Overview
- Thursday night the Upper Merion Board of Supervisors voted to deny five applications for a proposed campus of hyperscale data centers totaling about 4–4.6 million square feet.
- The developer, MLP Ventures and founder Brian O’Neill, had sought an extension to respond to township review letters and then sued after alleging the board intended to deny the applications.
- A Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge issued a temporary order that prohibits Upper Merion from making decisions on the data-center plans until a court hearing on the lawsuit is held.
- Local residents packed hearings to oppose the projects, citing worries about water use, strain on the electric grid, noise and light, health effects, and declining local quality of life.
- O’Neill’s team says the centers would use closed-loop water cooling, supply their own power, limit light and noise, and create construction jobs and tax revenue, but the legal fight now determines whether the board’s rejection stands and could shape how similar regional proposals are handled.