Pacifico Data Center, Pickaway County, Ohio

Pacifico Energy's plan for a data center and power plant on London Road at Pherson Pike in Muhlenberg Township, Pickaway County, Ohio, cannot go forward for now after the township trustees passed a 12-month moratorium on data centers in February 2026. The moratorium, Resolution 2026-10, bars the "receipt, processing, issuance or approval of any application for a zoning certificate for a data center" until February 3, 2027.

Township zoning inspector Kevin Steward told the trustees on December 29, 2025 that he had been approached about a data center and power plant at the site, and Pacifico Energy of San Juan Capistrano, California, asked for a zoning change application and a variance application. Trustee Jeff Wippel said the draw appeared to be the natural gas line through the property and the electric lines overhead.

The land is zoned farm-residential and owned by a trust, and no zoning application had been filed. "I can't tell you what they're building, how big it is, how small it is," Steward said, adding that he knew only "that it's going to be a data center and a power plant, and somehow AEP is involved." Pacifico, the energy arm of the Pacifico Group, is also behind GW Ranch, an off-grid natural gas plant planned on 8,000 acres in Texas.

Residents filled the trustees' meetings. A petition against the plan gathered more than 700 signatures, DCD reported. Its organizer, Brian Cooper, told the trustees at the February meeting that he held "over a thousand signatures." Cooper said "we're not anti-progress. We're not opposed to technology or economic development."

Speakers worried that heated water from cooling systems could harm the Charles O. Trump Wildlife Area and Big Darby Creek, a State Scenic River near the site, and Patty Hamilton of Stoutsville objected to tax abatements for data centers. "We have 12 months to continue to make sure they know we are serious about our resistance," Carolyn Loxley told the trustees.

Wippel said the pause would "hold things off for a year where we can get our zoning and all that kind of stuff in line, and see what other kind of transparencies happen with the state," pointing to Ohio House Bill 646, which would create a commission to study data centers' effects on communities.

Elsewhere in Pickaway County, EdgeConneX and Amazon are pursuing developments. The village of Ashville adopted another 180-day data center moratorium in July 2026 while EdgeConneX's PowerConneX affiliate seeks Ohio Power Siting Board approval for on-site generation there.

Pacifico may not come back. In July 2026 Community Impact reported that a Pacifico affiliate had applied in Texas for a 2,842-acre data center and natural gas power campus in Cedar Creek, Bastrop County, and that the company was weighing that site against Muhlenberg Township. In its Texas application, the company said the Ohio site could still be considered when the moratorium expires in February 2027, and that state and local incentives will factor into its final choice.

Any rezoning at the site would go first to the township Zoning Board for a hearing, with notice to owners within 200 feet, and the final decision on a zoning change rests with the three Muhlenberg Township trustees. A variance would go separately to the Board of Zoning Appeals, where the trustees have no say.