HAMILTON, OH − A hearing for a proposed Amazon data center was cancelled at the last minute after a southwest Ohio city withdrew its petition to annex land for the project.
The city of Trenton wanted to annex about 600 acres in neighboring Madison and St. Clair townships for the 18-building data center, but the two rural townships previously refused to give up the land, citing concerns over traffic, road maintenance and economic incentives.
The city ended its current attempt to annex the land Sept. 14, but it could try again in the future.
The Butler County Board of Commissioners were set to hear the annexation petition at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 15. The commissioners still gathered at the scheduled time and location to update the public and vote to officially
cancel the hearing.
The three county commissioners said they were upset the controversial annexation attempt wasn't getting a public hearing.
"With this being an ongoing news item on every major network and paper, people were anticipating some answers to this," commissioner T.C. Rogers said. "There's a lot of work that was put in just prior to that ... when they asked to withdraw it."
City wanted to reschedule hearing until after election
Trenton residents will get to vote on whether to ban data centers from the city this November. During a presentation to Trenton City Council on Sept. 3, city officials said that the ban would only apply to data centers "within city limits."
Butler County Administrator Judi Boyko said during the meeting that she received a letter from Trenton attorney Nicholas Ziepfel on Sept. 11 asking to reschedule the hearing to after the November election.
Boyko read from Ziepfel's letter: "This request does not reflect any change in the petitioner's position on the petition. The petitioners continue to support the annexation and intend to proceed with the hearing after the Nov. 3, 2026 election."
Boyko said she responded to Ziepfel that any reschedule would need to be addressed by the board in a public session.
Then, around 3:30 p.m. Sept. 14 − less than a day before the scheduled hearing − Boyko said she and the commissioners received a notice that Trenton was ending its current attempt to annex the land. The Sept. 14 letter said it was withdrawing the petition because the commissioners hadn't moved the hearing and the meeting was still scheduled for the next day.
The city could refile the annexation petition at a later date. A representative for the city of Trenton did not respond to questions about why the city withdrew the petition and if it plans to refile by publication.
County finds out at '11th hour'
Trenton tried to annex the land under an expedited process for major economic development projects. Because the two townships objected to the annexation, Ohio law required a board of commissioners hearing. The commissioners would have had to approve or reject the petition within 30 days of the hearing, or Oct. 15.
If the commissioners approved the annexation, the townships would not have had the ability to challenge the decision under Ohio law.
Commissioner Cindy Carpenter said that the board thinks there should be transparency surrounding the annexation and proposed data center.
"That's something that we intended to keep looking at as this moves forward, whatever happens," Carpenter said. "And we are looking out for the best interests of all of the residents of Butler County."
Commissioner Don Dixon said the county keeps finding out about developments surrounding the data center "at the 11th hour."
He said during the meeting that when Amazon Web Services approached the county about the proposed data center, a representative said they hadn't met with the townships. Dixon said he wanted to make sure the project was done in a "cooperative manner" that met the townships' demands.
"Whether you're for this or against it, there's a process that is prescribed in the way this moves forward and it needs to be an open, informative format that everybody can get the information they need to make a decision," he said. "I was looking forward to this hearing because I had a lot of questions and a lot of interest in how it's going to work."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: SW Ohio city abruptly withdraws petition for Amazon data center
