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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 45402

Dayton

Montgomery

None found / resident-reportedZIP 56.8% Blackpop 9,964

None found sited in 45402 — resident-reported concern amid a citywide moratorium and a proposed total ban on data centers

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (2 resident reports, 2026-05-27) · ZIP demographics: 56.8% Black, pop 9,964 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Montgomery (~22% Black, Census QuickFacts, approx.) Status: None found sited in 45402 — resident-reported concern amid a citywide moratorium and a proposed total ban on data centers

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

ZIP 45402 is downtown and near-west Dayton — a majority-Black urban core inside a county that is roughly one-fifth Black. No specific data-center project has been publicly proposed or sited inside 45402 as of 2026-08-02. What is real is a citywide fight: in 2026 the Dayton City Plan Board put a 180-day moratorium on data-center construction, and the city's planning department went further and recommended a total zoning ban on standalone data centers, which the City Commission took up on 2026-06-24. Planning Director Jeff Green: "With the information we have, we believed a ban was best suited at this time." The two resident map pins for 45402 (2026-05-27) most plausibly reflect that citywide alarm — the pressure of data centers landing across southwest Ohio and the Cincinnati–Dayton corridor — rather than a confirmed facility on a specific downtown block. Treat any specific-site claim in 45402 as Resident-reported only — no public source found as of 2026-08-02.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

  • Specific facility in 45402: None found as of 2026-08-02. No developer, address, acreage, MW, or square footage for a data center inside this ZIP appears in city planning records or local news.
  • Existing footprint: The Dayton metro has a handful of small/colocation data facilities (datacentermap lists ~10 across greater Dayton), but none identified as a new hyperscale build inside 45402.
  • Regional pressure driving the pins: Southwest Ohio is a hot data-center target. The nearest headline project is in Adams County (~90 miles south) near the former Stuart power plant — an AES Ohio filing describes a load rising to 1.3 GW by 2032 — and Trenton (Butler County) has a Duke-served proposal. These are not in Dayton, but they are why Dayton acted defensively.
  • Status: No sited project. Citywide moratorium + proposed ban in force (see §2).

2. Public Hearings & Notices

  • Dayton City Plan Board recommended a 180-day moratorium on data-center construction earlier in 2026 (in effect while zoning is studied).
  • Planning Department recommendation: a total ban on data centers (reported to target facilities over 100,000 sq ft, while still allowing companies to run servers for their own internal use). Basis: four factors — water usage, electric rates, environmental impacts on residents, and financial incentives for the city. (WYSO/WOSU, WHIO, Yahoo/AP, 2026-06)
  • City Commission vote: taken up 2026-06-24 as part of a broader zoning overhaul (also restricting gas stations and car washes). Public input channel: AdaptDayton.com.
  • No project-specific hearing, case number, or permit for a 45402 data center was found as of 2026-08-02 — because no such project is on file.

3. Power

  • Serving utility: AES Ohio (formerly Dayton Power & Light) serves Dayton/Montgomery County — not Duke Energy Ohio (Duke serves the Cincinnati metro) and not AEP Ohio (central Ohio/Columbus).
  • Capacity constraint: The Cincinnati–Dayton corridor is "water-rich but power-poor." A regional study found the corridor had only about 65 MW of readily available capacity (vs. ~1.9 GW around Columbus), projected to grow to 450–550 MW by 2030 — a key reason big loads are steered elsewhere in Ohio. (Journal-News / Dayton Daily News)
  • Who pays — statewide context: Ohio's landmark ratepayer-protection tariff is AEP Ohio's, approved by PUCO on 2025-07-09 (effective 2025-07-23): data centers 25 MW+ must pay for at least 85% of subscribed capacity for ~12 years, with a 4-year ramp-up and a 3-year exit fee, to keep grid-buildout costs on the data centers that cause them. AES Ohio had not adopted an equivalent data-center tariff as of mid-2026 — Dayton-area manufacturers have publicly worried about where the tariff gap leaves ordinary electric customers. (PUCO; Dayton Daily News; PowerMag; KJK)

4. Water & Drought

  • Water: Dayton's drinking water comes from the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, a large, highly productive sand-and-gravel aquifer beneath the Great Miami River — one of the region's defining assets and why the area is called "water-rich." Dayton protects it with a wellfield source-water protection program. A data center's cooling draw on a sole-source aquifer is a distinct concern from surface-water systems, and the city's planning review explicitly flagged water usage.
  • Drought: Montgomery County / southwest Ohio was not in drought in summer 2026; the State Climate Office of Ohio reported the state largely drought-free (U.S. Drought Monitor, accessed 2026-08-02). Aquifer recharge, not scarcity, is the local water question.

