Faced with 51 data centers and a power plant proposed in their town, Archbald residents will hold their own meeting Monday to explain what’s happening in their community.
Members of Stop Archbald Data Centers will hold an information session at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Valley Community Library, 739 River St., Peckville, to address questions and provide an overview of Archbald’s data center landscape, according to the group. Formed in late October, Stop Archbald Data Centers has grown to 7,700-plus members on Facebook with nearly 2,000 posts in the last month. Commenters use the group as a platform to share both local and national data center news, organize, livestream meetings and discuss the latest developments in an industry rapidly expanding into Northeast Pennsylvania.
Organizer and resident Tina Verrastro, who lives near the Jermyn border near multiple proposed data center campuses, said the event is open to anyone who wants to learn more about data centers, not just Archbald residents.
“A lot of people don’t know how many projects we have,” she said. “We’ve discovered that a lot of people think we only have one.”
Archbald received Lackawanna County’s first data center proposal in January 2025, and since then, the town has received applications for five more data center projects and an associated power plant.
There are at least 12 proposals throughout Lackawanna County, six of which are in Archbald. Other campuses are proposed in Clifton and Covington townships, Dickson City, Jessup, Olyphant and Ransom Twp.
Archbald Borough Council voted Nov. 24 to amend its zoning to define data centers, designate where in the borough they can be built, and establish the conditions needed for their approval by council. The amendment updated Archbald’s March 2023 zoning ordinance, which did not define data centers but allowed them as principal permitted uses, or permitted by right uses, in the borough’s commercial/light industrial, general commercial, light industrial and general industrial zoning districts. As principal permitted uses, data centers had the most direct path forward without requiring public hearings or additional conditions.
The amendment made data centers conditional uses in four overlay districts throughout the town. Conditional uses require developers to attend a public hearing where they testify about their project and why it meets the borough’s zoning standards while facing cross-examination from affected residents, their attorneys and borough officials. Residents then have the opportunity to testify before council votes to approve or deny a conditional use application.
Applications received prior to the zoning change retain their legacy zoning as permitted by right uses, whereas applications after Nov. 24 are conditional uses.
Archbald’s six proposed data center campuses are:
Project Boson: Formerly the Archbald Data & Energy Center — an apparent reference to the project having both a data center and power plant — Project Boson will remove the Highway Auto Parts auto salvage yard on Eynon Jermyn Road to build a 619,925-square-foot data center in its place, according to an October land development plan. The project initially proposed building three data centers, each under 70 feet tall with a roughly 150,000-square-foot footprint, but it subsequently merged those buildings into one larger facility. The development is linked to Jim Marzolino, the president of Kriger Construction. Marzolino subsequently signed a March 12 zoning permit application for a 491,811-square-foot electric power generating plant on the west side of the Eynon Jermyn Road across from the main junkyard property. Data centers were principally permitted in the site’s general commercial zoning district when Archbald received the data center application, though the power plant, which uses the name Essential Energy LLC, is a conditional use.
Project Gravity: Project Gravity became Archbald’s second data center proposal in April 2025 when New York City-based data center developer Western Hospitality Partners, operating as Archbald 25 Developer LLC, applied to build seven two-story data centers, each 70 feet tall and 138,000 square feet per floor. The campus would be across just over 186 acres between Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6. It includes the purchase of the Valley View Estates mobile home park. The land is zoned general commercial, making the development a principal permitted use. Western Hospitality Partners has also proposed data centers in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
Project Green Mountain: Archbald’s latest data center proposal, Project Green Mountain proposes to build seven two-story, 65-foot-tall data centers with 138,000-square-foot footprints. The L-shaped, 1.5-mile campus would be at the site of the Stavola Quarry across nearly 271 acres east of the Casey Highway. The land has a data center overlay district, making it a conditional use. Green Mountain 6 LLC filed a conditional use application in January through a Pittsburgh law firm. However, the project shares multiple similarities with Project Gravity, most notably when a company representative’s computer displayed “Western Hospitality” in a file directory during a public hearing last month. Archbald Borough Council held its first hearing on the campus March 19. No decision has been made.
Project Scott (originally Project South): One of two campuses proposed by Dallas, Texas-based Provident Realty Advisors operating as Archbald I LLC, Project Scott seeks to build as many as 18 data centers, each up to 90 feet tall with a 154,850-square-foot footprint across about 400 acres between Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6, adjacent to Archbald’s Staback Park and immediately south of Project Gravity. The land is zoned commercial/light industrial, which previously allowed data centers as principal permitted uses, but council later applied a data center overlay to the site. Archbald I LLC applied as both a permitted use and a conditional use. The company initially filed an Oct. 22 zoning permit application as a principal permitted use, followed by a Dec. 16 conditional use application. While the conditional use designation has more restrictions, it allows for taller data centers. As a permitted use, the commercial/light industrial zone limits the buildings to 55 feet, but the data center overlay raises that to 90 feet. Council denied the conditional use application on March 27, which the developer will likely appeal.
Project North: Coinciding with its original Project South application, Archbald I LLC also applied on Oct. 22 for a smaller Project North campus just north of Project Gravity on the same swath of land between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road. The four-building campus would border Jermyn. Each building has a footprint similar to Project Scott’s data centers, though they would be 70 feet tall, according to the plans. The land is zoned general commercial, making the application a principal permitted use when Archbald received it.
Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus: Wildcat Ridge became Archbald’s first proposed data center campus when representatives approached council during a January 2025 work session looking to build 14 two-story data centers, each up to 80 feet tall with a 202,340-square-foot footprint, across 574.2 mountainside acres along Business Route 6 and Route 247, or Wildcat Road. The site is zoned for resource conservation and medium- and high-density residential uses, which would have prohibited data centers, but Archbald’s November zoning amendment applied a data center overlay to the land, making it a conditional use. Brooklyn-based Cornell Realty Management LLC filed its conditional use application Dec. 15, and council held hearings on the development Jan. 28 and March 10. Council has yet to vote on the application, with the next meeting scheduled for April 13.
The number of proposals, especially concentrated along Eynon Jermyn Road near her home, are overwhelming, Verrastro said. The community has become increasingly engaged as developers cut down large swaths of trees between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road, she said, but there’s also been some confusion.
Vehicles pass a clearing of trees along Business Route 6 in Archbald Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
People celebrated council’s denial last week of Project Scott, saying, “Yay! We did it!” and “Put the trees back!” Verrastro said.
“We’re like, ‘Uh oh,’” she said. “We need the community to continue to be involved and understand that was definitely a win for Archbald borough; however, we still have a lot of work to do.”
Council President Louis Rapoch, who began his first term on council in January, emphasized the importance of an informed community.
“I would love for people to get the information because there are so many misconceptions and so many statements out there that you just want to shake your head and say, ‘Really?’” Rapoch said.
Data center hearings in Archbald routinely draw hundreds of attendees, and Verrastro echoed the importance of keeping the community informed as they attend meetings.
“Each one of us that is involved in the Stop Archbald Data Centers group was just a regular person, by themselves, Googling, requesting Right to Know requests from the borough, getting copies of these plans,” she said. “Then, we united.”
Due to space constraints at the library, the meeting will be capped at 150 people, Verrastro said.