Following public dissent and a preemptive vote by the board of supervisors, the developer has decided to abandon its plans for a “boutique data center” in North Coventry, writes Brooke Schultz for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Envision Land Use informally proposed developing the data center next to Route 100 at 299 W. Schuylkill Road, on an industrial lot adjacent to a PECO utility substation and a residential neighborhood.
After receiving opposition from local residents and township leadership, they halted the plan before any application was even submitted.
In a 3-2 vote, the township’s board of supervisors signaled that it would reject the proposal for the site that was under consideration by the developer, according to township manager Erica Batdorf. This marks the first data center proposed in the municipality.
Although the developer could still have submitted an official application, it chose not to proceed, according to Reiss Rosenthal of Envision Land Use.
“[With] this much public pushback, we just thought at this time it didn’t make sense to try to go forward with this,” he said.
Read more about the scrapped plan for a data center in North Coventry in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Around 38 percent of Pennsylvanians support data centers, but they don’t want them in their backyard.
