HUBBARD — One resident noted concerns with a lack of transparency from city officials when making her plea to council to pass an ordinance banning data centers.

Melissa Wade, a Franklin Avenue resident, said at a city council meeting Monday that “mega corporations” have been coming into the state and buying up farm land and fields near residential neighborhoods.

Wade said there’s already 200 data centers in Ohio and they’re going to continue increasing in number and receiving tax breaks while residents are being heavily taxed.

“They (the corporations) are always the highest bidder; they have the most money, so they’re buying up all this prime land. They produce nothing,” Wade said. “This is going along with the AI buildout, and that’s just going to take freedoms, they’re setting up for

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