Chillicothe — City council has announced a review session on Tuesday after passing a “data center moratorium” last week to legally block development of the controversial industry within city limits for 60 days. The developer that is planning to build the site in former Chilpaco will give a presentation.
In the August 24th, 2026 Chillicothe Council session, the legislation was allowed to bypass the three-day receipt rule and three-read rule to be passed unanimously.
On September 2nd, council sent out an email announcing the “Public Review Meeting” to be held in spacious accommodations, Chillicothe High School Auditorium:
Council members Creed, DeMint, McQuirt and McKeever are calling a Review Meeting to have an open public session about the proposed data center and circuit board manufacturing facility located on the US Paper Mill site.
The company proposing to build this facility, Alignment Engine out of Canton, Ohio, has offered to come and present information on the proposed facility and site improvements.
We will also discuss possible changes to the Unified Development Code as discussed in the ordinance relating to a moratorium on data centers.
Location: Chillicothe High School Auditorium, Middle School entrance, 381 Yoctangee Blvd
Date: September 8, 2026
Time: 6 pm
We invite members of the community to come and discuss the issue, ask questions, and help us move forward with a solution that is best for Chillicothe.
Draft Agenda for the Review Meeting:
- Introductions
- Presentation by Alignment Engine followed by questions regarding the facility and site improvements
- Discussion on possible changes to the Unified Development Code followed by questions regarding these changes
Then on September 3rd, council member Jeff Creed announced that the meeting will be videorecorded, though it will not be in front of council chamber’s camera:
Daniel Griesheimer, with the Chillicothe Film Commission, has agreed to video the meeting and make it available online after the meeting. We will not be able to livestream the event currently.
We encourage all community members who are interested to show up, listen, and get your questions answered.
Later, Creed posted:
Daniel found us a solution. He will livestream from his phone to the Chillicothe Ross County Film Commission Facebook page…
We will still have the better quality video available to be posted after the meeting. It’s great to have community members willing to step in and help us out.
And this morning Creed added:
This is the first meeting outside of Council Chambers where we will have video to post afterwards and a live feed both available. I think it’s great to engage with the community and both of these options available for people who can’t make it that night. But again I’m encouraging as many people to be there as we can.
The data center moratorium was passed with very little review of it, since council members had the text for less than three days, and it was not open for public review through three council sessions. In addition, it was declared an emergency, so it went effect immediately instead of after the standard 30-day delay.
Sponsor Kathy Dunn explained that the ordinance uses the city’s legal power over building permits and rezoning to block construction of a possible data center. She said the city’s recently retained legal counsel on the issue assisted with producing the legislation post haste.
This was about a month and a half after the announcement of a presumed data center (and other developments) for the paper mill site – and after lack of communication from the data center developer when contacted by the city.
The owner of the mill site and US Paper Mill LLC, John Todoroki, has given two council members a tour of the former paper mill – but the company that will actually build the facility had not responded to requests from the city…until apparently after the moratorium was enacted.
I was invited to visit with Todoroki and his team on Wednesday as a reporter, and will be providing coverage from that introduction and future interviews as information can be released.
As his employees ate a lunch paid for by Todoroki on Wednesday, he handed out printouts of council’s email announcement of the review session.
When I asked him how the moratorium would affect his plans, Todoroki was pessimistic – he said his plans for developments there other than the glove company are meant to make up for lack of government contracts that had been promised for the gloves.
Todoroki showed that he is voluntarily paying for maintenance of two major environmental issues around the paper mill which he is not responsible for: the Wear-Ever plume of pollution in groundwater, and maintenance of the Mead Landfill west of South Paint Street. (More soon on those.)
Public debate on the subject has leaned toward opposition to a data center, among them two webpages:
- “Appalachians Against Data Centers” on Facebook, created the day after the announcement, and led by local Portia Boulger.
- A Change.org petition: “STOP Paper Mill from turning into a datacenter! KEEP OUR WATER CLEAN & ENERGY AFFORDABLE!” Created on the day of the announcement, so far it has almost 3,600 signatures, more than 2,300 shares, and 60 comments.
In addition, “Conserve Ohio” is a statewide initiative effort that has been collecting signatures to allow voters to to limit the size of new data centers by amending the Ohio Constitution.
Stay tuned for future news coming from the former Mead / Chilpaco / Pixelle paper mills in Chillicothe.
