Penn Forest Township Data Center

Proposed for Penn Forest Township, Carbon County

Tenant

Not disclosed. No end user has been named publicly.

Current stage

Overlay ordinance adopted March 2026; the developer's validity challenge remains pending and no land development plan has been filed.

Decision body

Penn Forest Township

Top issues

Residents and officials have focused on the conversion of open land or farmland, how little has been disclosed about the end user, water use, continuous mechanical noise, and emissions from backup generation.

Opposition: 'Save Carbon County' / Greenfire Coalition. Mele Brothers Realty of Glenside, a Montgomery County company, plans a multi-building data center campus off Route 903 and Maury Road, roughly four miles from the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway in an area of vacation homes and woods. Tim Hendricks told the township in September 2025 he was under agreement to purchase 750 acres. Through attorney Matthew McHugh the company filed a substantive validity challenge arguing the ordinance excluded data centers before the township had defined them, which is the same posture seen at 900 Conshohocken Road. Rather than fight a challenge it might lose, Penn Forest adopted a curative amendment creating an overlay across roughly 500 acres, which Vice Chairman Christian Bartulovich called 'the least worst option.' Solicitor Tom Nanovic said the township's industrial area of about 50 acres, bordered by state game lands and Penn Forest streams, was too small to survive a second challenge, and Bartulovich noted a use cannot be merely hypothetically possible but must be actually possible. The ordinance runs to more than 40 pages with sound limits, electricity limits, woodland protection, lighting and glare controls, a visual impact plan, a 30-acre minimum lot, and an incentive exempting applicants from a full water feasibility study if cooling holds water use under 10,000 gallons per day. Supervisors adopted it March 2, 2026 before a full house at Penn's Peak, where a local well driller testified the aquifer cannot support a data center. The validity challenge remained pending afterward, and a March 23 zoning hearing board session on it was continued. Linda Christman of Save Carbon County said opposition is not going anywhere. State Rep. Doyle Heffley has urged siting on brownfields rather than clear-cut mountainsides.

• 2026-06-17 PA State Rep. Doyle HeffleyPreserving Carbon County's Future Through Local Control on Data Center DevelopmentLegislator urges brownfields over clear-cut mountainsides; backs municipal review time
• 2026-03-04 Times News OnlinePenn Forest OKs data ordinanceWell driller testifies the aquifer cannot supply a data center
• 2026-03-03 WVIAPenn Forest Twp. Supervisors approve regulations for data center developmentOrdinance adopted; Mele Brothers validity challenge still standing; 30-acre minimum lot
• 2026-02-28 WVIA'Least worst option': Carbon County community faces data center challengesTownship adopts overlay on ~500 acres rather than fight a validity challenge it might lose
• 2026-01-14 Times News OnlinePenn Forest releases data center zoning planMeeting moved to Penn's Peak for capacity; water and lighting provisions added
• 2025-12-30 WFMZ 69 NewsPenn Forest community discusses potential data center34 pages of amendments; residents question benefit in a tourism community