Montco Data Center Developer Lobbies Gov. Shapiro's Office To Take Away Appeal Rights

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, PA — The developer who pushed for a controversial data center in Plymouth Township is urging Gov. Shapiro's office to create legislation to remove the rights of municipalities to appeal data center projects, according to emails obtained in a Right to Know request by the advocacy group No Conshy Data Centers.

Real estate baron Brian O'Neill, who was behind the controversial proposal at the old Cleveland Cliffs steel mill on the Schuylkill River, wrote that anyone who wants to appeal a data center project should have to post a bond that is worth double the cost of the project.

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"Example, if a $2 million project is postponed due to an appeal, they should have to post a bond for $4 million," O'Neill wrote to Benjamin Kirshner, Shapiro's "chief transformation officer."

The emails obtained by No Conshy Data Centers also paint Amazon as a victim of these appeals, put forth as part of fierce opposition from municipal and state representatives and residents on both sides of the aisle. Critics have pointed to noise pollution, health impacts from exhaust, water quality and availability, and increased water and electric bills as concrete reasons for the appeals, which were only described by O'Neill in the email as "frivolous."

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a Patch request for comment on the emails.

There are also the more overarching concerns about the specific identity of the tech companies who would own various data centers. There has been speculation that many would be owned by Amazon, after Gov. Shapiro agreed to a $20 billion plan with the tech giant last year. O'Neill makes multiple mentions of Amazon in the emails to Kirshner, and many of the emails obtained by No Conshy Data Centers include communications between the state and Amazon about the company being "outed."

The mystery, at Cleveland Cliffs and elsewhere, has only deepened the distrust of advocacy groups who say that tech companies are not being held to account.

"Amazon has just informed us in writing, and I have sent you the email, that they will not be doing any projects in Pennsylvania until they get certainty that the projects they have invested in can move forward," O'Neill added.

But the "certainty" which O'Neill desires, and the removal of the appeal process for anyone who doesn't have billions of dollars in bond money, is currently not a legal reality anywhere in Pennsylvania. Projects must not only meet zoning requirements and be approved by municipal governments, they must be able to withstand the scrutiny of the appeals process.

Gov. Shapiro and some state legislators have, however, sought to take authority from municipalities and replace it with a state run Reliable Energy Siting and Electric Transition (RESET) Board that would instantly approve projects. That House Bill 502 has been stalled in committees for about a year due to public pushback.

Referring to the idea of requiring millions or billions in bond to make an appeal, O'Neill urged Kirshner to "please include this in your policy and legislation."

Given the scale of pushback to the RESET board idea and other aspects of Shapiro's so-called "Lightning Plan" to provide speed approval to a range of energy projects, it is not clear how the request will be received.

O'Neill's project to build at the Cleveland Cliffs site was withdrawn in Nov. 2025 after intense community opposition. Many speculated that another proposal would be attempted in the future, either in altered form or in a more favorable political and legal environment.