Plymouth Township · 900 Conshohocken Road

Two million square feet of gas-fired data center. Two hundred feet from people’s homes.

We are residents of Plymouth Township, Conshohocken, and the surrounding area, organized to stop the data center proposed for 900 Conshohocken Road. Our water, our air, our power bills, and our local zoning are not negotiable.

Take Action Read the Story

Illustrative composite

By the numbers

2M sq ft Proposed data center, on 66 acres along the Schuylkill River.

10 buildings Former steel-mill structures retrofitted with on-site gas turbines.

~200 feet From the nearest Connaughtown homes, across one road.

$9.3B grid cost Added to PJM ratepayer bills in 2025-26, largely driven by data centers.

Fund the fight.

This campaign is community-funded, period. Every dollar goes to land-use counsel, expert witnesses, transcripts, and the materials that put evidence on the record. Chip in what you can.

Donate on GoFundMe →

Where We Stand

The zoning, the water, the air, and the electric rates are all local, and so is the decision.

We welcome good development, and we expect the process to work the way the law says it should. A two-million-square-foot industrial data center with combustion turbines on site does not fit the ordinance’s definition of a laboratory or a warehouse, and Plymouth Township residents deserve a real public hearing, real evidence, and real conditions before any approval.

The Story, in Three Acts

How a closed steel mill became a fight for our community.

The mill closed. The developer moved fast.

In May 2025, Cleveland-Cliffs announced it would idle the Conshohocken steel plant. By September, developer Brian O’Neill’s “900 Conshohocken Road, LLC” had filed a zoning application to convert ten former mill buildings into a 2-million-square-foot data center.

The Plymouth Township Planning Agency voted 4-0 against recommending it. Hundreds of residents packed the November 17, 2025 hearing. The application collapsed when Cleveland-Cliffs’ counsel told the board the agreement of sale was unsigned and O’Neill had no standing.

The same plan came back in May 2026.

On May 1, 2026, Plymouth Township received an essentially identical application from the same developer for the same project: two million square feet across ten buildings, with outdoor standby generators and natural gas turbines located within and between the buildings.

The tenant is still undisclosed, described only as “life sciences-related,” and the total power draw has not been published. The applicant’s own preliminary noise assessment reached the parties only after the August 6 session, and the water plan and air emissions modeling are still not in the public record.

This is winnable, and we’re ready.

In the last six months alone, communities in East Vincent, East Whiteland, North Coventry, Hampden, and Hazle Townships have stopped or shrunk data center projects. Prince William County, Virginia’s Digital Gateway was voided in court. Lowhill Township passed a model ordinance with closed-loop cooling and 500-foot setbacks.

Plymouth Township’s zoning code does not list data centers as a use. The applicant has the burden of proof. We have the residents, the lawyers, the regional environmental coalition, and the precedent. We just need you with us.

Read the Full Proposal Breakdown →

What’s Actually At Stake

Five questions O’Neill has not answered.

The May 2026 application is silent or vague on each of these. We are asking the Zoning Hearing Board to require independent, third-party answers before any vote.

Water

O’Neill says “closed-loop, no Schuylkill, no on-site wells.” Then where does the water come from? How much? Who reviews the contamination history of the Alan Wood Steel brownfield?

Water details →

Power

What is the total megawatt load? On-site gas turbines burning what volume of fuel? What grid interconnection? PJM’s capacity prices already cleared 9× higher this year, mostly because of data centers.

Power details →

Air

Gas turbines “within and between” the buildings, less than 200 feet from homes, will emit nitrogen oxides, fine particulates, and formaldehyde. We are asking for independent dispersion modeling at maximum permitted operations, because “federally regulated” describes who sets the limit and says nothing about what reaches the nearest homes.

Air details →

Noise

Industrial chillers, transformers, and turbines run around the clock, and other data centers have prompted lawsuits and emergency ordinances over low-frequency hum measurable inside neighbors’ homes. The applicant’s noise assessment is marked preliminary in its own title, arrived after the August 6 session, and disclosed six generators on a second parcel across the street that no earlier filing mentioned. None of it has been tested by cross-examination yet.

Noise details →

Tax Reality

O’Neill has claimed $21 million a year in local tax revenue, and in August released a consultant study claiming $424 million over twenty years. The Planning Agency disputed the earlier figure on the record, and both studies were commissioned by the applicant. We are calling for an independent fiscal impact study before any approval.

Fiscal details →

Process

Plymouth Township residents have a right to be heard. We are demanding a 180-day curative-amendment moratorium so the township can write a real data center ordinance, like Lowhill, East Whiteland, and West Pennsboro have.

Your rights →

The Pattern

This is one project in a wave across Pennsylvania.

From Falls Township to Hazle Township, from East Vincent to Erie, data-center proposals are landing on Pennsylvania communities at unprecedented speed. We track them all.

PA AI Data Center Tracker

projects across Pennsylvania, since 2020

22289815

22 active or approved
28 contested or filed
9 ordinance responses
8 speculative
15 withdrawn or defeated

Plymouth Township is the pulsing red dot in the southeast. Search by name, county, operator, or status. Click any project for the full record: filings, operators, timeline, sources.

Open the interactive tracker 82 projects, updated as new applications are filed

Testimony resumes Thursday, September 17. Be counted.

The evidentiary hearing continues September 17 at 7 p.m., moved from the 750-seat Colonial Middle School auditorium to the Karen B. Weiss Meeting Room at 700 Belvoir Road, which seats about 200 with priority given to the parties. The township is livestreaming and opening an overflow viewing room at the Greater Plymouth Community Center. Come early if you want a seat, and go to the GPCC if you cannot get one, because a count of everyone turned away belongs in the record. We still need volunteers, expert testimony, and funding for legal counsel.

Volunteer Now Sign the Petition

Stay Informed

Get the Data Center Update by email.

Ardis Lukens writes a plain-language update for neighbors after every hearing: what happened in the room, what is scheduled next, and what help we need. Leave your email and you will get the next one. We do not share the list.

You’re on the list.

The next Data Center Update will come to this address.

Latest

From the field, and in the news

All coverage →

Community Update August 2026

By: Ardis Lukens
Organizer, No Conshy Data Centers

What happened on August 6, and what comes next

Who got standing, how the room is set up, the applicant’s first expert witness and why nobody has cross-examined him yet, where lawn signs can go in Conshohocken, and the help we need before September 17.

Read the update → Get the next one by email

Aug 19, 2026

Governor Shapiro’s executive order means every state permit this project needs now runs through Plymouth Township

Our View · The state’s new data center map lists 57 projects, and none of them are in Montgomery County

Our View

Aug 19, 2026

Plymouth Township moves the data center hearings to the smaller township meeting room

MoreThanTheCurve · Board votes to continue to September 17 and relocate from the 750-seat auditorium to a room of about 200

Township

Aug 7, 2026

O’Neill: “If they don’t work with us in good faith, we’re going to get it by right”

The Philadelphia Inquirer · The developer skips the hearing and states the validity challenge strategy in one sentence

Press