guarantee until that happened. He said his wife wouldn't let him talk then, but he's speaking up now, and they're putting up signs against the ban.
"I’d rather speak and spend money on signs and lose than not do it and wonder what would have happened if I would have done this or would have done that," LaCivita said.
Councilwoman Robin Zambrini, D-2nd Ward, reported on a visit to New Albany to see its business park and data centers in June.
Zambrini said New Albany is full of hyperscale data centers, which aren't a fit for the community, but she doesn't think they should turn their back on other types of development.
"I think we should put controls in place that limit what can come in, that fits our needs, but not on that hyperscale," Zambrini said.
Kyle said Monday that he doesn't want a data center in the city, noting that they don't pose a threat, but serve a purpose.
"I know that they’re going to be an essential part of our society moving forward, but I don’t feel that Hubbard’s the right community for it," Kyle said. "I didn’t give a personal opinion or anything like that when any of the Lake-to-River project, Project Milo, was being researched because there was never a proposal."
"It never even got to like a true planning phase where we, the administration, could weigh in to say, 'Hey, this is bad.' Or, 'Hey, this is good,' you know, whatever it might be."
Kyle announced at a recent council meeting that a real estate broker had reached out to his administration and informed them that a data center was interested in coming to the city, but they were declined because of the moratorium and the ballot initiative.