Sunbury Schedules Oct. 22 Special Meeting on Data Centers Ahead of Charter Vote
The council forum will address community concerns over a proposed $2 billion Amazon campus as Sunbury voters prepare to decide on a 25-megawatt restriction.
Sunbury City Council has scheduled a third dedicated special meeting on data centers for Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at Sunbury Town Hall, 51 E. Cherry Street.
The upcoming public session was formally announced under adjournment notices on the agenda published Oct. 2 for council's regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The meeting will assemble municipal officials and residents to examine technology campus impacts less than two weeks before Sunbury electors vote on a binding ballot measure that could halt hyperscale development inside the municipality.
Sequence of Public Forums
The Oct. 22 forum represents the third session in an educational sequence initiated by city leaders to address neighborhood concerns regarding hyperscale industrial facilities.
The first of three special Sunbury City Council meetings on a proposed Amazon data center answered some residents’ questions about water and electricity, but left many with lingering concerns when it convened June 25, 2026, at the Big Walnut High School auditorium. During that opening forum, City Administrator Daryl Hennessy invited Brian Coghlan, chief operating officer of Del-Co Water and president of the Ohio chapter of the WateReuse Association, and John Seryak, managing partner of the consulting firm Go Sustainable Energy, to present information and answer audience questions.
At that session, Coghlan emphasized that Delaware County sits at the headwaters of the Ohio River basin with finite water resources. If built, the proposed Amazon data center would become Del-Co’s largest customer by a wide margin, using an estimated 7% to 8% of the system’s capacity. Coghlan noted that while households would maintain priority during droughts, supplying the campus would require extensive hydrologic reviews and long-term water user agreements.
Addressing electric infrastructure, Seryak said the proposed data center could require between 100 and 300 megawatts of power, depending on its final size and design. Seryak noted that Sunbury as a whole consumes approximately 10 megawatts, meaning a single large facility could draw 10 to 30 times more electricity than the entire city.
City Council held its second special public meeting on Aug. 27, 2026, after Mr. Hennessy announced that the City's second special meeting on data centers will be held on August 27 at 6:30 p.m. and will include presentations on land use and zoning best practices, and the potential economic development impacts of the proposed project. That forum concentrated on buffering standards, environmental controls, and commercial property tax agreements.
Moratorium and the $2 Billion Amazon Proposal
The series of informational meetings unfolds against an active municipal development freeze and a multi-billion-dollar corporate proposal.
On April 15, 2026, Sunbury City Council unanimously enacted Resolution No. 2026.12, establishing a municipal moratorium on data center construction, expansion, and rezoning approvals through Jan. 31, 2027. Despite the moratorium, residents have expressed ongoing skepticism about administrative negotiations, with some noting during earlier hearings that “They think there’s a moratorium on it, and they’re like, ‘Well, nothing is moving forward right now anyway’.”
Public interest intensified after the released records show Sunbury officials spent more than a year building the zoning, tax, utility and infrastructure framework for large-scale technology development before Amazon Web Services publicly announced plans for a proposed $2 billion data center campus. Those municipal documents revealed a July 2023 non-disclosure agreement between the city and Amazon Data Services, as well as an update to the city's Limited Industrial zoning district where the zoning code explicitly lists “data center” as a permitted use within the district. Financial models released by the city evaluated a four-building campus generating roughly 100 direct operational jobs.
High-Stakes Charter Vote and Regional Opposition
The Oct. 22 meeting will take place amid an escalating political confrontation heading toward the Tuesday, Nov. 3 general election.
City Manager Daryl Hennessy confirmed that the ordinance authorizing the City Clerk to certify the proposed amendment prohibiting data centers in the City Charter had been submitted to the Delaware County Board of Elections on July 21, ahead of the required deadline.
Under that citizen-initiated charter amendment, Sunbury voters will decide whether to prohibit the construction and operation of data centers that consume more than 25 megawatts of electricity. Sunbury is one of several municipalities across the state where nine petitions — in Conneaut, Defiance, Granville, Oregon, Pataskala, Piqua, Sunbury, Trenton, and Upper Sandusky — mirror a statewide effort to ban data centers that draw over 25 megawatts of energy per month.
The ballot measure reflects broader community mobilization across central Ohio against rapid data center expansion. Previously, Pique covered "Grove City Voters to Decide Issue 28 Mandating Referendums on Heavy Industry and Data Centers," examining a citizen-initiated charter amendment in southwest Franklin County to require mandatory public referendums on large-scale technology projects. In Grove City, Pleasant Township resident Jen Belt lives within two miles of a proposed data center in Grove City. She was part of a petition drive to make any new heavy industrial project in Grove City — not just data centers — subject to a citywide vote.
