By Tony Zartman, Former Paulding County Commissioner and Director of Programs &
Operations, Property Rights Ohio and the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum
When Senate Bill 52 was introduced, many warned that it would set a dangerous precedent.
By allowing local governments to veto private renewable energy projects, Ohio effectively
granted mob rule over private property. Now, just a few years later, those same tactics are
spreading — and our state is creeping closer to a society where individual rights are subject
to the loudest public opinion.
SB52 was sold as “local control,” but it’s really government control — and that’s the first
step down a road we’ve seen before in socialist systems, where private ownership becomes
a privilege granted by the collective rather than a right protected by law.
We’re now seeing communities like Hilliard and Lordstown trying to ban data centers —
the next major wave of investment and job creation in Ohio. These projects would bring
high-paying, tech-driven employment to rural and suburban areas, yet local councils are
moving to outlaw them outright. The rationale? The same fear-driven talking points used to
block renewable energy: “too much water,” “too noisy,” “hurts property values.”
Once the government emboldens one group of neighbors to restrict what others can do with
their land, it never stops there. If they can tell a farmer he can’t lease land for a solar project,
what’s next? Telling him he can’t raise cattle because the new subdivision down the road
doesn’t like the smell? Once the precedent is set, every industry — every landowner — is at
risk.
Property rights are the foundation of a free society. Without them, we are no longer owners,
but tenants under government permission. That’s not liberty — it’s socialism in slow
motion.
Ohio’s economic strength has always come from private investment and individual
enterprise. Data centers, renewable energy, and agriculture all depend on the same
freedom: the right to use one’s property as one chooses, within the law. When local
governments begin outlawing industries, they aren’t protecting communities — they’re
dismantling the very system that built them.
We should be asking ourselves: who’s next? When government is given the power to decide
what’s acceptable use of private land, every citizen’s rights are on borrowed time. It’s time
for Ohioans — farmers, business owners, and local leaders alike — to stand up and say
enough.
Freedom doesn’t disappear all at once. It’s chipped away — one ordinance, one ban, one veto at a time. And if we don’t protect our property rights now, we’ll soon find we don’t have any left to defend.
Tony Zartman
Former Paulding County Commissioner
Director of Programs & Operations, Property Rights Ohio and the Ohio Conservative Energy
Forum
620 E Broad Street, Suite O
Columbus, OH 43215
[email protected]
