Events
Your Community, Your Decision: Preparing Rural Ohio Communities for Data Center Development
Ice Miller is sponsoring the Your Community. Your Decision. Preparing Rural Ohio for Data Centers invitation-only conference presented by Sunday Creek Horizons. This event is complementary for local government officials and community leaders.
Partners Molly Gwin and Kip Wahlers will be speaking on two separate panels.
About the Event:
Ohio has become one of the nation's fastest-growing markets for AI and cloud computing data centers. As developers increasingly look to rural communities for future projects, many local leaders are being asked to make decisions with significant long-term implications — often without access to neutral information or experienced advisors.
Your Community, Your Decision is a one-day educational summit designed to help local officials understand the opportunities, challenges, and policy considerations surrounding data center development.
Ice Miller Presentations:
Session 2 — The Fiscal Reality (10:45 – 11:45 a.m.)
This session examines the financial implications for local governments: infrastructure investments, incentives, and fiscal impact analyses, along with financing and value-capture tools such as TIFs and Community Benefits Agreements. Attendees leave with a practical framework for weighing the long-term financial benefits and obligations of a proposed project.
Moderator:
Jesse Roush, Southeast Ohio Port Authority
Panelists:
Tom Zaino, Zaino Hall & Farrin
Andrew Hinton, Bricker Graydon
Kip Wahlers, Ice Miller
Session 3 — Legal, Zoning & Local Authority (1:00 – 2:00 p.m.)
This session gives local officials a working map of the legal and regulatory landscape governing land use, zoning, annexation, development agreements, tax incentives, and infrastructure obligations. Where local authority begins and ends. The discussion covers home rule, state preemption, and energy regulation so attendees understand which decisions are genuinely theirs to make and which are shaped by state law.
Moderator:
Will Drabold, Sunday Creek Horizons
Panelists:
Bricker Graydon
Molly Gwin, Ice Miller
Taft
