UPPER MERION, PA — In the wake of their recent victory against the massive hyperscale data center cluster proposed in Upper Merion, township officials and activists are calling for increased funding to fight the litigation battles to come.
The Board of Supervisors discussed the need for more and better funded legal resources during their public meeting Thursday night.
"The 2027 Operating Budget must sufficiently increase funding for legal services so Upper Merion Township can fight the litigation brought by Brian O'Neill/MLP," Commissioner Greg Waks said.
Enormous bipartisan opposition from both residents and many elected officials in Upper Merion led to the rejection of O'Neill's proposed cluster, one of the largest in the nation.
But even as township residents and activists celebrated victory, they knew that O'Neill likely wasn't ready to give up. They were right, as O'Neill and developers have filed lawsuits in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas protesting the rejections.
"Defending the legality of our process and code is important, our intention to aggressively defend must be loud and clear, litigation is expensive and you cannot mount a strong legal defense on the cheap," Waks added.
The rejected proposal included a total of 8 data centers in Upper Merion with a combined footprint of more than 4 million square feet, larger than Philadelphia International Airport. There was a cluster of four on 2201, 2301, 2501, 2701, and 2901 Renaissance Boulevard, one on 3200 Horizon Drive, and one on 411 Swedeland Road.
Hundreds of Upper Merion residents packed the meetings leading up to the Board's decision.
O'Neill's proposals in Upper Merion and in nearby Plymouth Township, where he is petitioning to build a separate data center, have been condemned by officials as threats to public health and environmental safety. Specifically, opponents hammered in on the around-the-clock noise, strained electric grid, costs to local families, and the mysterious tech giants who would ultimately use the centers.
While data centers requiring comparatively minimal resources have been around in much smaller form for decades, the size and strain of centers required to support artificial intelligence is massive. About 74 percent of Pennsylvania residents oppose building AI data centers, according to the latest Quinnipiac University polling, while 84 percent show it no support.
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