{"id":265118,"date":"2026-08-14T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265118\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:56:09","slug":"upper-merion-supervisors-reject-applications-seeking-to-build-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265118\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Merion supervisors reject applications seeking to build data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A battle over the proposed development of five <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/pennsylvania-data-centers-lawsuit-upper-merion-township\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">data centers<\/a> in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, came down to a vote Thursday night, and it appears the residents opposing it have come out on top, at least for now.<\/p>\n<p>It was a tense, hourslong meeting Thursday. At one point, Brian O&#8217;Neill \u2014 the applicant \u2014 confronted the Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors, saying he&#8217;d stay all night to answer their questions. The board was unwilling.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neill responded that it was clear the board wanted to deny the plan and go home.<\/p>\n<p>There were loud cheers Thursday night after Upper Merion supervisors rejected five applications seeking to construct data center-related developments. The proposed square footage would be nearly double that of the nearby King of Prussia Mall.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Prove this won&#8217;t negatively affect Upper Merion residents,&#8221; Steve Snyder, a community member, said.<\/p>\n<p>One resident after another asked board members to deny the data center plans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vote no against all these hyperscale AI data center proposals,&#8221; Courtney Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have over 20,000 signatures,&#8221; Patty Erickson said.<\/p>\n<p>Josh Stevens was the lone voice supporting the projects that have come nationally under scrutiny for noise and pressure on public water and energy systems.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have the opportunity here to embrace property rights, but also technology and progress,&#8221; Stevens said.<\/p>\n<p>Board members appeared to grow impatient with the process. At times, they accused O&#8217;Neill of withholding adequate information, which prevented the board from making an informed decision.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How do you expect us to make an intelligent, informed decision when we don&#8217;t have those types of details?&#8221; William Jenaway, vice chair of the Board of Supervisors, said.<\/p>\n<p>One supervisor described O&#8217;Neill&#8217;s behavior as bullying and an attempt to intimidate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think I&#8217;m the one who was intimidated,&#8221; O&#8217;Neill said.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neill said it would be up to his lawyers to appeal with the board of supervisors in Upper Merion or take it straight to court.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A battle over the proposed development of five data centers in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, came down to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2116,200,28,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-265118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-data-centers","tag-montgomery-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265118","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=265118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}