datacentermap.com<\/a>, an industry research website that graphically depicts the ever-widening infrastructure of \u201cData Center Alley.\u201d According to the site, the \u201cAlley\u201d hosts 397 data centers, with 252 operational and 145 in development. Ashburn, Virginia, which hosts 152 data centers, is often called the \u201cdata center capital of the world.\u201d<\/p>\nAs 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to run the power lines through these people\u2019s backyards,\u201d Mary said. \u201cThat\u2019s just horrible.\u201d And while rare, there are some upscale homeowners now stuck with data centers in their backyards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose houses that have the data centers in their backyards are still worth over a million dollars, if you want to buy one,\u201d Mary said. \u201cWould I want to buy one? No. Are they going to be able to sell their houses now? No.\u201d<\/p>\n
As data center development ramps up everywhere, landowners sitting on empty space are in a seller\u2019s market. Mary shared the story of a property once cherished as a community asset that was sold out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the American Legion field right off of Route 50,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then all of a sudden, it came out that no one could use the field anymore. They had sold it. \u2026 They took away four Little League fields. And now there\u2019s data centers there and the kids don\u2019t have anywhere to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like me, Mary was bemused when I told her about Valley View School District Solicitor Larry Moran Jr.\u2019s 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\u2019s property on Columbus Drive from residential to light industrial.<\/p>\n
The letter and Moran\u2019s sales pitch to council rightly raised eyebrows and is sure to inspire raised voices at Monday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Mary Kelly Houser, who grew up on Cemetery Street, will be praying for her hometown from \u201cData Center Alley.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Archbald,\u201d she said. \u201cI miss Archbald. I don\u2019t want to see anything happen to it because it\u2019s a wonderful place. My grandparents were there. My great-grandparents, when they came from Ireland, went there. So that\u2019s home to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019d rather live in any of them than anywhere in the Buffalo\/Niagara region.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 25 years ago, I deliberately and gratuitously used this space to insult the Buffalo\/Niagara region of New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,1590,201,25251,182,3052,139,1559,1560,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-42180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-archbald","9":"tag-chris-kelly","10":"tag-lackawanna-county","11":"tag-little-league","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-midvalley","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-opinion","16":"tag-opinion-columnists","17":"tag-pennsylvania","18":"tag-scranton","19":"tag-scranton-headlines","20":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42180","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=42180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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