Crowd boos data center developer during contentious meeting in Forward Township, Butler County
Hundreds of Forward Township residents strongly opposed the proposed Misty Hollow Energy and Data Center Campus during the first public meeting on the project. The planning commission tabled the proposal, requiring the developer to address concerns about noise, light pollution, traffic, wildlife, water, and other impacts before any vote.
Residents of Forward Township, Butler County, confronted developer Allen Sherwood during a contentious public meeting on the proposed one-million-square-foot Misty Hollow Energy and Data Center Campus near Connoquenessing Creek. The crowd questioned the project's potential effects on noise, traffic, light pollution, wildlife and nearby wells, and repeatedly booed Sherwood as he presented the development.
Sherwood said the campus would use closed-loop cooling rather than draw water from the creek and would generate its own power instead of relying on the electrical grid. Township officials said Forward Township lacks a zoning code specifying permitted property uses, limiting its ability to block the project, although officials can seek changes to mitigate impacts. The Forward Township Planning Commission tabled the proposal after the meeting, with no vote taken, while the developer addresses issues raised by the township engineer.