TRENTON, OH – Residents of this Southwest Ohio city will get to vote on a charter amendment to ban data centers this November.
Trenton City Council on Sept. 3 took a last-minute vote to certify the petition and send it to the Butler County Board of Elections.
The vote, which didn't appear on the council's agenda before the meeting, came two days after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the council "disregarded" the law by not certifying the resident-led petition in August. The court ordered the council to certify the petition and said residents would have to be able to vote on the amendment during a special election within 60-120 days of the petition being certified.
During the council's meeting, Trenton Mayor Ryan Perry said that the city learned
it could technically hold a special election at the same time − and on the same ballot − as the November general election.
Prosecutor letter handed out to council members
At the beginning of the meeting, an investigator for the Butler County Prosecutor's Office hand-delivered letters to each of the council and the mayor.
The Sept. 3 letter from Prosecutor Michael Gmoser, obtained by The Enquirer, said that while "it had been reported in news outlets that it is too late for the proposed charter amendment" to appear on the November ballot, the deadline hadn't actually passed. According to the Ohio Secretary of State, the deadline to file local questions and issues with county boards of elections was Aug. 5. However, Gmoser said the deadline to submit charter amendments, specifically, is 60 days before - in this case, Sept. 4.
"I trust that the foregoing clarifies that it is not too late to adopt an ordinance for the November 3, 2026 election," Gmoser wrote in the letter. "I leave it to you and your legal counsel to consider all ramifications and consequences of a failure to abide by the ruling of the Ohio Supreme Court in this matter."
'You stifled the community'
The vote to certify the petition did not appear on the agenda before the start of the 7:30 p.m. meeting. City attorney Nick Ziepfel said during the meeting that's because the city didn't receive the prosecutor's guidance with enough time to add it to the agenda.
After the council voted to certify the petition, the room erupted in claps and cheers. However, Nick Owens, an attorney for the statewide advocacy group Conserve Ohio who represented the Trenton petitioners, said it never should have reached a last-minute vote.
"You want community involvement, but in my opinion, you stifled the community involvement and made the taxpayer, you made your own residents, hire an attorney and pay an attorney to go all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court," Owens said during public comment. "It should never have went that far."
Amazon plans data center
Over an hour of Wednesday's meeting was also dedicated to a city staff presentation on an annexation attempt meant to accommodate a proposed Amazon Web Services data center.
Trenton is trying to annex around 600 acres in neighboring Madison and St. Clair townships to build the 18-building data center. However, the boards of trustees for Madison and St. Clair townships voted to officially object to the proposed annexation on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25. The Butler County Board of Commissioners will hear the annexation proposal on Sept. 15.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Trenton residents to vote on data center ban after court victory
