Northeast PA Data Centers Update: Community Concerns and Future Prospects

Proposed data centers continue to expand across Northeast Pennsylvania, bringing promises of economic development alongside growing concern from residents and local officials over transparency, environmental impact, and long-term community change.

A major project in Archbald has now been removed from Pennsylvania’s fast-track permitting program, a move that raises new questions about state oversight and what happens next for one of the region’s most closely watched developments. Meanwhile, a new proposal in Wayne County is beginning to take shape, adding another layer to a rapidly evolving regional debate.

“We’ve had a couple developments in Archbald,” said Kat Bolus of WVIA. “The state last week kicked Project Gravity off of its FastTrack program.”

Bolus reports that the FastTrack program was designed to streamline permitting for large-scale economic development projects in Pennsylvania, creating a public-facing dashboard meant to increase transparency about project timelines and approvals. But questions began emerging earlier this year when residents noticed inconsistencies in how one of the region’s largest proposed data center campuses—known as Project Gravity—was being tracked.

“A couple months ago in March, residents realized that Project Gravity was on fast track, but it did not appear online,” Bolus said. “So that raised a lot of flags, red flags for people.”

The state ultimately removed the project from the program last week. While officials have not said the project is canceled, Bolus notes it continues moving forward in Archbald with preliminary land approvals, though final approvals are still pending.

The physical footprint of the project is already visible on the ground.

“The developer has already torn down the trees on the property down to the stumps,” Bolus said. “It’s kind of apocalyptic when you drive up Business Route 6 there and even when you get into the communities that the property butts up against.”

Developers involved in the project have largely not responded to media requests, according to Bolus, with communication often limited or nonexistent.

“They don’t really communicate with the press or really the community,” she said. “I’ve had a hard time personally just trying to connect with lawyers, developers listed on some of the state applications. They don’t email back, they don’t call back. Often they’ll say no comment.”

On the state’s decision to remove Project Gravity from FastTrack, Bolus reports officials cited concerns over transparency and responsiveness.

“They pulled the project from FastTrack due to Project Gravity’s lack of responsiveness and unwillingness to provide a transparent overview of the project,” she said, adding that the state required coordinated planning documentation that was not adequately provided.

The Archbald project is just one of several proposed or advancing data center developments across the region. Bolus says Northeast Pennsylvania has become an attractive hub for the industry due to a combination of geography and infrastructure.

“Pennsylvania has this triad of things that make the state attractive to the industry,” she said. “We have power, we have water, and we have affordable land. And we’re also located on the East Coast, close to major city centers. You don’t want latency in your data.”

But local opposition has grown in several communities where proposals have surfaced. Residents, Bolus reports, are increasingly focused on quality-of-life concerns, including environmental impact, energy use, and industrial-scale development in rural or small-town settings.

“There’s this sense of it’s just not transparent,” she said. “There’s a lot of NDAs, hiding behind non-disclosure agreements. But I think if I had to sum up what I’m hearing from residents, it’s that they’re worried about their quality of life.”

She pointed to Archbald specifically, where residents describe concerns about the borough’s size, proximity to the Lackawanna River, and potential impacts from 24-hour industrial operations.

“They don’t want to become an industrial center,” Bolus said. “They don’t want to have an industry that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the potential to kick in diesel backup generators. They’re worried about pollution sitting in the valley, they’re worried about power costs, electricity going up, water going up.”

Those concerns, she added, are not isolated to one community.

“Whether that’s in the Poconos, whether that’s in the Hazleton area, they’re very worried about their quality of life and how that could change when you have a big industry like a data center move into your backyard.”

Now attention is turning to Wayne County, where a proposal in Clinton Township is scheduled for review at a planning commission meeting. Bolus says details are still limited, but the proposal appears to include both a data center and a power plant component.

“There is a planning commission meeting tomorrow night [May 7] at 7 p.m.,” she said. “It looks like the commission is going to review submitted plans for a proposed power plant and data center.”

Utility capacity is also becoming a central issue in the broader debate. Bolus reports that Pennsylvania American Water has issued “will serve” letters to some proposed projects, but availability is not guaranteed.

“They said they’re on a first come, first serve basis,” she said. “If they say yes to six, the seventh might not be able to get water.”

Electric utility planning is also underway, with proposals for new substations and transmission lines drawing opposition in some areas.

With multiple projects advancing at once, Bolus says residents should pay close attention to local government decision-making.

“I would keep tabs on what your local government is doing,” she said. “A developer might come in and challenge zoning because a lot of municipalities aren’t zoned for data centers since they’re such a new industry.”

Image: The area along Business Route 6 in Archbald where Archbald 25 Developer LLC plans to build the Project Gravity data center campus. (Aimee Dilger/WVIA News)