The developer who helped transform Conshohocken from a depressed industrial town into a suburban office and multifamily destination wants a nearby steel mill to become a data center hub.
But many residents have deep concerns about Brian O’Neill’s proposal to convert the Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill, which is slated to close, into a natural gas-powered data center.
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He expects the project to bring in $21M of tax revenue annually, WHYY reported, but a petition with more than 400 signatures on Monday morning raised concerns about the project’s environmental impact, proximity to residential areas and potential to raise utility bills.
“We dream of something better for Plymouth Township, something that benefits our communities and not Big Tech,” says the petition helmed by Patricia Smith.
The Cleveland-Cliffs mill, on 66 acres about a mile north of downtown Conshohocken in Plymouth Township, is scheduled to close next month.
O’Neill wants to build a 2M SF data center across 10 buildings there. It isn’t clear who would occupy the site if a data center comes to fruition.
The developer plans for the facility to create its own power via natural gas turbines, which he has argued will limit the additional demand it might place on the electricity grid.
But petition signers are concerned about emissions associated with natural gas plants and the noise and light pollution that often come with 24/7 data center facilities.
Plymouth Township’s planning board refused to bless O’Neill’s proposal earlier this month ahead of a zoning board meeting about the project scheduled for Nov. 17.
While there is bipartisan support for data centers at the state level in Pennsylvania, pushback from residents and local officials has become a common roadblock for developers.
The pushback in Conshohocken is similar to what Pennhurst Holdings LLC faces with its proposal to retrofit the vacant Pennhurst State School and Hospital in Chester County into a data center.
But not every proposal in the Philadelphia suburbs has been stymied.
Despite some pushback, NorthPoint Development’s plans to build a data center for Amazon at the Keystone Tradbe Center in Bucks County are ahead of schedule, according to Pennsylvania’s Fast Track Permit Program dashboard.
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