By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
After hearing from a room overflowing with residents opposed to more zoning changes for the Meta data center, the Middleton Township Trustees voted Thursday evening to deny the latest zoning request.
Two of the three trustees – Michael Moulton and Melissa Petrea – voted against Meta’s request to change another 39.265 acres from A-agricultural to M-1 light industrial to allow for more parking lots for construction workers on the sprawling site. Trustee Fred Vetter voted in favor of the zoning change.
The decision was a rare victory for the township residents tired of the data center complex morphing from the original 288 acres to 983 acres – and another nearly 200 acres for the onsite power plant being constructed.
Meta’s attorney, Chris Ingram, told the trustees it was their legal duty to follow the county comprehensive plan and zone the property for economic development. With more than 1,000 construction workers on the site, more parking space has become necessary, according to Meta officials.
Ingram said additional parking is crucial for the data center project, adding that if the 39 acres on the east side of Ohio 25 and the north side of the data center complex was not rezoned for parking that the alternative would be less appealing to neighbors.
Workers would have to be shuttled to the construction site from the former Calphalon plant already being rented by Meta south of Ohio 582, Ingram said. That will cause unnecessary delays and traffic congestion.
But township residents pushed back on both arguments – that the trustees had an obligation to rezone the property, and that more onsite parking was necessary.
Jim Demond, of Mercer Road, said the Ohio Revised Code does not require townships to fall inline with county comprehensive plans. Tenesha Ulrich, of Carter Road, echoed that, noting that Wood County Commissioner Craig LaHote said township officials are not bound by the county comprehensive plan.
“I encourage you to vote your conscience,” Ulrich said to the Middleton Township Trustees.
Scott Snyder, of Dunbridge Road, asked the trustees how the additional traffic would be managed off Route 25 if a 39-acre parking lot were to be added. “That’s gonna be terrible,” he said.
Demond said the shuttling of workers would make more sense, since they could then use the roundabout on Route 582 that was constructed for the data center.
John Eggenton, of Haskins, pointed out that rezoning property M-1 light industrial for temporary parking does not qualify as economic development. He suggested that the trustees listen to their residents.
“Listen to everyone who elected you,” Eggenton said.
Ed Puhala, of Devil’s Hole Road, also argued that temporary parking lots are not a development plan.
And Lydia Watson, of Haskins, noted that “once it’s rezoned to industrial, it’s not going back.”
Other township residents voiced concerns about light and noise pollution, and truck traffic on narrow country roads.
“I had a dump truck almost run me off the road,” said Patricia Fugee, of Dowling Road.
Snyder asked the trustees and the Meta attorney when the project will be done growing.
“When does it stop? What’s the boundaries?” he said.
Lyn Cox, of Monclova Township, said the continuing spread of the project is typical for Meta. The company “announces small, assembles large” and adds a gas plant later.
“You guys are being played by Meta,” Cox said to the trustees.
Another resident of Haskins said the need for more construction worker parking is the consequence of flawed planning. “It sounds like poor developer planning to me,” he said.
While 20 people at the meeting spoke against the zoning change, two people representing Otsego Local School District spoke in favor of the request. Superintendent Kevin O’Shea talked about Otsego going for nearly 26 years without an increase in property taxes. When the district could wait no longer for new money, voters rejected the levy requests twice. The district made $1 million in cuts, then voters passed an income tax,” O’Shea said.
“Economic development does not come to this community often, and when it does, we need to jump on it,” the superintendent said.
And Otsego Board of Education President Brad Anderson submitted a letter that was read into the record, on the Meta project making a substantial investment in the community – with a long-term financial benefit for the district.
While many of the residents at Thursday’s meeting sympathized with the school district, they protested the idea that the only way for the schools to succeed was the destruction of their rural neighborhoods.
“It’s not economic development when all your residents want to leave,” one resident said. “We’ve been blindsided.”
