Northwest Ohio must decide whether to accept the problems of growth or be confronted with the difficulty of decline.

The controversy over data center development needs to be considered in the context of Ohio government projections that expect a massive decline in regional population over the next 25 years.

In all of northwest Ohio, only Wood County is expected to have any growth at all. The measly 1.65 percent projected growth over 25 years there is near stagnation.

In short, there is no location in northwest Ohio with future prospects so bright as to pass up the huge initial investment and sustaining tax base of a data center development.

Northwest Ohio is attractive to data center developers for reasons detailed often in this space: affordable, flat land, easy access to natural gas p

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