A Tiny Town Is Building So Many Data Centers That There’ll Be Almost Nothing Else Left

The small rural community of Archbald, Pennsylvania, is grappling with a surge of data center proposals, which, if approved, would cover 14 percent of the town's surface area. Developers are attracted by cheap land, proximity to major cities, and direct access to a regional transmission line connected to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. These proposals include six separate data center campuses, encompassing 51 warehouses each the size of a Walmart Supercenter, with some campus buildings exceeding a million square feet. Residents express concern over the dubious economic benefits, such as limited job creation, and the potential strain on municipal resources and the local energy grid. Community opposition is strong, as evidenced by an anti-data center petition launched on March 18 and "unruly borough meetings." Archbald residents blame local politicians for allowing the influx of proposals, culminating in a dramatic ousting of the borough council's president, vice president, and president pro tem in March. Archbald Mayor Shirley Barrett has stated that the "debate has destroyed this community." As the six data center campuses are at various stages of planning, residents continue their fight to keep the tech industry at bay.