Almost 25 years ago, I deliberately and gratuitously used this space to insult the Buffalo/Niagara region of New York. A joint development group there launched a $27 million ad campaign to woo the few businesses still employing people in Our Stiff Neck of the Woods to move to what I mocked as “a Canadian province with an identity crisis.”
Someone had to issue a self-righteous, inflammatory raspberry peppered with cheap shots and fair points. I was just the guy for the job.
Lake-effect winds carried my derisive missive north, where it inspired the Buffalo News editorial board to lob a blizzard of rhetorical snowballs my way. I wore their whining like a badge of honor stitched to a goose-down parka. Mission accomplished.
I’d forgotten the “Scranton/Buffalo Skirmish of 2001” until last week, when Mary Kelly Houser called me out for unintentionally dissing Loudoun County, Virginia, the bustling, hustling home of “Data Center Alley.”
Saturday’s Child by Christopher J. Kelly, June 9, 2001. (newspapers.com)
Saturday’s Child by Christopher J. Kelly, June 9, 2001. (newspapers.com)
The Buffalo News responds to Chris Kelly’s column, June 17, 2001. (newspapers.com)
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Saturday’s Child by Christopher J. Kelly, June 9, 2001. (newspapers.com)
Mary is an Archbald native who lives in Loudoun County. She took mild but justified offense to my Wednesday column, in which I wrote: “Loudoun is the ‘richest county in America,’ due largely to its data centers, but I wouldn’t live there even if I could afford it.”
Mary and Doug, her husband of 35 years, love living in Loudoun County. They raised two kids there and Mary objected to my inadvertent implication that data centers define and defile daily life. Mary is the only child of the late Richard and Mary Kelly. She grew up on Cemetery Street, a neighborhood her dad joked that “everyone was dying to get into.”
Mary left Archbald in 1987 after graduating from Marywood. She’s retired from “a job with the federal government.” Mary declined to be specific, so I’m guessing CIA?
As an Archbald native and Loudoun County homeowner, Mary has a unique perspective on the data center “gold rush” sweeping the Midvalley and North Pocono regions of Lackawanna County. She said data centers have been an overall boon for Loudoun County, bringing in astronomical tax revenue while having little impact on utility bills and community aesthetics.
Mary said data centers are a good fit for Loudoun County, but don’t belong in small, densely populated communities like Archbald, where an astonishing 43 buildings are proposed, including 29 squeezed into a single mile. Like most things related to real estate, it’s all about location.
“Loudoun County has a lot of space,” Mary said. “Most of our roads are three-lane roads, three lanes in each direction. They don’t have that (in Archbald). For the most part, our data centers are built against those big roads, and they’re next to grocery stores or they’re next to the airport or they’re next to Target, but they’re not next to someone’s house or next to the park.”
Once data centers get a foothold, they tend to multiply quickly, Mary said. A lifelong friend who lives in Archbald recently asked her what to expect if the proposed projects are approved.
“I said, ‘If you get one, you get 10. If you get 10, you get 100,” she said. “They just keep on coming. But Loudoun is big and has a lot of empty space. And now that empty space in some parts is filled with data centers, but we can handle it because that empty space wasn’t next to houses.”
For the most part. Mary pointed me to datacentermap.com, an industry research website that graphically depicts the ever-widening infrastructure of “Data Center Alley.” According to the site, the “Alley” hosts 397 data centers, with 252 operational and 145 in development. Ashburn, Virginia, which hosts 152 data centers, is often called the “data center capital of the world.”
As Mary pointed out, Ashburn is also home to Loudoun Valley Estates, which recently became a cautionary tale for homeowners anywhere data centers are proposed. There are no data centers near their homes, but how developers plan to power them is a stark reminder of all the other infrastructure attached to these projects.
“They want to run the power lines through these people’s backyards,” Mary said. “That’s just horrible.” And while rare, there are some upscale homeowners now stuck with data centers in their backyards.
“Those houses that have the data centers in their backyards are still worth over a million dollars, if you want to buy one,” Mary said. “Would I want to buy one? No. Are they going to be able to sell their houses now? No.”
As data center development ramps up everywhere, landowners sitting on empty space are in a seller’s market. Mary shared the story of a property once cherished as a community asset that was sold out.
“It was the American Legion field right off of Route 50,” she said. “And then all of a sudden, it came out that no one could use the field anymore. They had sold it. … They took away four Little League fields. And now there’s data centers there and the kids don’t have anywhere to play.”
Like me, Mary was bemused when I told her about Valley View School District Solicitor Larry Moran Jr.’s appearance at a Wednesday meeting of Archbald Borough Council. Moran referenced the tax-fueled riches of Loudoun County as a model for lifting the financial burdens of the struggling district. His comments came with a letter on behalf of the district asking council to rezone Valley View’s property on Columbus Drive from residential to light industrial.
The letter and Moran’s sales pitch to council rightly raised eyebrows and is sure to inspire raised voices at Monday’s special meeting, at which council will reconsider its wildly unpopular proposed zoning ordinance. The meeting is slated to begin at 5 p.m. at the Borough Building, but anyone who wants a seat inside should get there early.
Mary Kelly Houser, who grew up on Cemetery Street, will be praying for her hometown from “Data Center Alley.”
“I love Archbald,” she said. “I miss Archbald. I don’t want to see anything happen to it because it’s a wonderful place. My grandparents were there. My great-grandparents, when they came from Ireland, went there. So that’s home to me.”
I love Archbald, too, and all of the tightknit communities of the Midvalley and North Pocono. Even with the threat of unchecked data center development, I’d rather live in any of them than anywhere in the Buffalo/Niagara region.
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, is a shameless homer. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.