The Dayton City Commission will vote June 24 on a proposal to ban data centers and restrict gas stations and car washes.
The city's planning department recommended the zoning changes at its June 17 meeting.
Jeff Green, director of the Dayton planning department, said they looked at four criteria for their recommendation: water, electric rates, environmental concerns for residents and the financial incentive for the city.
"With the information we have, we believed a ban was best suited at this time," Green said.
Earlier this year, the Dayton City Plan Board recommended to the Dayton City Commission a 180 day moratorium on data center construction that is still in effect.
Data center construction in Ohio has become a heated topic over the last year. A citizen-led petition was started to implement a statewide ban on large-scale data centers, a joint data center committee was created at the statehouse, city governments have issued local moratoriums on new projects, and there's been a recent cessation of new data center tax breaks.
The environmental impact has also been debated, with the Ohio Chamber releasing a report this week about the water usage of data center facilities.
The proposed zoning change comes as the city of Dayton is preparing to revise its decades-old zoning code, and has asked residents for their input. Visit AdaptDayton.com to learn more about the effort and to take a quick survey to provide feedback.
"There's new technology and new things are occurring at a far more rapid pace than 10, 20, 30 years ago in terms of land use criteria and how we wish cities to develop," Green said. "So this is a timely, in our opinion, comprehensive review."
