The auditorium at Upper Merion Middle School was standing room only on the night of July 22, 2026. When the moderator asked who in the room opposed a proposed 4.6 million-square-foot AI data center campus in King of Prussia, nearly every person present stood up. According to Google News, the meeting has become the latest flashpoint in a fight that's spreading across Philadelphia's suburbs as developers race to build the computing infrastructure the AI boom demands. The short answer: this isn't a fringe NIMBY skirmish anymore — it's a multi-township revolt that's already killed one project and is now testing whether Pennsylvania lawmakers will slow the buildout statewide.
What We Found
Three Montgomery and Chester County communities are simultaneously fighting hyperscale data center proposals, and the pattern is remarkably consistent: a developer files plans, a packed public meeting follows, and residents cite the same three fears — electricity costs, water usage, and constant low-frequency noise. In Upper Merion Township, developer Brian O'Neill of MLP Ventures is pushing a 4.6 million-square-foot campus — a footprint NBC10 Philadelphia reports is larger than Philadelphia International Airport — with a Board of Supervisors approval deadline set for mid-August 2026. Across the county line in East Whiteland, Sentinel Green Fig already has an approved data center on Swedesford Road and is now seeking to expand it from 1 million to 1.6 million square feet, a request that drew such a crowd to a March 9, 2026 planning meeting that officials moved it to an auditorium at Penn State's Great Valley campus, according to NBC10's Chester County coverage.
The Evidence
The clearest proof this opposition has teeth came in Plymouth Township. A developer wanted to convert 10 buildings of the former Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill — 66 acres along the Schuylkill River at 900 Conshohocken Road — into a 2 million-square-foot data center. PhillyVoice reported that organizer Patti Smith and fellow residents collected more than 1,000 petition signatures against the plan. "This is like a David versus Goliath fight, and we're trying to get everyone mobilized and understand this," Smith told PhillyVoice. At a November 18, 2025 zoning hearing, the developer withdrew the application, citing an unfinalized sale agreement — though residents credit the sustained pressure campaign for forcing the retreat.
The frustration voiced in King of Prussia captured the underlying argument driving all three fights. "I stand in opposition because these hyper-scale AI data centers are nothing more than power plants with hard drives and they will make our community unlivable," one resident told NBC10 at the July 22 meeting. That framing — data center as de facto power plant — is why State Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat, introduced a bipartisan moratorium bill on May 29, 2026 aimed at halting new "hyperscale" facilities that draw at least 20 megawatts. Gov. Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, has continued courting data center investment for the state, splitting Harrisburg along lines that don't track normal party divisions.
What It Means
Scale is the whole argument here, and the raw square footage numbers tell the story better than any rhetoric. Here's how the three projects compare:
Chart: Proposed and current data center square footage across three Philadelphia-area townships, based on figures reported by NBC10 Philadelphia and PhillyVoice.
The King of Prussia campus alone would dwarf the other two projects combined, which explains why it's drawing the loudest opposition of the three. Zoom out further and the local fights sit inside a much bigger national story: as of July 24, 2026, according to Data Center Map figures cited by The Guardian, the U.S. hosts roughly 4,200 data centers — about 40% of the global total. Pennsylvania's suburbs are simply the newest front in a buildout that's already reshaped Northern Virginia's data-center corridor, which residents in King of Prussia and East Whiteland repeatedly invoke as a cautionary tale of spiking bills and strained grids.
The opposition isn't confined to the Philadelphia suburbs, either. Hampden Township near Harrisburg voted in September 2025 to bar data centers from office-park zones outright. A developer dropped its plans in Blakely borough near Scranton after local protests. And a citizens group is currently fighting Talen Energy's bid to rezone 1,300 acres in Anthony Township. Even the site of the former Pennhurst asylum in Spring City has a submitted data center proposal, a project The Guardian flagged in June 2026 as an emblem of how far this fight has spread. Noise complaints are part of the pattern too — in Vineland, New Jersey, Fox29 reported residents describing a persistent low-frequency hum from a newly operating AI data center disrupting daily life, a concern echoed at nearly every Pennsylvania meeting so far.
How to Act on This
For residents near a proposed site, the Plymouth Township outcome is the template that's actually worked: a large petition, sustained turnout at zoning and planning meetings, and public pressure applied before a Board of Supervisors vote — not after. The King of Prussia project's mid-August 2026 approval deadline means the next few weeks are the window that matters most for anyone hoping to influence that outcome. On the policy side, Sen. Muth's moratorium bill is the mechanism worth tracking statewide; its bipartisan sponsorship suggests it has a real path forward, though Gov. Shapiro's continued courtship of data center investment means the bill's fate is genuinely uncertain rather than a foregone conclusion.
On balance, the evidence across these three townships points to residents winning battles more often than developers expected — Plymouth's withdrawal is proof of that — but losing the broader war, since new proposals keep surfacing faster than any single community can fight them off. The more likely outcome, absent a statewide moratorium, is a patchwork: some townships hold the line, others don't, and Pennsylvania ends up with a mix of blocked and approved hyperscale campuses rather than a uniform policy either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are residents opposing AI data centers near Philadelphia?
Residents cite rising electric bills, heavy water usage for cooling, constant low-frequency noise, and strain on the regional power grid. Many point to Northern Virginia's data-center corridor as evidence of what happens once these campuses are built at scale.
Where is the massive data center being built in King of Prussia?
Developer MLP Ventures, led by Brian O'Neill, has proposed a 4.6 million-square-foot campus in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County — a footprint NBC10 Philadelphia reports is larger than Philadelphia International Airport. The Board of Supervisors faces a mid-August 2026 approval deadline.
How do data centers affect electric bills?
Hyperscale facilities draw enormous, continuous amounts of electricity — Sen. Katie Muth's moratorium bill specifically targets facilities using at least 20 megawatts — and residents argue that added grid demand gets passed on to nearby ratepayers, echoing complaints from established data-center regions like Northern Virginia.
What is a hyperscale data center?
A hyperscale data center is a massive computing facility, often over a million square feet, built to support large-scale cloud and AI workloads. The projects proposed in King of Prussia (4.6 million sq ft) and East Whiteland (expanding to 1.6 million sq ft) fall squarely into this category.
Are AI data centers bad for the environment?
Concerns center on electricity demand, water consumption for cooling systems, and noise pollution from constant equipment operation. As of July 24, 2026, the U.S. hosted roughly 4,200 data centers — about 40% of the global total, according to Data Center Map figures cited by The Guardian — and that concentration is a core reason opposition has spread statewide in Pennsylvania.
Disclaimer: This article is editorial commentary based on publicly available information and reporting from NBC10 Philadelphia, PhillyVoice, The Guardian, and Fox29. Research based on publicly available sources current as of July 24, 2026.