Data centers in Lawrence County, Ohio: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Lawrence County's data center arrived without a public hearing. In December 2025 Strata Expanse, a company from The Woodlands, Texas, held a ribbon-cutting for an AI data center at 1476 County Road 1A near Hanging Rock, in Hamilton Township, with RAVEL and Supermicro as tenants and collaborators. The Lawrence County Economic Development Corporation sold it the land. Hamilton Township has no zoning, and because Strata Expanse asked for no tax breaks, there was no public comment period, the corporation's executive director, Bill Dingus, said. The company says it will generate its own power from solar and hydrogen, cool with geothermal instead of water, and create 200 to 300 jobs. Dingus said he had not seen its power numbers but had seen its business plan.

Ironton has no say over the site, but its council held a special meeting on January 8, 2026. "It basically is probably a moot discussion because you know there's just no places in Ironton where a data center could ever go," Dingus said. Councilman Jacob Hock said the meeting "raised more concerns than it resolved," adding that Dingus "seems to be pretty ill-informed about data centers and their potential impact on the community." "I don't believe that 16 jobs are worth the possibility," said Councilman Chris Haney. A petition, "Stop the AI data centers in Lawrence County, Ohio," drew more than 5,000 signatures, and Ironton adopted a moratorium on new data centers on February 12, 2026.

At a May 2026 meeting the county commissioners debated whether to take over zoning from the townships. "I think it is unchartered waters that the county would enter into countywide zoning," said Commissioner DeAnna Holliday; Commissioner Colton Copley called the idea an overstep unless the trustees asked for it.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.