A developer who wants to build data centers in Upper Merion has resubmitted plans to bring a hyperscale facility to Conshohocken.

Brian O’Neill, founder of the King of Prussia-based firm MLP Ventures, has submitted an application to Plymouth Township’s zoning hearing board requesting a special exception to develop a data center at 900 Conshohocken Road, site of the former Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant, the township announced in a release last Friday.

The U.S. is witnessing a boost in hyperscale data center development, driven by artificial intelligence demand. Supporters, including Gov. Josh Shapiro and President Donald Trump, said they bring economic growth. But critics have raised concerns about their impact on local communities and the environment. The facility in Conshohocken would be situated several miles from Chestnut Hill and less than a mile from the Proving Grounds Sports Complex and residential neighborhoods.

O’Neill submitted a plan last year to develop a 2 million-square-foot data center on the 66-acre property by the Schuylkill River, which would include 10 existing buildings and a central utility plant, plus on-site generators and natural gas turbines. But he withdrew it after a November zoning hearing, when the property owner, steel company Cleveland-Cliffs, said the sales agreement wasn’t approved yet. Before that, the township’s planning commission unanimously refused to recommend a special exception to the zoning hearing board.

The project sparked opposition among local residents, and more than 1,300 people have signed a petition urging officials to reject the proposal. It cites concerns about the potential around-the-clock noise, hazardous air pollution, rising utility rates and the facility’s impact on water sources.

Conshohocken resident Patti Smith, who created the petition, said she and her fellow community members continued to mobilize after the project was withdrawn because they expected the developer to return. The community involvement around this issue has been unprecedented, especially with the Conshohocken project and other recent proposals in southeastern Pennsylvania, Smith said.

Critics told the Local they are skeptical about the developer’s history. MLP Ventures was sued last year by more than 30 contractors over unpaid invoices. The contractors conducted work at a Discovery Labs in King of Prussia, where O’Neill plans to build four hyperscale data center campuses. The applications are currently being reviewed by Upper Merion Township.

O’Neill recently drew the attention of community groups for a letter he allegedly wrote to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office in March. In the message — obtained by the community organization Concerned Citizens of Montour County through a public records request — O’Neill asked for the administration to support policies that make it harder for communities to appeal data center permit and zoning decisions, calling these appeals “frivolous.” O’Neill said Amazon Web Service is threatening to halt its build-out of data centers in Pennsylvania because its plans have been appealed.

He noted that the proposed project complies 100% with all of the governor’s objectives, such as brownfield, existing reuse, behind the meter power, closed-loop systems. “We want to make sure we are not going to get appealed frivolously by people that just want to slow us down for sport as they are currently doing with Amazon,” the letter reads.

He requested Shapiro adopt a policy requiring those who wish to appeal applications for a data center should have to post a bond equal to two times the damages it would cause the developer. For example, someone would have to post a $4 billion bond to postpone a $2 billion development. The Local has reached out to MLP Ventures for comment.

“That is just taking due process rights away from people who are everyday working class Americans to the benefit of billionaires and millionaires,” Smith said in response to the letter. “There’s no other way to slice and dice that. Because in order to appeal any permit, then you would have to quite literally have double the amount of money that the developer has.”

What happens next

The Conshohocken project will be reviewed by the zoning board members, who will act as a “quasi-judicial body” and host public hearings before determining whether the plan abides by the town’s zoning ordinance.

It’s unclear when the zoning board will hold a meeting on this project. Members could discuss the data center at their scheduled meeting on June 15 or hold a separate meeting for the project that month.

The property is zoned for heavy industrial use and the township’s ordinance allows the board to consider similar uses as a special exception. O’Neill and his team argue data centers have the same general character as warehouses and manufacturing, which are permitted uses in the heavy industrial zoning districts.

“Township officials recognize the strong public interest in this proposal,” the release reads. “Township Council remains focused on protecting the health, safety, and welfare of residents while carefully evaluating the application. The Township is committed to a transparent, fair, and legally compliant process. While this project will have implications for the township, we recognize that its impacts may be more pronounced for residents nearest to the facility, and we are working to mitigate those effects.”

