Lackawanna County residents will hear from both sides of the contentious data center debate this week with meetings on back-to-back days in the Midvalley.
The developer behind the proposed Project Gravity data center campus in Archbald will hold a community information session from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Archbald Borough Building’s third-floor gymnasium, 400 Church St. The following day, residents will host a community conversation about data centers at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Mid Valley Secondary Center auditorium, 52 Underwood Road, Throop.
State Sen. Katie Muth, D-44, plans to attend the Thursday meeting, her office confirmed Tuesday.
Muth, who represents parts of Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties, has emerged as a central figure in the data center opposition movement statewide, notably for her role as the prime sponsor of a Senate bill to impose a moratorium on data centers. State Rep. Rosemary Brown, R-40, Middle Smithfield Twp., is one of four co-sponsors of the bill. The legislation, Senate Bill 1359, was referred to the Senate’s Local Government Committee on June 4.
Over the last year-and-a-half, Lackawanna County has become a hotspot for data center and power plant proposals, encompassing about 90 proposed data centers and at least six proposed natural gas power plants, totaling 3.25 gigawatts of new generation.
Lackawanna County’s Midvalley region has received the highest concentration of proposals within that hotspot.
Throughout 2026, residents have routinely packed council meetings and public hearings to raise concerns about data centers and power plants, especially those proposed in close proximity to parks, homes and schools.
Children hold up signs during a special public meeting for applications to build 18 data centers at the Archbald Borough Building in Archbald Friday, March 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Lackawanna County controller and president of the Keyser Valley Neighborhood Association Gary DiBileo asks the crowd to raise their hand if they oppose data centers during the Archbald Borough Council’s public hearing regrading the proposed Wildcat Ridge campus at Valley View High School on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Stop Archbald Data Centers co-founder Tamara Misewicz-Healey cross-examines a sound engineer during a conditional hearing on Monday, June 22, 2026, at the Valley View High School in Archbald. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
An overflow crowd of at least 200 residents packs into the Dickson City Borough Building for a public hearing Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in the Dickson City. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Residents pack Olyphant’s council chambers for a meeting on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Community members gather in the Ransom Twp. Municipal’s garage for the hearing regarding Scranton Materials LLC’s request for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Children hold up signs during a special public meeting for applications to build 18 data centers at the Archbald Borough Building in Archbald Friday, March 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Project Gravity info session
Project Gravity became one of Lackawanna County’s earliest data center endeavors when it submitted a sketch plan to Archbald in April 2025.
The campus proposes seven data centers — five two-story data centers and two one-story data centers, each with a 138,000-square-foot footprint, across 180-plus acres between Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6.
Last week at an Archbald Planning Commission meeting, representatives from Corscale Data Centers, the Texas-based developer behind Project Gravity, discussed their plans to shift from 260 3-megawatt backup generators to 45 1.25-megawatt generators, supplemented by 430 megawatts of batteries to support their data centers during an outage.
More than a dozen Lackawanna County residents pushed back against the project during the three-hour meeting Oct. 7, with concerns revolving around Project Gravity’s planned battery energy storage system, or BESS, and the campus’s close proximity to neighborhoods in Archbald and Jermyn. Corscale representatives defended their plans for batteries, citing a 99% reduction in BESS incidents from 2018 to 2025, with past incidents informing significant regulation and design changes.
The residents who spoke out against the project were not swayed.
Residents gather for an Archbald Planning Commission meeting at the Borough Building on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Corscale announced its public information session with an ad on Page A4 of The Sunday Times inviting residents to meet the project team and learn about the project. The state Department of Environmental Protection previously hosted a public information session on Project Gravity in January.
Representatives of the developers of the proposed “Project Gravity” data center campus share project plans during the hearing at Valley View High School on Tuesday, Jan. 06, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
In an emailed statement Tuesday, Erik Draaisma, Corscale’s executive vice president of business development, said his company has been meeting with residents, public officials and stakeholders in Archbald since acquiring the site, citing the January DEP meeting at the Valley View High School.
“We rented the Borough Building several weeks ago so neighbors could meet in a familiar place and engage with our development team about the project. We plan to host additional regular discussion sessions through every stage of development,” Draaisma wrote. “We’re proud of what we have proposed here, and we want to give residents details on everything from how we’ve approached power, water, noise, landscaping and setbacks to how the campus will look and feel from the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Countywide community conversation
With municipalities regularly receiving new data center applications, residents can feel overwhelmed, said Thursday’s community conversation organizer Heather Luklanchuk, a Throop native living in South Abington Twp.
To combat those feelings, the event aims to bring communities together and empower residents, Luklanchuk said, pointing to the success of the Stop Archbald Data Centers movement.
“I want it to be community focused, where the people are working together here and learning together and hopefully moving together to do something real,” she said.
Flyers for the event use the tagline, “Let’s protect the valley! Families over billionaires.”
Luklanchuk organized the event with NEPA Stands Up; she has also been working with the Stop Olyphant Data Centers movement, including helping the group host a community information night in August.
Rather than call it a town hall, Luklanchuk wants it to be a countywide community conversation. Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, a vocal data center critic who regularly speaks out against developments at local meetings, will discuss the countywide impacts of data centers, and Muth will address them from a statewide perspective, she said.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan holds up a map that shows where PPL has purchased land from DeNaples realty companies during the commissioners’ meeting at the county government center in Scranton Wednesday, September 16, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Following remarks from Gaughan and Muth, organizers will break attendees down into groups by municipality. Each community will have its own facilitator to go over the specifics of what’s happening in each town, whether that’s a proposed data center or something looming, Luklanchuk said.
Empowerment is crucial, she said.
“It’s absolutely necessary to get people empowered so that they know how they can go out into their communities and put the pressure on if they need to put the pressure on if that’s their situation, or to fill the seats at their meetings and make sure that their voices are heard, because that is our power,” Luklanchuk said. “Our voice is our power.”