Zoning in Fayette County, Ohio: Amazon's Mega Site Data Center and a Proposed Seven-Township Moratorium

The Mega Site: a 1,500-acre pitch that landed a $5 billion tenant

Fayette County has marketed a 1,500-plus-acre "Mega Site" at the I-71/US-35 interchange in Jefferson Township for years as a premier Ohio manufacturing location, with utilities already extended to the site's edge and due-diligence studies completed in advance. That preparation paid off: Amazon Web Services purchased roughly 590 acres there for a reported $102.4 million, part of what's been described as a $5 billion investment commitment into the county by 2030, building a new data-center campus immediately neighboring the separately-announced $3.5 billion Honda/LG EV battery plant. Fayette County Commissioners approved a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) agreement providing AWS a 30-year, 100% tax exemption on new structures at the site, and the cost of electricity-transmission infrastructure to serve just the project's first phase has been reported at more than $22 million. Construction reportedly began in early 2025, with operations targeted around September 2026.

The backlash: annexation petitions and a Paint Township moratorium request

Through 2026, the project's footprint has driven a steady stream of related zoning and annexation activity. Commissioners approved an annexation of roughly 490 acres into the Village of Jeffersonville in early August 2026, and then, on August 17, 2026, accepted petitions to annex a combined roughly 61 acres of Jefferson Township farmland into the same village -- two separate landowners' tracts along State Route 729 near I-71, with Amazon Data Services Inc. listed on at least one petition as an adjacent property owner entitled to notice.

At that same August 17 meeting, a county resident asked commissioners to halt data-center development in a neighboring township, a township official pushed for development agreements to be required before any future annexation approval, and Dan Drake of Paint Township -- joined by that township's own trustees -- specifically asked commissioners to enact a one-year moratorium on data-center construction in Paint Township to protect agricultural land there.

A proposed year-long, seven-township moratorium

That pressure culminated in a broader proposal: as reported in early September 2026, the Fayette County Commissioners were weighing a resolution to freeze new data-center development for a year -- covering data-center-related zoning applications, zoning approvals, and building permits -- specifically in the unincorporated areas of seven of the county's nine townships: Concord, Green, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Paint, and Perry.

Jefferson Township, where the AWS campus itself actually sits, was not named among those seven, nor was Wayne Township. This research pass could not independently confirm why those two townships were left out of the county's proposed moratorium; one plausible, though unconfirmed, explanation is that Jefferson and Wayne administer their own separate zoning outside the county's direct authority, meaning a county-adopted moratorium resolution simply couldn't reach them the way it can reach the seven townships the county directly administers. This research pass could not confirm whether the moratorium was ultimately adopted, rejected, or amended -- treat it as an unresolved, live proposal as of this review rather than settled either way.

What this means for a buyer right now

If you're buying ordinary agricultural or residential land well away from the I-71/US-35 corridor and outside the seven townships named above, this saga is unlikely to change your everyday zoning experience much. If you're buying anywhere near the Mega Site, in Jefferson Township, or in Concord, Green, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Paint, or Perry Township specifically, confirm three things directly with the county before relying on this page: whether the moratorium has since been adopted, rejected, or amended; whether any annexation petition is pending or approved near the parcel or its immediate neighbors; and whether the parcel currently sits under county, township, or village zoning jurisdiction, given how much annexation activity has occurred around Jeffersonville specifically in 2026.