We’re residents of Plymouth Township, Conshohocken and the surrounding area. We welcome good development, and we expect the process to work the way the law says it should. A data center this size, with gas-fired power generation on site, doesn’t fit the township code’s definition of a laboratory or a warehouse, and residents deserve real evidence and real conditions before any approval.
By the numbers
Thursday, November 19, 7:00 p.m.
Plymouth Township Building, 700 Belvoir Road, Plymouth Meeting
On October 15 the board granted Montgomery County party status and heard O’Neill testify about noise, emissions, water and power. The studies behind those claims, and the people who prepared them, still need to be examined.
Sundays, 3:30 p.m. · About 90 minutes
Open to anyone in Plymouth Township, Conshohocken, and the surrounding area. We’re talking through the October 15 hearing, what to prepare before November 19, and the O’Neill proposals in Upper Merion and West Conshohocken.
Scheduled every Sunday through early November. If the calls continue into the weeks before November 19, we’ll post the dates here and in the email update.
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 new application the township posted is dated April 28, 2026. It’s essentially identical to the first one, 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. On October 15 the applicant’s attorney said his client won’t use turbines, and the revised noise study filed August 26 models 86 natural gas generators instead.
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.
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.
The 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.
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 →What is the total megawatt load? On-site gas generators 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 →The original filing described gas turbines “within and between” the buildings, and the August 26 noise study models 86 natural gas generators and 208 diesel backup generators. Burning gas and diesel 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 →Industrial chillers, transformers, and gas generators 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 →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 →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 →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
134
projects across Pennsylvania since 2020, including related power, grid and ordinance entries
Plymouth Township is the pulsing red dot in the southeast. Search by name, county, operator or status, and click any project for the full record: filings, operators, timeline and sources.
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.
The next Data Center Update will come to this address.
By: No Conshy Data Centers
After the October 15 hearing
Montgomery County joined the case, the applicant’s attorney said the project won’t use turbines, and the next hearing is Thursday, November 19 at 7 p.m. Here’s what happened, what the record shows, and what we’re asking for at each stage.
Tracker · A former quarry and landfill site on Front Street, across the river from 900 Conshohocken Road; borough review expected in November
6abc · Montgomery County granted party status; next hearing November 19
FOX 29 · Public comment to come later at a larger venue, township officials say
Community Update · Thank you to everyone who came out
Tracker · The developer’s appeal goes to the Mifflin County zoning board October 26, and No Data Centers in Mifflin County is organizing
MoreThanTheCurve · 25 parties are now taking part, and the county’s party status will be decided that night
Our View · The state’s PATER study, with a map of all 21 sites; comments on this phase close October 14
Plymouth Township · Seating goes first to parties, attorneys and witnesses; the comment date will be announced in advance
CBS News Philadelphia · Neighbors lined Fayette Street with signs and flyers, asking people to come to the zoning hearing
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.