Butler County commissioners will hear objections Tuesday, Sept. 15, from two townships fighting Trenton's plan to annex 601 acres for a proposed Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center estimated at $690 million, according to St. Clair Township Trustee Dustin Gadd.

The hearing is the next public step in a dispute that has already reshaped how Liberty Township approaches data center development. As we reported Sept. 4, Liberty Township's zoning commission advanced a proposal in June requiring data center projects to go through the planned unit development process, giving trustees case-by-case approval power rather than an outright ban.

Both Madison Township and St. Clair Township have formally objected to the annexation, according to WCPO. The commissioners must determine whether the proposal meets the legal requirements of Ohio's expedited Type 3 annexation process, reserved for projects requiring more than $10 million in private investment and at least $1 million in annual payroll.

Madison Township rejected the offer.

AWS had offered Madison Township $5 million to drop its challenge. St. Clair Township was offered the same amount. Madison Township's entire annual tax revenue is roughly $3 million. Trustee Jeff Willoughby filed the objection Aug. 26, the deadline.

Willoughby told WCPO the township's concerns go beyond money. "There are some substantial issues to it as far as traffic and road maintenance. Trenton says they are going to take care of it, but there's no written agreement," he said.

Meanwhile, Trenton voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to ban large-scale data centers within city limits. The city council passed an emergency ordinance Friday, Sept. 4, to place the measure on the ballot after Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser's office hand-delivered a letter to council members at the meeting, telling them the 60-day window to schedule the election had not expired following the Ohio Supreme Court's Sept. 1 ruling.

"What we didn't know … is that you can concurrently run that election and the special election at the same time," Trenton Mayor Ryan Perry said at the Sept. 4 meeting, according to WLWT.

The charter amendment, backed by the citizen group Woodsdale and Trenton Environmental Resistance (WATER), would prohibit new data centers larger than 25 megawatts. WATER collected 336 signatures. Council initially rejected the petition 4-3, arguing the group needed roughly 820 signatures. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled the correct threshold was 128 valid signatures, or 10% of votes cast in the last general municipal election.

At the same Sept. 4 meeting, Trenton officials presented financial terms of the proposed annexation deal: $5 million from AWS to each township, $1.5 million from AWS to St. Clair Township for the Busenbark Road project, $1.2 million from Trenton to Madison Township for lost Duke Energy revenue and $4.5 million from AWS to the County Finance Authority for Brownfield site redevelopment, according to Dayton 24/7 Now.

The Butler County Board of Elections will review the Trenton ballot measure. The Sept. 15 annexation hearing before the commissioners is open to the public.