Another artificial intelligence data center has been proposed along the Schuylkill River, less than an hour northwest of Chestnut Hill.

An undisclosed developer wants to build the 1.4 million-square-foot AI data facility in Montgomery County on a 192-acre parcel of land by Philadelphia Premium Outlets, where it would be bordered by Lightcap and Possum Hollow roads. The campus would sit near the Limerick nuclear power plant and consist of eight buildings — five of which span approximately 154,000 square feet and three around 202,000 square feet.

Attorney Ed Campbell, who represents the developer MCD 7 LLC, presented the plan at a Limerick Township Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, along with project manager LaBella Associates engineer AJ Magnotta. Campbell said he could not divulge the name of their client due to a non–disclosure agreement.

The plan revealed last week adds to a string of AI data center proposals that have been emerging in the Schuylkill River region this past year. Township officials are currently reviewing proposals several miles away in East Coventry and East Vincent in Chester County. These high–powered facilities are built to handle the computing demands of artificial intelligence, and their cooling systems rely on massive amounts of water.

Christine McNeil, president of East Vincent Advocacy and a former East Vincent Township supervisor, said the three facilities in Limerick, East Coventry and East Vincent would create 4.7 million square feet of AI data center development along the river, raising concerns about the potential strain they would have on the water source and other local resources.

“What assessment — if any — has been made of the cumulative loss or diminishment of cultural, historic, scenic, and natural resources resulting from this level of heavy industrialization within a nationally recognized heritage and conservation corridor?” McNeil said in a message to the Local.

The plan

The Limerick data center would be built on the grounds of the historic Hood Mansion, where human remains were found in 2024.

The campus would have approximately 45 rooftop chillers for cooling the equipment and 40 backup generators that would run on diesel or natural gas, Campbell said. There would be electrical substations owned by PECO, which has signed a letter approving 750 megawatts of power for the center. There would be 15–20 employees per building per shift.

Another goal of the project is to relocate Possum Hollow Road to accommodate traffic.

The data center would use up to 1.3 million gallons of water per day, Campbell said, and it would be provided by Pennsylvania American Water. That would be the amount used for an “open cooling system,” which uses significantly more water than a closed system. Campbell said the type of cooling system for the facility hasn’t been decided yet.

Campbell said that tax benefits from the center could fall between $10–20 million.

He said the plan complies with the zoning ordinance the township passed two years ago to regulate data center development. It includes restrictions on building height, woodland preservation, proximity to residential areas and the around–the–clock noise that data centers produce.

Planning commissioners asked if an emergency management plan will be compiled in case of a disaster at the facility and the nearby nuclear power plant. Organizers are working on that plan to present to the township, Campbell said. There’s also a community impact statement being prepared, Magnotta said.

The campus would take three to five years to be built, but the project must first undergo the township’s multi-step approval process. The next step would be for the planning commission to hold at least one more meeting on the project and then make a recommendation to the board of supervisors. The next meeting likely will occur next month, but the schedule hasn’t been finalized.

The presentation and questioning from the planning commissioners then followed with comments from Limerick residents, many of whom expressed opposition to the project.

“Would you want this in your backyard?” resident Terry Arthur asked the planning commissioners.

Preston Luitweiler voiced concerns about the impact the center would have on residents’ water supply and utility rates. The projected water usage is the equivalent of 4,000-5,000 homes, Luitweiler said.

Power bills for ratepayers are expected to increase after Pennsylvania’s grid operator, PJM Interconnection, reported record–high prices at its latest capacity auction in December, and data centers accounted for 40% of those costs.

Stephanie Schlegel expressed concern over the impact the center would have on air quality and public health. AI data centers release air pollutants such as PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides, which are linked to asthma, lung cancer, premature deaths and other health outcomes.

She also demanded more transparency about who would be receiving tax breaks from the center and who’s signing the non-disclosure agreements.

A petition opposing the Limerick data center, created by Sheryl Sharpe, had 204 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

Other proposals

The other data center proposals along the Schuylkill have been met with neighborhood pushback. A plan to build an AI data center on the outskirts of Conshohocken, in Plymouth Township, was withdrawn last fall over legal issues. Constellation Energy proposed to build a 2 million–square–foot data center in nearby East Coventry. The planning commission rejected a bid in December to amend the township’s zoning code for data center development.

A developer also wants to convert the site of the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital, downriver from Limerick and now a Halloween attraction, into a 1.3 million–square–foot data center. Residents have spent hours at township supervisor and planning commission meetings expressing their concerns over the proposal, which would be less than 600 feet from a veterans center. The application is set to go through a conditional use hearing this spring, after township supervisors avoided voting on a new zoning ordinance in December.

AI data center development is surging across the U.S., and has been championed by President Donald Trump. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro created a road map in hopes of making the state an AI data center hub, saying these projects would bring economic and technological growth and jobs for working–class families.

But McNeil said the data centers along the Schuylkill River, coupled with the demands of the Limerick Generating Station, would “substantially increase” Schuylkill River withdrawals and place a strain on electrical infrastructure, air quality, climate resilience and public health. The power plant has a permit to withdraw as much as 58.2 million gallons of water per day. County and regional officials should conduct a regional cumulative impact review to evaluate the combined effects these projects would have within and beyond local communities, before “further approvals proceed in any municipality,” she said.

State Sen. Katie Muth (D-44th district), an East Vincent resident, has been a vocal presence at East Vincent and East Coventry township meetings. At Thursday’s Limerick township meeting, she said it “defies common sense” to build an industrial facility next to a nuclear power plant due to the fire hazards and operational failures it could cause. AI data centers are distorting the quality of electricity delivered to homes and increasing the risk of fires, according to a new Bloomberg report.

Muth said the decisions Limerick Township makes on this data center will impact data center development in other municipalities.

“What you decide to do here, this is the first domino to fall. You’re going to put a ripple in, and the first cluster of data center alley is gonna be from Plymouth Township, the whole way down the river, to Berks… you included. I think we can all agree we don’t want to look like that,” she told the commissioners. “Innovation shouldn’t cause harm.”

Abby Weiss is an environmental reporter for the Local and a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at abby@chestnuthilllocal.com.