The number jumped off the page and must have landed like a gut-punch to anyone who calls the Midvalley home.

In a recent report, Times-Tribune Staff Writer Frank Lesnefsky revealed that an astonishing 54 artificial intelligence data centers have been proposed in the Midvalley, including four structures crammed into a 1.5-mile stretch of  Business Route 6 in Dickson City.

Another 43 buildings would rise across five data center campuses in Archbald and seven structures across two campuses in Jessup. A developer also plans to build a massive data center campus along Interstate 380 in Clifton and Covington townships.

Roughly 84 data center buildings are proposed for Lackawanna County. That number will undoubtedly grow.

Until now, it’s been difficult to visualize the staggering scope and scale of aesthetic and environmental disfigurement data center development will wreak on host communities and the region as a whole.

For perspective, imagine anyone welcoming the development of 54 Walmarts in the same space. Or 54 Wawas, 54 car washes, 54 urgent cares, 54 McDonald’s, Dollar Generals, Home Depots or Hobby Lobbies.

Even a proposal to build 54 new homes would draw pushback from neighbors opposed to overdevelopment. And yet plans to bury the Midvalley in colossal concrete mausoleums are moving forward at a breakneck pace. Similar assimilations of small communities and densely populated regions are happening across the commonwealth, often with the bipartisan blessings of elected officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The footprint of an average Walmart Supercenter is about 187,000 square feet, according to several possibly reliable sources on the internet. Three of the proposed two-story data centers in Dickson City would each claim 147,000-square feet. The footprint of the fourth building was illegible in the plans, Dickson City Borough Manager Cesare Forconi told Frank.

If the fourth building is the same size as the other three, the combined footprint of the campus (minus parking lots, etc.) would be 588,000 square feet, or roughly three Walmart Supercenters off a 1.5-mile stretch of highway.

Three Walmarts in so little space would never earn official approval. Four data centers of equivalent size just might. Make that make sense.

Last week, the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce hosted a bus trip to Loudoun County, Virginia, known worldwide as “Data Center Alley.” Local officials, business leaders and journalists were shown the upside of embracing data centers, from tax windfalls to complementary commercial development.

I was unable to make the trip, but Times-Tribune Staff Writer Rob Tomkavage’s report revealed two key reasons comparisons between Loudoun and Lackawanna counties are inherently flawed.

First, most data centers there are located away from homes, schools and public parks.

Second, the tax windfall Loudoun County reaps from data centers is fed by a personal property tax on data equipment. Pennsylvania levies no such tax. Local governments are funded primarily through property taxes. Data centers may increase local revenue through property taxes, but expecting anything like Loudoun County’s boom is as crazy as building 54 Walmarts on a mile-and-a-half of highway.

Loudon County has four Walmart Supercenters and about 200 data centers, with another 117 in development. “Data Center Alley” is a model for making the invasive industry pay.

Meanwhile, Lackawanna County has two Walmart Supercenters and is being remade as “Data Center Valley.”

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, would support the construction of 54 libraries anywhere. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Blue Sky Social.