Ravenna OH one-year data center moratorium (2026)
Ravenna, OH — City Council Unanimous One-Year Citywide Data Center Moratorium (April 20, 2026)
Ravenna, OH · City of Ravenna, Ohio — One-Year Data Center Moratorium (Apr. 20, 2026)
- Status
- In effect
- Expires
- April 20, 2027
- Applies to
- Anyone seeking to construct a data center in Ravenna; city zoning and building officials.
- Enforced by
- City of Ravenna / Ravenna City Council
Ravenna City Council voted unanimously on April 20, 2026 to impose a one-year citywide moratorium on data center construction, to give city leaders time to study the issues and make an informed decision. The vote came ten days after a packed council meeting at which resident Will Hollingsworth delivered a four-minute speech against a data center proposed on State Route 14 by local landowner Ray Harner — directly across from UH Portage Medical Center. The speech passed 250,000 views on X and is widely credited with turning local opinion. Ravenna is the seat of Portage County and sits inside a dense cluster of Northeast Ohio municipalities that paused data centers through 2026, including Twinsburg, Cleveland, Lordstown, Painesville, Wellington, Vermilion, Westlake, Avon and neighbouring Shalersville Township. The concentration was sufficient that regional business leaders publicly urged Northeast Ohio communities to stop passing moratoriums.
Who is protected: Ravenna residents, including patients and staff at UH Portage Medical Center opposite the proposed State Route 14 site, through a one-year citywide construction pause.
Legal detail
City of Ravenna, Ohio — citywide moratorium on data center construction, adopted by unanimous City Council vote April 20, 2026 for a term of twelve months. Purpose stated as affording city leaders time to study issues and concerns surrounding data centers before making zoning decisions. Immediate trigger: a data center proposed by landowner Ray Harner on State Route 14 opposite UH Portage Medical Center, and the April 10, 2026 council meeting at which resident Will Hollingsworth's public comment against it circulated widely. Regional context: part of a Northeast Ohio cluster of 2026 municipal pauses — Twinsburg (Ordinance 2026-065, twelve months, see Twinsburg OH 12-month data center moratorium (2026-065)), Cleveland (effective 2026-07-15, already indexed), plus Lordstown, Painesville Township, Wellington, Vermilion, Westlake (six months, September 2026), Avon and Shalersville Township, none of which except Cleveland and Twinsburg are yet in this dataset. Ordinance number not obtained; expires_date computed as twelve months from the vote.
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | Ravenna, OH |
|---|---|
| Level | City / local |
| Strength | Moderate |
| Enacted | April 20, 2026 |
| Citation | City of Ravenna, Ohio — One-Year Data Center Moratorium (Apr. 20, 2026) |
| Private right of action | No, agency enforcement only |
| Penalties | Data center construction is not approved during the moratorium |
| Topics | data-center siting and energy · government use of AI |
| News report | Inside One Ravenna Resident's Fight Against Data Centers — Cleveland Magazine |
Related data-center siting and energy rules elsewhere
- Superior WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Dane County WI Hyperscale Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- Madison WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Manitowoc County WI Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- WA SB 5982 (Data Center / Clean Energy) · In effect
- Dayton OH data center moratorium (180-day, Apr 2026) · In effect
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