The Upper Merion Township Planning Commission last week voted against three data center proposals for King of Prussia, 10 miles upstream from Northwest Philadelphia.

Developer Brian O’Neill, founder of the King of Prussia-based MLP Ventures, submitted five plans to the commission in May to build large data centers in King of Prussia’s Renaissance Park. The proposed projects near the Schuylkill River would total more than 4.5 million square feet, which is larger than the King of Prussia Mall or Philadelphia International Airport. Local residents have expressed concerns about air and noise pollution, higher local temperatures, water consumption, wildlife, property values and other potential impacts.

At their July 22 meeting, commissioners focused on three of the five projects, situated at Renaissance Boulevard and Horizon Drive. They unanimously voted that the zoning board should disapprove the proposals on the basis that they contain outstanding issues and lack detail in multiple areas. The vote came after a contentious four-hour meeting among the commissioners, O’Neill and his team. Planning commission members said they were frustrated by the dearth of information in the submitted plans.

“I kind of have to ask what were you doing over the last few months,” said Planning Commission Chairman Matt Popek.

O’Neill said he was happy to give more details “at the appropriate time.”

“This is the appropriate time. Right now,” Popek replied.

The decisions were met with cheers from the crowd in the Upper Merion Area Middle School auditorium, a bigger venue than the township building that held the May 27 meeting and had attendees crowding the hallways. Hundreds of people filled the auditorium, bringing shirts, stickers and signs expressing their opposition to the project. Throughout the meeting, audience members interrupted with shouts, boos and chants. At one point, some audience members collectively hummed to mimic the sound of a data center.

Planning commission members and township officials inquired about noise, power generation, stormwater management, environmental effects and other aspects of the plans. O’Neill had said at a previous meeting that the data center cluster would need about 900 megawatts of continuous power, enough to fuel about one million homes. The facilities would be powered with on-site natural gas turbines and backup generators.

On July 22, O’Neill mentioned frequently throughout the meeting that many answers are on a slide presentation he planned to present. However, officials said the file was sent 10 minutes before the meeting and they were not able to upload it. Commission members criticized O’Neill for not having a backup plan. Popek said the commission had asked for much of the information in May.

“You are all being schooled by somebody on what to say in these meetings,” O’Neill replied.

Bill Jenaway, vice chair of the Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors, said later in the meeting that he resented O’Neill’s comment.

“There was no agenda here tonight other than getting answers from your team about submitted plans and the lack of significant detail that we believe existed — so that we can make an informed decision about whether or not these plans should move forward,” he said. “Frankly, to get plans approved, I would have thought you would have gone overkill to give us that kind of information.”

Throughout the meeting, O’Neill argued that the commissioners were asking for specifics that aren’t required in the preliminary proposal, such as water usage.

“I have a bunch of staff and planning commission members doing everything in their power to be politically correct in front of an audience versus giving me a fair hearing,” he said.

O’Neill’s attorney, Ed Campbell, has said the project will comply with some of the restrictions in Upper Merion Township’s recently adopted data center zoning ordinance, which contains stricter requirements on the facilities’ size, zoning and other elements. But the developer isn’t obligated to abide by these new regulations because he submitted his proposals before Upper Merion enacted the ordinance. The new ordinance requires the facility to be more than 1,000 feet from a residential area, but some residents argue the proposed data centers are closer than that.

At the meeting, nearly 40 people signed up to give public comments about the projects.

“On top of the wildfires that fill our air and our lungs with smoke and ash, we’ll also have to deal with all the pollution from the on-site natural gas turbines and diesel generators running nonstop,” resident Zachary Davis said.

He then asked people in attendance to stand if they were against the project. Most stood. More than 17,000 people have signed a Change.org petition rejecting the projects and “all future AI data centers” in King of Prussia, as of Monday morning.

King of Prussia resident Josh Stevens gave the only public comment supporting O’Neill’s plan. “I welcome the data center and I hope you build it,” he said. His speech prompted boos from the crowd.

The planning commission will discuss O’Neill’s data center proposals at Swedeland Road and River Road at 7 p.m. on Aug. 12 at the Upper Merion Area Middle School.

Rob Erickson, a King of Prussia resident who helps run the Hughes Park KOP Civic Association Facebook page, endorsed the planning commission’s vote.

“We were concerned about the effect that these proposed data centers would have in our neighborhood, and we’re happy that they took those concerns under consideration and also reviewed the plans and noted that there were a number of things that needed to be addressed, no matter what the developer said,” he said.

“You trust people to use their common sense and apply the law,” he said, when asked whether he’s optimistic about the board of supervisors’ vote.

O’Neill is also looking to build a hyperscale data center across the Schuylkill River in Plymouth Township. The Plymouth Township Zoning Hearing Board will hold a public hearing for the project at 7 p.m. on Aug. 6 at Colonial Middle School.