J5 LLC Data Center, Piqua, Ohio

Piqua voters will decide on November 3, 2026 whether to amend the city charter in a way aimed at stopping a planned data center in Piqua, Miami County, Ohio. The data center is being developed by J5 LLC, doing business as Shaytura LLC, north of Farrington Road and east of Washington Road. The proposed amendment would limit data centers to 25 megawatts; Meta's Piqua project would demand around 1,400 megawatts of power, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.

The Piqua Commission approved a development agreement with J5 on November 3, 2025, after a meeting of more than four hours, for a site in the I-75 Exit 78 Business and Industrial Park. City officials said then that a non-disclosure agreement kept the company's name from them, and City Manager Paul Oberdorfer said he did not know who it was. The plan is for two buildings of about 350,000 square feet each on land along the north side of Farrington Road, built in overlapping phases over three to five years. The city says the project will make a $735,000 payment in lieu of taxes for each building every year of a 15-year abatement and will pay $76 million to extend water, wastewater and power lines and build roads.

Water was the first worry. In November 2025 the utilities director said the city might supply up to 2 million gallons a day at peak from a plant that makes 6.7 million and uses about 2.2 million. By August 2026 the city's economic development director described a closed-loop system using the equivalent of two full-service restaurants. "Is that in the contract?" someone in the audience shouted.

On August 18, 2026 the commission voted 4-1 to grant AES Ohio a 30-year franchise, with a $1 million annual fee paid by the customer, to build and run the electric lines serving the data center; Commissioner Paul Simmons voted no, saying 94.5% of those who spoke had opposed it. "I am going to urge you to reconsider this deal," resident Val Mullikin told the commission, and resident Jonathan Wessel said: "For me, this is the last piece of leverage that the city has in this deal." Vice Mayor Frank DeBrosse, who moved the vote, said: "I support this project. I support the opportunities this investment means for our community and our future." Meta has pledged $8 million to the city, which the interim city manager said would go toward needs such as a new ladder truck and police equipment.

The citizen group Save Piqua has answered with petitions: the charter amendment now headed to the ballot, a referendum on the AES franchise, and recall petitions against Mayor James Vetter, Vice Mayor DeBrosse and Commissioner Rick Walker. Petition organizer Alisha Lange said: "Even though the data centers are driving us apart, the petitions are bringing us together." Piqua is one of 18 Ohio communities voting on data centers in November, and nine of them, including Piqua, have petitions modeled on the Conserve Ohio 25-megawatt limit. Amazon is also pursuing a data center campus in Sidney, in neighboring Shelby County.

What happens next: the charter amendment goes to voters on November 3, though the city's law director warned that a pending Ohio Supreme Court case on signature rules could affect its certification, and she has said the courts, not the commission, decide whether such an amendment is constitutional. The Piqua Commission would have to act on the recall and referendum petitions once they are certified.