Why Portage County is High risk
Score calculated from four factors: power infrastructure, water capacity, land availability, and current exposure (known projects in the county). Portage County scores 78/100.
Portage County is served by FirstEnergy / Ohio Edison. Landowner Ray Harner's parcel had a 10-kW substation, but FirstEnergy has only verbally committed to providing additional capacity — council members are demanding written confirmation before any project advances.
Council member Carmen Laudato has stated publicly that Ravenna would need to upgrade its water treatment plant and possibly add a second water tower to support even a small data center — "impossibly expensive propositions." Surrounding rural Portage County is well-water dependent.
Multiple parcels have been identified, including Harner's SR-14 site (across from UH Portage Medical Center), parcels along Lake Street, and Ravenna Township-owned land.
Active proposal at Chestnut Commerce Center; landowner Ray Harner's SR-14 plan; Shalersville Township proposals. Multiple parallel projects across Portage County.
The facts, as filed.
Chestnut Commerce Center / SR-14 Site, explained.
Portage County is a 162,000-person, semi-rural northeastern Ohio county whose seat — the city of Ravenna — sits at the intersection of farmland, suburban Akron, and SR-14. Ravenna's zoning code does not specifically address data centers. Carmen Laudato, council member and chair of the council's three-member planning committee, has been the local champion of the moratorium effort.
The trigger was a proposal by local landowner Ray Harner to use his property along State Route 14, directly across from UH Portage Medical Center, as a data center site. Harner's parcel had an existing 10-kW substation; FirstEnergy / Ohio Edison verbally indicated it would provide an additional 22 kW. Council member Laudato demanded that commitment in writing before any project could advance.
On April 10, 2026, the Ravenna planning committee scheduled an unusual Friday afternoon meeting to discuss a moratorium. Despite the inconvenient time, nearly 100 residents packed council chambers; many stood in the hallway. The committee voted to advance a 12-month moratorium proposal to the full council.
At that April 10 meeting, Ravenna resident Will Hollingsworth — a self-described content creator and digital artist — delivered a four-minute speech that has since been viewed more than 250,000 times on X. Highlights from the speech: "These facilities can use millions of gallons of water per day. We are being asked to drain our reservoirs so a chatbot can write a poem or so our sheriff can generate a picture of himself standing next to Bigfoot." And: "A big employer who uses the water of 50,000 people but only hires about ten people is not an employer. They are an extraction." And the closing line: "I believe that a drop of clean water for a Ravenna child is worth more than a billion AI generated images. Let us choose the child."
Ten days later, on April 20, 2026, the full Ravenna City Council voted unanimously to adopt the one-year moratorium. Volunteer group Portage Residents for Responsible Development circulated the statewide constitutional ballot-amendment petition outside council chambers immediately after the vote. Shalersville Township, adjacent to Ravenna, is now pursuing a parallel moratorium.
How we got here.
For Portage County residents.
The viral effect
The Hollingsworth speech is the first Ohio data-center opposition moment to fully break the local-news barrier. With 250,000+ views on X, the speech reached audiences in states with no data-center conflict yet — making Ravenna a template for organizing in towns whose problems are still six months away. The clarity of the rhetorical frame ("extraction, not employment") has been picked up by Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania opposition organizers.
The water question
Council member Laudato's specific assertion — that Ravenna would need to upgrade its water treatment plant and add a second water tower to support a data center — is the most concrete municipal-cost claim in the Ohio debate. Whether Harner or any future developer is willing to fully pay those costs is the single most important variable for the moratorium's future.
The hospital adjacency
The proposed SR-14 site directly across from UH Portage Medical Center introduces a unique factor: hospital infrastructure has its own power-quality and noise sensitivity. Council member Amy Michael has explicitly cited this adjacency as a reason for her opposition. No other Ohio data-center proposal sits this close to a major medical campus.
What happens at month 12
The moratorium expires in April 2027. Before then, Ravenna's planning committee can either: (1) develop a comprehensive data-center ordinance with strict water, noise, and grid-cost requirements, (2) extend the moratorium, or (3) let it expire. Residents who want to influence the outcome should engage the planning committee now, not wait for the eventual zoning vote.
Reporting we relied on.
- The Portager — primary local reporting on the Harner SR-14 site and council deliberations
- Record-Courier (Ravenna) — April 10 planning-committee meeting coverage
- Futurism — Hollingsworth speech analysis and viral context
- The Cool Down / Yahoo News — Hollingsworth full speech transcript
- Ohio Capital Journal / Statehouse News Bureau — ORRD petition coordination
- Ravenna City Council minutes (April 10 + April 20)
- X / Twitter — Hollingsworth four-minute speech video, 250,000+ views
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