Though Scranton is not the site of a proposed data center, city officials and residents worry about projects proposed elsewhere in Lackawanna County.
The closest project in neighboring Ransom Twp. could affect stormwater remediation work in the city’s Keyser Valley section. And Project Gravity, a seven building campus proposed in Archbald, would use 360,000 gallons of water per day from Lake Scranton for cooling, developers disclosed last week.
Scranton residents showed up to a hearing Thursday night on Scranton Materials LLC’s request to allow for a data center on its property at 819 Newton Road. Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and Lackawanna County Controller Gary DiBileo, who is president of the Keyser Valley Neighborhood Association, were among those who opposed the project.
Keyser Valley residents shared concerns Friday about Scranton Materials’ data center proposal, including how much water and electricity it will use, its impact on residents’ health and well-being, light pollution and its impact on wildlife.
“We’re on the side of a mountain, water runoff and water use is constantly a problem without adding a 500,000-square-foot data center to further strain the utilities in the area,” said Laura McGarry, who lives in the Fawnwood development.
Keyser Valley resident Hayley Schaffer is used to seeing trucks drive by her house on Jackson Street, one of the main roads to access Scranton Materials. She worries data center construction could make the road worse.
“It’s gonna be real bad on our roads and the roads already, the state roads, aren’t that great as it is,” Schaffer said. “I’m afraid it’s going to destroy the road.”
She worries that removing trees on the mountain could displace wildlife, forcing them into residential areas and onto the streets. She said the thought that data centers could use water from Lake Scranton angers her, as it is the city’s water source. She also worries that property values in the neighborhood will decline.
“They’re going to go down because nobody wants to live near data centers,” Schaffer said.
Keyser Valley resident Hayley Schaffer stands on the sidewalk outside of her home on Jackson St. in Scranton on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Keyser Valley resident Hayley Schaffer stands on the sidewalk outside of her home on Jackson St. in Scranton on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Scranton resident Laura McGarry speaks during a Ransom Twp. supervisors hearing on a request by Scranton Materials LLC for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center on their property on 819 Newton Road Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
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Keyser Valley resident Hayley Schaffer stands on the sidewalk outside of her home on Jackson St. in Scranton on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Keyser Valley Neighborhood Association members have discussed data centers. DiBileo worries he and his neighbors’ electric and water bills will rise if the data center is built. He said data centers should be built away from residential areas.
“There’s a lot of farmland in Ransom Twp. and they could build these facilities that are far, far away,” DiBileo said.
McGarry said she and her neighbors are concerned about how infrastructure improvements would be funded, as well as who would pay if there was an emergency at the data center.
City officials are working to improve stormwater management in Keyser Valley, parts of which were damaged by flash flooding in September 2023.“]
Cognetti said following Thursday’s hearing the largest and most complicated stormwater projects in the city are in Keyser Valley and the proposed data center could render millions of dollars the city spent on stormwater management useless if it redirects water.
“You can never predict nature but we certainly don’t want something that would be making the problem worse,” she said.