Why Shelby County is Very High risk
Score calculated from four factors: power infrastructure, water capacity, land availability, and current exposure (known projects in the county). Shelby County scores 80/100.
Sidney sits in the Dayton Power & Light (AES Ohio) and AEP Ohio overlap corridor. Project Galaxy's specific power supplier and tariff terms have not been fully disclosed; AEP Ohio's 85% data center tariff (effective July 23, 2025) likely governs.
City of Sidney has stated its water system has "sufficient capacity and multiple sources" to support both existing needs and the AWS facility — but residents and the Miami Valley Conservancy District have raised concerns about peak data-center water draw (up to 300 gpm cited).
North side of Millcreek Road, west of Vandemark Road in Sidney's industrial corridor. Pre-existing industrial zoning.
Project Galaxy is approved with construction underway since January 2026. Brightspeed already operates a fiber facility in Sidney; Sidney is part of Amazon's broader Ohio strategy (also: Sunbury, Marysville, Fayette County, Hilliard, Jefferson Township, Jerome Township, Dublin, Southern Point).
The facts, as filed.
Project Galaxy, explained.
On a fall evening in 2025, the Sidney City Council voted to approve a 30-year, 100% real-property tax abatement for Amazon Data Services. The project, code-named Project Galaxy, would site a $3 billion data-center campus on the north side of Millcreek Road, west of Vandemark Road. In exchange for the abatement, AWS agreed to a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) totaling $50 million over 15 years. The project promised 75 permanent jobs with a combined annual payroll of $6.75 million.
The math has become a flashpoint. The abatement is estimated to be worth between $180 million and $350 million over its 30-year term. Divided across 75 permanent jobs, that's between $2.4 million and $4.6 million in foregone tax revenue per job. As Sidney resident Maria Cera wrote in an October 31, 2025 Sidney Daily News op-ed: "That is not a fair trade for Sidney taxpayers, especially given the 30-year duration of the abatement."
Kristin Allen, a Shelby County resident, photographer, and member of a fourth-generation farm family, founded Sidney Citizens for Responsible Development. The group has organized community town halls and pressed Sidney officials for greater transparency. As Allen wrote in a March 2026 op-ed: "Many community members said they didn't know a data center was going in their town until a recent city council meeting." A separate Facebook group, Sidney Citizens Data Center Watch, has gathered more than 150 members.
Sidney's own FAQ page acknowledges the city signed an NDA with AWS during early-stage evaluation. The city's defense: "The NDA allowed city staff to evaluate the project, review infrastructure needs, negotiate terms, and protect Sidney's interests while details were still confidential." The FAQ also addresses water concerns directly, stating Sidney's water system has "sufficient capacity and multiple sources to support existing needs and planned growth, including the AWS facility." The Miami Valley Conservancy District's Mark Ekberg has separately noted that some data centers can consume up to 300 gallons of water per minute — a figure that, if applied at peak load, would represent a substantial demand on any small-city water system.
At a March 2026 community town hall, Shelby County Commissioners attended. No Sidney City Council members did. The Ohio Farm Bureau's Jordan Hoewischer recommended that residents "start a record of well testing every two months, six months in case something ever does happen." Resident Brian Kramer, who attended seeking neutral information, told WHIO: "I didn't really feel like I learned much on the pros or the benefits of the data center coming in, but a lot of the fears."
How we got here.
For Shelby County residents.
The economics
The $2.4M–$4.6M per permanent job foregone-tax figure is the most striking number in any Ohio data-center deal to date. By comparison, Microsoft's Heath/Hebron deal forwent the real-estate abatement entirely. Whether Sidney's 30-year, 100%-abatement structure becomes the model or the cautionary tale will shape every Ohio small-city data-center deal for the next decade.
The water question
Sidney's official position is that water capacity is sufficient. The Miami Valley Conservancy District has cited 300 gpm as a possible peak data-center draw — and Sidney has not published its peak-load modeling for the AWS facility specifically. Residents downstream of the campus and on private wells should follow the Ohio Farm Bureau's recommendation to establish baseline well-water testing before construction is complete.
The NDA precedent
Unlike Mt. Orab and Piqua, Sidney's NDA was disclosed in advance and is included in the city's official FAQ. The city's framing — that the NDA enabled "due diligence and negotiation" — is the most defensible version of the NDA argument. HB 695 would not affect Sidney's NDA practice because cities are exempt under Ohio's home-rule constitutional authority.
The 75-jobs problem
The 75-job number is consistent with comparable AWS projects elsewhere (Microsoft's three Licking County campuses combined: 20 jobs minimum). Hyperscale data centers are deliberately low-headcount; the economic case for tax abatements is therefore based on construction activity, indirect spending, and tax revenue from the PILOT — not direct employment. Whether that case clears the per-job-foregone-tax threshold is the central political question.
Reporting we relied on.
- DataCenterDynamics — Project Galaxy specs and tax-abatement detail
- Sidney Daily News (Maria Cera op-ed) — per-job cost analysis
- Sidney Daily News (Kristin Allen) — founding of Sidney Citizens for Responsible Development
- WHIO — March 6 town hall, Mark Ekberg testimony, well-water concerns
- WDTN / Yahoo News — resident clarity-on-data-center reporting
- City of Sidney Proposed Data Center FAQ — primary city statements, NDA defense, water capacity
- Baxtel — Project Galaxy listing, $50M PILOT detail
- BeBeez International — Amazon broader Ohio strategy detail
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