Project Triton data center, Norton, Ohio

Project Triton, Quantum HPC's planned data center at the former PPG limestone mine at 3700 Limestone Drive in Norton, Ohio, was dropped in October 2025, days after a town hall where residents confronted the developer. Norton City Council announced on October 17 that the data center project was not moving forward, after a resident showed that statements by the developer's representative were untrue and the developer said that person no longer worked for it.

Quantum HPC had planned a 485,000-square-foot data center and a 157,000-square-foot power yard with six natural gas turbines on a 90-acre site off South Cleveland-Massillon Road, a limestone mine that closed about 50 years ago. It promised about 280 construction jobs and 110 full-time jobs.

About 200 residents came to the October 13 town hall and raised noise, pollution, the drain on natural resources and the plant's round-the-clock operation, along with questions about the developer's earlier proposals that had not gone ahead. Law Director Justin Markey determined that statements made by Quantum HPC founder Dale James Hobbie were not true, and council later honored resident James Helmick for raising questions about Hobbie's education and litigation over his other projects. Quantum HPC said through spokesman Dan Williamson that it was engaging a new development team and remained "committed to building a highly secure, highly efficient data center in Ohio". "I'll just say there's nothing to fight. It's a done deal. It's over with," Council President Doug DeHarpart told a packed council meeting on October 20.

Both cities then moved to pause data centers. Norton City Council gave a first reading on November 3, 2025 to a 180-day moratorium on zoning certificates for data processing and hosting, to give the city time to update its zoning code. The council enacted the six-month moratorium in December 2025, News 5 Cleveland reported, and city leaders declined to discuss how they plan to proceed. Barberton City Council passed an indefinite moratorium on data centers on November 10, 2025, which Councilman Thomas Heitic said would last until data center rules are added to the city's new development code. "If [a data center] can work within the parameters [established by the city], then welcome to Barberton," Heitic said.

Across Ohio, at least 138 municipalities and townships had active data center moratoriums as of September 17, 2026, and 23 communities have effectively banned them, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. A Bowling Green State University poll found 78% of Ohioans support moratoriums until more is known about data centers' effects.

Any new data center at the mine would need a zoning certificate from the City of Norton under whatever rules Norton City Council and its Planning Commission adopt.