Our 5-month-old great-granddaughter lives 1.6 miles from the proposed Project Shelby data center at the former Ford plant in Canton.
JRC Early Childhood/Adult Day Care, which serves infants, toddlers, preschool, school age, Early Head Start, and senior citizens, is 0.74 miles from the proposed site.
In March 2023, the U.S. EPA defined a two-mile radius around Republic Steel as an area of concern for lead air-quality standards. On May 18, Ohio granted another Brownfield Remediation Grant of $300,000 to assess the work still needed at the Republic Steel site. Residents in the Project Shelby area must still take precautions after being poisoned by Republic Steel.
There is no transparency regarding Project Shelby.
In 2025, a solar project (150-megawatt on 860 acres) planned for Washington Township was stopped. It was not located on a brownfield. Stark County commissioners opposed it. Janet Weir Creighton was an ad hoc member on the Ohio Power Siting Board that made the decision. The Project Shelby property is owned by A&J Urban Development, operated by Steve Coon and Todd Pugh (founder of Enviroscapes). Enviroscapes is 3.4 miles from the proposed solar farm.
The same people who fought a solar farm are now pushing a 320-megawatt data center 500 feet away from Canton city residents who have been historically discriminated against because of redlining and who have already been poisoned by the continued Republic Steel brownfield. Our 5-month-old great-granddaughter and all Canton residents deserve better.
Nancy and Bob George, Canton

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