PIERCE TOWNSHIP — A San Francisco-based company is proposing a 300-megawatt data center in Pierce Township, despite a community moratorium that lasts through early 2027.
A Crane Data Centers representative gave a presentation to the Pierce Township Zoning Commission last week. The project includes three 200,000-to 300,000-square-foot buildings on 300 acres of wooded hillside across the street from the now-closed Walter C. Beckjord Generating Station.
But the project faces an uncertain future.
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“We’re not entertaining any data centers, much less Crane,” Pierce Township Board of Trustees Chairman Allen Freeman said, noting the board extended its moratorium on data centers through February 2027 to give its zoning commission time to create new regulations for data centers.
"One of the things that we’ve been really focused on is protecting our community from data centers,” Freeman said. “We wanted to get ahead of the curve … and also put guardrails on where a data center should go, or whether we even want them in our community.”
Crane is eyeing three parcels of vacant woodland on a hillside adjacent to U.S. 52. A grid connection study to the Duke Energy transmission system near the former Beckjord plant is planned for September and October, according to the presentation.
Crane plans to build a new substation to interconnect to the transmission system, increasing Pierce Township’s grid reliability for the surrounding community, the presentation stated.
But Freeman downplayed the significance of the proposal Crane talked about at last week’s meeting.
“It’s basically a sales pitch, but it was not a proposal; it wasn’t a zoning request; it doesn’t even rise to that level. So, we’re not entertaining it,” Freeman said.
Freeman said he has concerns about all data centers: water usage, noise levels, and power usage.
“This is a township that, quite frankly, values its green space. And our public makes it very clear that it is something that’s important to them and they’re willing to fight over,” Freeman said. “If they want to move forward, they’re going to find out.”
Freeman took issue with Crane’s plan to build on 300 acres of woodlands, and possibly removing part of the hillside.
“You start off at a deficit with me when you start talking about taking a piece of land that probably has a higher and better use as it stands now, and saying you don’t want to go across the street,” Freeman said. “(They) don’t even want to look across the street at a brownfield because it’s too difficult.”
But Crane spokesperson Connie Zweigle said the company did consider the Beckjord site first.
Built in the 1950s as a giant coal-fired plant, the Beckjord plant produced electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Southwest Ohio.
Duke Energy closed the plant in 2014 and sold the 1,400-acre site four years later to Missouri-based Commercial Liability Partners and its subsidiary, the New Richmond Development Corp.
The Clermont County Board of Commissioners issued a formal Notice of Intent to Sue owners and former operators of the retired power station on June 1, giving them the legally required 90-day notice to remove the billions of pounds of coal ash from the site and conduct other safety and remediation efforts, or it would file a lawsuit.
Leftover coal ash is stored in unlined ash ponds in the Ohio River floodplain, which is the drinking water source for 5 million people in the region. The ash pits are just 1,000 feet away from Clermont County’s primary drinking water wells for 145,000 residents.
“While we initially targeted the former Beckjord coal plant site with the understanding that the contamination had been remediated, we later discovered that significant contamination was still being addressed by the current owners (it's our understanding the current owners continue to remediate the contamination),” according to a statement from Zweigle.
The site Crane is now considering is currently zoned “industrial” rather than “residential,” Zweigle said.
“Our team does not target sites zoned “residential” unless the local community requests us to do so,” Zweigle said, noting the company specifically targets industrial-zoned sites because the community has already identified them as places to encourage business and economic growth.
The data center would target enterprise customers such as banks, hospitals, and major tech firms that need to store data. The proposal included images of a near-complete project in Forest Grove, Oregon, in which the site layout was redesigned to preserve a historic community Sequoia tree.
The proposal mentioned ideas such as recreational trails, family or dog parks, and picnic areas, to transform buffer acreage into “active, accessible community assets that bring visitors and vitality to Pierce Township.”
Crane builds sustainable data centers with a closed-loop cooling system that eliminates the need for ongoing water. Other features are: on-site solar, a rainwater harvesting system, sound-absorbing enclosures and acoustic baffles, and a system to prevent light pollution with downward-directed and shielded fixtures to keep light on their property and minimize nighttime lighting, according to the proposal.
But still, Freeman said the zoning commission needs to finish its work on what restrictions the township wants before it allows any data centers to be built.
He admits this area could be attractive to data centers with its proximity to the Duke Energy transmission system and highways, and plentiful water supply from the Ohio River.
“I think taking a slower approach to data centers is a wiser way to go,” Freeman said.
He encouraged residents to attend the next zoning commission meeting on Oct. 6, where data center restrictions will be discussed.
“Their voice needs to be heard in this matter. This is too important for people to not participate in,” Freeman said. “If you have an opinion or you have a thought, and you want to get it heard, October 6th is the day.”