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 45402: 56.8% Black, pop 9,964 (Census ACS 2023) — downtown and near-west Dayton, a majority-Black urban core inside Montgomery County (~22% Black).
  • West Dayton has carried decades of disinvestment, industrial legacy (the region's auto/manufacturing past), and population loss. A relatively small ZIP population (under 10,000) means large industrial land uses would loom large over the neighborhood.
  • The city's stated ban rationale — environmental impacts on residents and city finances — reflects exactly the equity concern of not adding heavy loads to an already-burdened, majority-Black core.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

  • State incentive: Ohio's data-center sales-and-use tax exemption (via JobsOhio/Ohio Dept. of Development) is the main subsidy statewide; Ohio also moved in 2026 to halt/roll back tax exemptions for new facilities amid the backlash. No 45402-specific deal exists because no project exists.
  • Local incentives: None found for a 45402 data center as of 2026-08-02.
  • Jobs: N/A locally. Statewide pattern: heavy construction employment, few permanent jobs after build-out.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

  • Local outlets: Dayton Daily News, Journal-News (Hamilton), Springfield News-Sun, WYSO (Yellow Springs NPR), WHIO (Channel 7), WOSU/WYSU. Coverage centers on the citywide ban/moratorium and the corridor-wide power-capacity crunch, not a specific Dayton site.
  • Framing: Dayton officials chose a preemptive ban rather than reacting to a specific application — unusual and notable. Residents' concerns mirror the region: water (aquifer), electric rates/bill-shifting, noise/vibration (studies cited impacts within a mile), and thin permanent-job counts.
  • Statewide organizing: A citizen petition for a statewide ban and a legislative committee on data centers were active in 2026 (referenced in Dayton coverage).

8. Find Out For Yourself

Official sources:

  • Dayton City Hall — 101 W. Third St., Dayton, OH 45402. Main: (937) 333-3333. daytonohio.gov
  • City Commission Office — City Hall, 2nd Floor, 101 W. Third St. Phone: (937) 333-3636. (Dayton has a 5-member City Commission elected at-large — mayor + 4 commissioners.) daytonohio.gov/159/City-Commission-Office
  • Planning Division / Planning, Neighborhoods & Development — daytonohio.gov/222/Planning-Division; Planning Director Jeff Green. Zoning-overhaul input: AdaptDayton.com.
  • City Commission agendas — daytonohio.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Commission-2 (verify meeting dates/times here).
  • AES Ohio public affairs — aes-ohio.com; PUCO for utility dockets/comments — puco.ohio.gov (1-800-686-7826).
  • Newsroom tip lines: Dayton Daily News (daytondailynews.com), WYSO (wyso.org), WHIO (whio.com).

Questions worth asking:

  1. Is any data-center application actually pending for a 45402 (downtown/west Dayton) parcel — or is the pin purely precautionary?
  2. Will the City Commission's ban be permanent zoning, and what square-footage threshold and exemptions apply?
  3. Since AES Ohio has no AEP-style data-center tariff, what protects Dayton ratepayers from cost-shifting if a large load lands nearby?
  4. What safeguards protect the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer and Dayton's wellfields from a high-water-use facility?
  5. Would any state sales/use-tax exemption or local abatement apply, and what would the city actually net?
  6. How are West Dayton residents (a majority-Black core) being included in the zoning decision beyond AdaptDayton.com?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

Honest read: 45402 is downtown/near-west Dayton — majority-Black, historically disinvested, and sitting over a valuable sole-source aquifer. As of 2026-08-02 there is no data center proposed or built inside this ZIP; the two resident map pins reflect a real regional wave, not a confirmed local site. Dayton has actually been protective — a 180-day moratorium plus a proposed total ban on standalone data centers. The corridor is power-constrained, which discourages hyperscale here. If you're moving in, the near-term data-center risk to 45402 looks lower than in Cleveland or the Cincinnati industrial zones — but watch whether the Commission's ban becomes permanent zoning, and watch AES Ohio's ratepayer terms and any aquifer-affecting proposal in the broader Montgomery County area.

10. Sources

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.