CHILLICOTHE — Chillicothe residents will get a formal say in how the city writes zoning rules for data centers and related facilities at a public input meeting set for Monday, Nov. 16, at the Yoctangee Park Armory Building.
Mayor Luke Feeney announced the meeting during Monday night’s City Council meeting. The session runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the newly renovated Armory, 199 N. Paint St.
The meeting will gather public input on zoning for data centers, data halls, battery backup storage (BESS), and cryptocurrency exchanges and mining facilities, according to Kathy Dunn, chair of council’s Engineering Committee and a council-at-large member.
“Public input from the meeting will be used to create a new section of the City’s Unified Development Code,” Dunn said.
The zoning work follows a year in which data centers have dominated Chillicothe’s government agenda. Council voted 8-1 on Sept. 14 to rescind the city’s 60-day data center moratorium after a Feb. 20 zoning-certification letter from Chief Building Official Brandon Gill surfaced stating that a data center was a permitted use in the GI General Industrial District. At a council session in late September, Feeney told the audience the building department had not received any data center zoning applications.
