Data center court fights fester as state lawmakers return to session

By Ford Turner | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Kyle Gerber’s part of Pennsylvania was defined for years by the lazy loops of the Conodoguinet Creek and the forested bulk of Blue Mountain, with pastures and country roads and now and then a new housing development.

Then the landscape 12 miles west of the state Capitol saw a bombshell business development. Pennsylvania Digital 1 or “Pax-1”, a name promoted by its business backers, calls for sixteen data center buildings to be put up on about 700 acres in the Middlesex Township.

It’s the region where Gerber grew up and where he and his wife are now raising two small children. About a year ago, he began to fully understand the scope of the new data center project.

“I was astounded at the size,” said Gerber, a 31-year-old software developer. He thought, “This is so big and so out of place and so ridiculous.”

Now, he and his wife, Alexia, are among five couples fighting in Cumberland County Court to stop the project. And there are numerous other data center-related court clashes going on as state lawmakers prepare to return to session in Harrisburg.

They will gavel in Monday for the first time in two and one-half months. Public sentiment is running against data center projects, and there are growing concerns about the long-term potential effects of AI on society.

But the projects are being backed by extraordinary sums of money and some of the nation’s top politicians.

Middlesex supervisors recently signed a community benefits agreement with the Pax-1 developers in which municipality will get $14 million in increments as the project is built. The total investment, should the entire project be built, has been put at $15 billion.

Pax-1 was on Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s “fast track” expedited-state permitting list until last month. And plans for its were revealed at a big energy and artificial intelligence gathering in Pittsburgh in 2025 arranged by Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, and attended by President Donald Trump.

On Friday, McCormick pushed back against critics of AI and data centers. The facilities, he said during a national television appearance, are “good economic engines for most small communities.”

Pennsylvania’s Legislature left Harrisburg on July 12 without passing any bills related to the statewide data center furor. They are likely to be reminded of it on Oct. 6, when a public rally against data centers is scheduled to take place in the Capitol Rotunda.

“What’s the upside? We deserve to understand the full picture. Actually, no one has ever told us what is worth all this sacrifice,” said rally organizer Karen Feridun. “Gov. Shapiro and the Legislature haven’t made the case why this is worthwhile.”

Among data center legal clashes in Pennsylvania:

Two administrative law judges for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Tuesday put on hold any possibility of eminent domain proceedings against 30 property owners along the route for a proposed PPL Corp. high-voltage power line. It would feed a proposed data center in Luzerne County in northern Pennsylvania.The PUC judges’ decision was in part connected to waiting for an outcome in a separate legal fight over the proposed Luzerne County data center, dubbed Project Hazelnut. In that one, supervisors in Hazle Township voted unanimously to reject a land development application, and then a county judge denied an appeal filed by the developer. Now, the developer is seeking to have an appeal heard in Commonwealth Court.Lawsuits filed last week in Montgomery County against the Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors by developer Brian O’Neill accuse the board of changing its tune on data centers after a public outcry. Marc Kaplin, an attorney for O’Neill, said Friday that “they cooperated for a year and then the hordes came out” after which the township “backtracked.” Attempts to reach a township official on Friday were not successful.Late Thursday, the Planning Commission in Salem Township, Luzerne County, voted to recommend approval of a larger “overlay” district that could help pave the way for a third data center project within the township. It was the third time the commission voted on the concept, with the first two votes being negated by a judge’s finding that the commission violated the state Sunshine Act.Regarding Pax-1, Cumberland County Judge Matthew P. Smith on Tuesday denied a request made by Gerber and other plaintiffs to at least temporarily halt the work. But the judge also rejected the developer’s bid to fully quash the local residents’ appeal concerning land use.

“A court doing its job” is how Nathan Wolf, an attorney for the Gerbers and other plaintiffs, described the interim Pax-1 decision. The judge, he said, did not want to “overreach” by stopping ongoing work on the project but also allowed the case to move forward and in doing so “said, ‘No. These people have a right to be heard.'”

A spokesperson for the developer, Carlisle Development Partners LLC, said it would not comment on ongoing litigation.

The project, known formally as Pennsylvania Digital 1, has been “thoughtfully planned with careful site design, natural buffers and landscaping, along with a strong emphasis on environmental stewardship and responsible development,” according to a website supporting it.

A key accusation in the court case is that the township used a “spot zoning” approach to tailor its zoning rules to meet the desires of a single entity: the data center developer.

“Our zoning officers and our supervisors have been incredibly willing to work with them,” Gerber said. “There is no stopping this thing as far as the township is concerned.”

Middlesex Township Manager Zachary Zook said its boards and officials “are trying to do the best we can.” Needs of township government as expressed by residents have changed drastically in the last year or two, with the typical number of people at meetings increasing from one or two to 40 or 50 – and sometimes up to 600.

Township boards, he said, have worked with developers to protect township residents.

The statewide data center situation, Zook said, looks like a “gold rush” with lots of developers seeing “an opportunity to make money.”