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Contested

NorthPoint Spring Mountain Data Center (Tresckow Mountain, Packer and Banks Townships)

Packer Township and Banks Township, Carbon County

NorthPoint Development, the Kansas City company behind Project Hazelnut, owns roughly 1,200 to 1,400 acres atop Tresckow Mountain in Banks and Packer townships and has floated a data center there that could draw cooling water from the Quakake Tunnel mine discharge. It hasn't filed a zoning request or any permits.

ContestedTBD/UndisclosedGreenfieldNEPA
At a glance

The project by the numbers

StatusProposed
Site1200 acres
Water (max)2 MGD
First announced2025-08

NorthPoint eyes Tresckow Mountain for a second data center campus near Hazleton

The number that mattersNorthPoint's Brian Stahl said that if the campus didn't use a closed cooling system, 2 million gallons a day would be drawn from the Quakake Tunnel, cleaned up, used and returned to the environment; about 8.5 million gallons leave the tunnel every day, the Times News reported.
Developer
NorthPoint Development of Kansas City, Missouri. Brian Stahl, its executive vice president of strategic initiatives, has represented the company at public sessions.
Tenant
No tenant has been named.
Current stage
NorthPoint hasn't filed a zoning overlay request, land development plan or DEP permit application as of October 22, 2026, and DEP's tracker lists every permit as not yet submitted. The company met Packer Township supervisors in a closed session in August 2025 and held a public information session in Tresckow on September 30, 2025, saying it would seek a zoning overlay on its conservation-zoned land.
Decision body
The Packer Township and Banks Township boards of supervisors would have to approve a zoning overlay or rezoning, since most of the land is zoned conservation. Banks Township created a planning commission in February 2026 to review projects like this one. DEP would review stormwater and water permits.
Top issues
cooling water drawn from the Quakake Tunnel mine discharge; mine subsidence and the water table under nearby homes; changing conservation-zoned mountaintop land; new PPL transmission lines and a substation in the McAdoo Industrial Park; how little the developer has disclosed
Key opponents
Packer Township Supervisor Susie Gerhard, who said in January 2026 that the township is fighting data centers; Banks Township Supervisor William Nice, who said in 2025 the supervisors would try to keep the reclaimed land as green space; Save Carbon County, led by president Linda Christman, which has warned about data centers planned in Packer Township and called for a statewide moratorium.
Key supporters
No organized support has been reported. Times News columnist Ed Socha has argued that mine water from tunnels like the Quakake could cool data centers if it's treated and returned.

How we got here

In July 2025 Banks Township supervisors said rumors of a data center on Tresckow Mountain hadn't produced any proposal. NorthPoint representatives met Packer Township supervisors in executive session on August 5, 2025, and the township agenda mentioned a possible data center overlay district. On August 18, 2025 Banks supervisors confirmed that NorthPoint had bought the mountaintop land. NorthPoint presented its early plans at the Tresckow fire hall on September 30, 2025 before about 150 people, with a second session planned in Packer Township the following week. On January 6, 2026 Weatherly Borough Council declined a NorthPoint land offer that came with a restrictive conservation easement, and Packer Supervisor Susie Gerhard thanked council, saying the township is fighting data centers. Banks Township formed a planning commission on February 9, 2026 to review the expected data center. Weatherly accepted 64 acres from NorthPoint on April 27, 2026 after the easement was dropped.

What is at stake

Impacts raised and open questions

Water

High

NorthPoint's Brian Stahl said an open cooling system would draw 2 million gallons a day from the Quakake Tunnel mine discharge, which releases about 8.5 million gallons a day into Wetzel Creek, and return the treated water.

Times News

Public safety

Medium

A Junedale resident told Banks supervisors there's a mine under her home and any change in the water table could cause subsidence, and said the developer has been vague about water use.

Times News

Energy costs and the grid

Medium

PPL plans a 240kV substation in the McAdoo Industrial Park in Banks Township and a new Tresckow-Lofty transmission line, the Times News reported.

Times News

Visual and light

Medium

Banks Township Supervisor William Nice said the supervisors want to keep the green space created by a recent mine reclamation project on Tresckow Mountain, where the data center was rumored.

Times News
Community response

Who is organizing against it

Save Carbon County

Carbon County environmental advocacy nonprofit

Leaders: Linda Christman (president)

Tactics: Writes to boroughs and townships urging them to adopt data center ordinances, such as PennFuture's model, with closed-loop or dry cooling, strict water and noise standards and scrutiny of tax breaks; calls for a statewide moratorium.

The group has counted two proposed data centers in Packer Township and Nesquehoning among about a dozen planned in the region.

Timeline

How it has unfolded

  • 2025-08-05NorthPoint representatives present a data center idea to Packer supervisors in executive session. Times News
  • 2025-08-18Banks supervisors confirm NorthPoint bought the land atop Tresckow Mountain. Times News
  • 2025-09-30NorthPoint holds a public information session in Tresckow and says it will seek a zoning overlay. Times News
  • 2026-01-06Weatherly declines a NorthPoint land offer, and a Packer supervisor says the township is fighting data centers. Times News
  • 2026-02-09Banks Township creates a planning commission to review projects such as the expected data center. Times News
  • 2026-04-27Weatherly accepts 64 acres donated by NorthPoint as a buffer. Times News
News

Coverage of this project

Sources

Know your rights

In Pennsylvania, the local zoning ordinance sets the route. A conditional use is decided by the elected governing body (supervisors, commissioners or council). A special exception or variance, and an appeal of a zoning officer’s decision, go to the Zoning Hearing Board. Each is a public hearing on a record: affected neighbors can ask for party status, cross-examine witnesses, and appeal. Municipalities can also adopt data center ordinances with enforceable standards.

Know your rights →

Take action

Organized community opposition is the single most effective check on these projects in Pennsylvania. Show up to hearings, submit comment when it is taken, support legal and expert-witness costs, and press your municipality for a real ordinance. Pennsylvania municipalities cannot simply freeze applications, but a curative amendment under the Planning Code gives them a defined window to fix a defective ordinance.

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