Adams County weighs Amazon data center plan ahead of June forum

Adams County is headed for a June 18 public forum at Manchester High School as the fight over a large Amazon-linked data center moves from rumor to a formal public meeting. The gathering is expected to give residents their first direct look at a proposal that has already stirred questions about land use, electricity, water, noise and the future of the former coal sites along the Ohio River.

The stakes are especially high because the county has been pitching the former Killen and J.M. Stuart power plant sites as prime industrial ground. Those plants closed in 2018, eliminating 700 jobs and costing Manchester schools $5.5 million in funding. County leaders have pointed to the sites’ existing power and water infrastructure as a reason they could support a major data center project without the same development hurdles that come with greenfield construction.

But the proposal has also intensified fears about how much power and water a large-scale facility would consume, and how few permanent jobs it might actually create. A later AES Ohio filing described a Stuart-area project that would start at 100 megawatts in 2028 and climb to 1.3 gigawatts by 2032, a scale that would make it one of the largest proposed data centers in Ohio. That kind of load raises major questions about transmission upgrades, utility costs and who ultimately pays for the infrastructure needed to support it.

Transparency has become its own flashpoint. Reporting showed Adams County Economic Development Director Paul Worley signed nondisclosure agreements in January 2024 and again in November 2025, while county commissioners said publicly that they had not signed and would not sign any NDAs tied to the possible project. In February, a crowded community meeting in Manchester drew dozens of residents, and a Facebook group formed around the issue grew to more than 1,300 members as local skepticism deepened.

Environmental and regulatory concerns are also mounting. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Feb. 18 permit for a Stuart-area project with special conditions protecting endangered bats, mussels and butterflies, plus a 100-foot buffer around three cemeteries near the site. At the same time, released emails from late March showed developer interest from Stream Data Centers, Arcange USA and Next Generation Land Company, with JobsOhio and OhioSE involved in site-planning and coordination discussions.

The county fight is unfolding alongside a broader state debate. On June 4, Ohio’s Joint Data Center Committee heard from Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, and Microsoft said it would stop requiring nondisclosure agreements with local governments and would not seek property tax abatements for Ohio data centers. For Adams County, where residents in Manchester, West Union and surrounding townships are weighing schools, roads, utilities and neighborhood character, the June 18 forum may prove to be the most consequential public step yet.