With the municipal moratorium set to expire Jan. 31, 2027, the Oct. 22 special meeting at Sunbury Town Hall offers residents one final official forum before casting ballots Nov. 3 on whether to permanently restrict large data centers within city limits.
How we know this
The sources and records behind this story, with the facts they support.
Council · City Council Meeting 10/7/2026 · agenda
Supporting evidence (2)
Sunbury City Council has scheduled a third dedicated special meeting on data centers for Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at Sunbury Town Hall, 51 E.
Read supporting passage
51 E. Cherry Street, 3rd Floor, Sunbury, Ohio 43074
The upcoming public session was formally announced under adjournment notices on the agenda published Oct. 2 for council's regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Read supporting passage
Special Meeting on Data Centers – October 22, 2026 at 6:30 pm at the Sunbury City Council
Supporting evidence (5)
The first of three special Sunbury City Council meetings on a proposed Amazon data center answered some residents’ questions about water and electricity, but left many with lingering concerns when it convened June 25, 2026, at the Big Walnut High School auditorium.
Read supporting passage
The first of three special Sunbury City Council meetings on a proposed Amazon data center answered some residents’ questions about water and electricity, but left many with lingering concerns.
During that opening forum, City Administrator Daryl Hennessy invited Brian Coghlan, chief operating officer of Del-Co Water and president of the Ohio chapter of the WateReuse Association, and John Seryak, managing partner of the consulting firm Go Sustainable Energy, to present information and answer audience questions.
Read supporting passage
City Administrator Daryl Hennessy invited Brian Coghlan, chief operating officer of Del-Co Water and president of the Ohio chapter of the WateReuse Association, and John Seryak, managing partner of the consulting firm Go Sustainable Energy, to present information and answer audience questions.
If built, the proposed Amazon data center would become Del-Co’s largest customer by a wide margin, using an estimated 7% to 8% of the system’s capacity.
Addressing electric infrastructure, Seryak said the proposed data center could require between 100 and 300 megawatts of power, depending on its final size and design.
Read supporting passage
Seryak said the proposed data center could require between 100 and 300 megawatts of power, depending on its final size and design.
Despite the moratorium, residents have expressed ongoing skepticism about administrative negotiations, with some noting during earlier hearings that “They think there’s a moratorium on it, and they’re like, ‘Well, nothing is moving forward right now anyway’.”
Read supporting passage
They think there’s a moratorium on it, and they’re like, ‘Well, nothing is moving forward right now anyway.’
Council · City Council Meeting Agenda - 8/5/2026 · minutes
Supporting evidence (2)
City Council held its second special public meeting on Aug. 27, 2026, after Mr.
Read supporting passage
Mr. Hennessy announced that the City's second special meeting on data centers will be held on August 27 at 6:30 p.m. and will include presentations on land use and zoning best practices, and the potential economic development impacts of the proposed project.
City Manager Daryl Hennessy confirmed that the ordinance authorizing the City Clerk to certify the proposed amendment prohibiting data centers in the City Charter had been submitted to the Delaware County Board of Elections on July 21, ahead of the required deadline.
Read supporting passage
He reported that the ordinance authorizing the City Clerk to certify the proposed amendment prohibiting data centers in the City Charter had been submitted to the Delaware County Board of Elections on July 21, ahead of the required deadline.
Supporting evidence (2)
Public interest intensified after the released records show Sunbury officials spent more than a year building the zoning, tax, utility and infrastructure framework for large-scale technology development before Amazon Web Services publicly announced plans for a proposed $2 billion data center campus.
Read supporting passage
The released records show Sunbury officials spent more than a year building the zoning, tax, utility and infrastructure framework for large-scale technology development before Amazon Web Services publicly announced plans for a proposed $2 billion data center campus.
Those municipal documents revealed a July 2023 non-disclosure agreement between the city and Amazon Data Services, as well as an update to the city's Limited Industrial zoning district where the zoning code explicitly lists “data center” as a permitted use within the district.
Read supporting passage
The zoning code explicitly lists “data center” as a permitted use within the district.
Supporting evidence (2)
Sunbury is one of several municipalities across the state where nine petitions — in Conneaut, Defiance, Granville, Oregon, Pataskala, Piqua, Sunbury, Trenton, and Upper Sandusky — mirror a statewide effort to ban data centers that draw over 25 megawatts of energy per month.
Read supporting passage
Nine petitions — in Conneaut, Defiance, Granville, Oregon, Pataskala, Piqua, Sunbury, Trenton, and Upper Sandusky — mirror a statewide effort to ban data centers that draw over 25 megawatts of energy per month.
In Grove City, Pleasant Township resident Jen Belt lives within two miles of a proposed data center in Grove City.
Read supporting passage
Pleasant Township resident Jen Belt lives within two miles of a proposed data center in Grove City. She was part of a petition drive to make any new heavy industrial project in Grove City — not just data centers — subject to a citywide vote.