WILMINGTON, Clinton County — City leaders are looking to expand the plans for the proposed Amazon data center site in Wilmington.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, Amazon Web Services wants to build a nearly 500-acre, $4 billion data center off US-68 in Wilmington.
Now the city council wants to add another 545 acres to the plan.
During the meeting on Thursday night, the council voted to move this plan to its second reading, which will take place on Feb. 5.
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City council members listened to over 20 people share their concerns about the proposal to add additional land to the project on Thursday night.
>>RELATED: I-TEAM: Data centers, water, and secrets: Companies using NDAs to hide their names, water usage
Many of them wanted to know what this would do to the land.
“I believe it is a poor investment to sell our farmland to foreign or domestic mega corporations who have no real interest in the health of the land they will inevitably see behind,” Larissa Ballard, of Wilmington, said.
During the meeting, there was a map presentation of what the expansion would look like.
Jessica Sharp lives next to the initial 500-acre property proposal.
She wanted to know if the council had considered the risks.
“The impact of noise and air pollution from the hybrid air and water cooled system raises serious concerns about the impacts to nearby properties,” Sharp said.
If approved, the project would take five to six years to build and bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city.
News Center 7’s I-Team previously obtained a statement from Amazon spokesperson Kylee Yonas regarding data centers across the region.
“Our data centers in Ohio exceed industry efficiency standards,” Yonas told the I-Team. “Our Water Use Effectiveness score, which measures the amount of water used per unit of computing power, is three times better than the U.S. industry average. Our commitment to the communities where we operate is equally important, which is why we have invested more than $19.7 billion in Ohio, creating thousands of jobs and supporting local communities through education programs, skills training, and renewable energy projects.”
In addition, Amazon told the I-Team, “We follow standard industry practices with full transparency. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and corporate structures are common in major infrastructure projects, and we work openly with local governments and utilities to ensure fair cost-sharing for any needed infrastructure.”
As of now, there is no timeline for when construction could start for the data center.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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