CUMRU TWP., Pa. \u2014 If you drive along Route 422 or Interstate 176, you\u2019ve probably seen it before \u2014 the old Titus power plant in Cumru Township.<\/p>\n
Now, Titus Development Co. and Go Energy Group want to turn the site into a large artificial intelligence data center campus.<\/p>\n
Think of it like a massive building filled with computer servers used to power AI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very large building that has lots and lots of servers in it, at the most basic level,\u201d said Cumru Township Commissioner Greg Miller. \u201cWhen I say large, I\u2019m talking large. Now, how exactly large this one will be, we won\u2019t know until those plans come in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed project, if approved, would be built at the former Titus Station site, which has been vacant since the plant was decommissioned in 2014.<\/p>\n
Township officials say this is still just the beginning. No formal land development plan has been submitted yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just learned about this. This deal just happened apparently from the press release\u2026so we\u2019re all kind of in this beginning stage right now,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Cumru Township recently passed a new ordinance specifically for data centers, setting rules for things like noise, water usage, power demand and location.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actually the first municipality in Berks County that put one of these ordinances in place, and it\u2019s for protection,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t for promotion necessarily; it\u2019s just protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
While data centers can bring tax revenue and development, officials say the community comes first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to sell the soul of the community for tax revenue,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Township leaders say residents will have opportunities to weigh in once formal plans are submitted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CUMRU TWP., Pa. \u2014 If you drive along Route 422 or Interstate 176, you\u2019ve probably seen it before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[85956,6512,85955,85957,128,130,129,85958,85954],"class_list":["post-193009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-ai-servers","tag-cumru-township","tag-data-center-campus","tag-go-energy-group","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-titus-development-co","tag-titus-power-plant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}