During an October Plymouth Township Planning Agency meeting, O’Neill said the project would employ 110 people and draw $21 million in tax revenue per year. In terms of noise levels, he said the generators would exercise for up to an hour-per-month and the turbines would be 60-65 decibels, which is typically heard within several feet. For water usage, the facilities will use a close-loop cooling system and it will not draw water directly from the Schuylkill River nor onsite wells, the application reads. Closed-loop systems use a circulating water loop and consume significantly less water than other methods.

O’Neill has not disclosed who will operate the Conshohocken site.

Residents and elected officials respond

Smith worries that if township officials approve the project, it will set a precedent making it easier for developers to propose data centers in the future. She hopes board members will conduct their research and ask the right questions.

“Then the burden is on the community to provide those facts to the zoning hearing board and to get pro bono representation, or even paid representation, to make sure that the right questions are getting asked,” Smith said.

Ardis Lukens, who lives a few hundred feet from the former Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant, worries that the noise pollution from the data center will drive off wildlife and affect the real estate value of the surrounding densely-populated neighborhoods. As a cancer survivor, she also worries about the potential effect on her health. The natural gas turbines that will help power this facility are known to emit a hazardous air pollution called formaldehyde.

Lukens — former municipal chair for Conshohocken and current vice chair of Plymouth Township’s Civil Service Commission — wants to see elected officials be more vocal about data centers and advocate alongside the public.

“No community should be treated as a testing ground for high-impact industrial development until we establish consistent, statewide guardrails, I join many of my constituents in opposing data centers in our neighborhoods, including here in Plymouth Township,” state Sen. Maria Collett, a Democrat who represents the 12th District across parts of Montgomery County, said in a statement to the Local. Collett has signed on to a number of bills to regulate data center projects, which she argues will “protect consumers from rising energy costs, and preserve our environment and quality of life.”

Collett co-sponsored SB 724, which requires data centers to pay for their own grid updates and enter into community benefits agreements with local neighborhoods, and also co-sponsored state Sen. Katie Muth’s “Ratepayer Protection Act” to prevent residents from subsidizing energy costs.

State Rep. Greg Scott, a Democrat who represents Norristown, Conshohocken, and Plymouth Township, said he opposes the project in Conshohocken due to the number of unanswered questions around it — including how O’Neill came up with the tax revenue amount, the number of natural gas turbines and the potential environmental impacts. Scott said he’s skeptical because the developer won’t reveal the tenant’s identity.

“My biggest concern is that if our community gets straddled with this particular project, and we give up all of these things, what happens if the project, once it’s done, or once it’s conveyed to him, it sits idle? And you have these ghost sites that we’ve expended so much stuff. What happens when that all goes away?”

When asked about residents’ health concerns, he said the hazardous air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from data centers are valid issues.

“But I’ll also add this caveat. That steel mill isn’t a brand new steel mill. It’s been there longer than most of the residents in that area have been there,” he said. “So it isn’t as if that area has been an environmentally-friendly tenant or neighbor.”

“I do think that it’s important, if we’re going to be balanced, to say, ‘Look, they also purchased their homes after that steel mill was in operation, and it only recently went idle within the last year or two,’” he added.

Scott supports data center development in Pennsylvania, but he said these projects need to be heavily scrutinized and their cost should not fall on ratepayers.

“I’ve heard from residents on both sides of this issue. For the most part, the communication that I have seen has been that we need them. We need to make sure that we put the appropriate safeguards in place when they are here — to make sure that residents are protected, utility costs are protected and the environment is protected,” he said.

Last year, Scott was one of the 40 co-sponsors of a bill that would expedite permitting for energy projects. The PA House passed two bills in April related to hyperscale data centers: HB 2151 would create a model ordinance that municipalities could use to regulate these facilities and HB 2150 would require data centers to report annual water and electricity consumption. Scott voted yes for these bills.

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