Plans for a massive data center in Butler County are moving forward, despite pushback from some residents who say they’re concerned about environmental impacts, water use, electricity costs and transparency.
A site plan review for the 880,000-square-foot data center in Trenton proposed by developer Prologis is set for the March 30 Planning Commission meeting.
The Planning Commission could take a vote. Its review comes after staff from various city departments confirmed the developer’s site plan submission meets the Trenton Zoning Code requirements.
Prologis says it has already obtained several permits needed for the project. Initial groundwork and grading are underway to prepare the site for an electric substation, but Prologis says that doesn’t indicate the start of vertical construction.
The proposed data center development, called “Project Mila” by the developer, would be one of the biggest in Greater Cincinnati. It would be on 141 acres of land in Trenton Industrial Park.
What are Prologis’ plans for the project?
The project would be four buildings, each expected to be 220,000 square feet in size, and an electrical substation. It’s projected to create 140 jobs.
Prologis presented tentative plans for the project at a community forum March 2 at Edgewood High School. Residents were able to ask representatives of the San Francisco-based company questions, which covered topics from water usage to electricity grid impacts.
As AI use booms and demand for computing power grows, large-scale data center projects like this one are popping up throughout the country. They consume massive amounts of water to cool down their servers.
According to Prologis’ presentation, the Trenton data center would use direct evaporative-free air cooling, which Prologis says is 25% to 35% more efficient than traditional closed loop or refrigerant based systems, and 12 times more efficient than traditional cooling towers. The cooling system uses water 3% of the year and requires no chemical additives.
The project would have no impact on residential water use, according to Prologis’ presentation. Trenton’s water department confirmed existing system capacity for this project and says Prologis will pay to use it.
Water, sewer and stormwater fees could bring $120,000 to the city annually.
Data centers also have an enormous demand for electricity, which is part of the reason why people in states like Ohio are seeing their bills get more expensive.
Prologis says it will pay for the power system upgrades required to serve the site in Trenton, as well as all utility costs.
The data center will use generators. According to Prologis’ presentation, the generators would not be used for daily power needs, they would only operate during testing or emergency situations.
A timeline shows construction of the first building could begin this spring.
Several other data centers recently have been proposed in Southwest Ohio, including in Springfield, Wilmington, Adams County and Hamilton (which is currently on pause).
Community opposition
Some people have been speaking out against the data center project since Prologis bought 141 acres of land from the city in October 2025, voicing their concerns at city council meetings and organizing in the Woodsdale and Trenton Environmental Resistance Facebook group, which has more than 500 members.
Barry Blankenship lives about half a mile from the site of the proposed data center. He says he’s still worried about noise levels, traffic impacts and resource consumption.
“We feel like we don't have the proper information concerning the water usage,” Blankenship said. “We have questions and problems with environmental impact assessments, we have questions about health impact assessments — these things we've asked for via records request and the city tells us they don't have them.”
Research indicates that data centers have substantial environmental footprints, as well as impacts on public health.
The fossil fuel power plants and diesel backup generators that power data centers emit hazardous air pollutants, including fine particulate matter which can penetrate into people’s lungs. U.S. data centers could contribute to approximately 600,000 asthma symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths in 2028, according to recent research by scientists from University of California Riverside, CalTech and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Blankenship says residents asked the city to pause the project and implement a moratorium on data centers. He says they made a similar request to Prologis as well.
“Nobody is willing to do that, to listen to us and help our concerns,” Blankenship said.
People in Trenton are not the only ones pushing back on data center developments. A group of rural Ohioans is proposing a constitutional amendment to ban huge AI data centers in the state.
How to attend
The Planning Commission is meeting March 30 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 11 E. State Street, Trenton, Ohio 45067.
The agenda is online.
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