When Something Big Comes to Town: Data Centers, Our Schools and What Trust Really Looks Like
It usually starts with a number.
A billion dollars of investment. Millions in new tax revenue. A few hundred construction jobs. The pitch arrives polished, with renderings and a developer's representative who speaks well at the podium. And to a borough balancing a tight budget, it can sound like the answer to a lot of problems at once.
That's what's been happening across Lackawanna County over the past two years, as developers have raced to build the enormous data center campuses that power artificial intelligence. Archbald alone has seen roughly half a dozen campuses proposed, with at least a dozen more across the county, in Jessup, Olyphant, Dickson City, Ransom Township and beyond.
This isn't an article about being against progress. It's about a simpler question every community eventually has to answer: when something this big and this permanent comes to town, who is actually looking out for the people who live next to it?
What a hyperscale campus actually brings
A modern data center campus is not a warehouse with some computers in it. The largest proposals in Archbald run to hundreds of acres and more than a dozen buildings. Here's what tends to come with that scale.
Higher electric bills — for everyone. Data centers consume enormous amounts of power, and Pennsylvania sits inside PJM, the regional grid that serves 13 states. PJM's capacity price, a cost that flows straight into household bills, jumped from about $29 per megawatt-day for 2024–25 to the federally capped maximum of about $329 two years later. PJM's own independent market monitor attributes roughly $29 billion in added customer costs since 2024 to data center demand, with the most recent auction adding another $6.3 billion. Families who will never set foot inside a data center are already helping pay for them.
Water. Many facilities rely on water for cooling. At one Archbald hearing this year, an attorney for residents pointed out that a proposed campus hadn't produced a water feasibility study at all. That is exactly the kind of question that should be answered before approval, not after.
Noise and backup power. Cooling equipment runs around the clock, and campuses typically install banks of diesel backup generators that are tested regularly. Near homes, schools and parks, that's a real quality-of-life issue.
Scale and sightlines. Last November, Archbald's council raised the height limit in industrial zones from 55 feet to 90 feet, over the objections of many residents, to accommodate the kind of buildings developers wanted.
Years of construction. Blasting, grading, heavy trucks and new substations and power lines come before anything opens — and they share the same roads as school buses and ambulances.
Permanence. Once a campus is built, it's there for decades. There is no do-over.
The rules decide who gets a voice
Most people never think about zoning until it's too late. But in land use, the rules in place on the day an application is filed often decide everything.
When Archbald adopted its zoning ordinance in March 2023, data centers were a principally permitted use in commercial districts. In plain terms, that meant a developer could qualify for a permit without a public hearing and without a vote by council. Residents had no formal stage to ask questions.
In November 2025, council amended the ordinance to treat data centers as conditional uses confined to four overlay districts. Under that approach, a developer has to appear at a public hearing, testify about how the project meets specific conditions, and win council's approval. It was a meaningful change — though many residents argued it still allowed data centers in too many places, and that ordinance is itself being challenged in court.
The catch: projects that applied under the old rules have argued they're grandfathered in. And Pennsylvania's Municipalities Planning Code contains deadlines that, if a municipality misses them, can allow an application to be declared "deemed approved" — approved not on the merits, but on the calendar.
That's why regulation matters. Not to block every project, but to make sure the biggest decisions a town will ever make happen in public, on the record, with the people most affected in the room.
What's happening in Archbald right now
The following is drawn from public court filings and published news reporting.
Project Scott. A Texas developer, operating as Archbald I LLC, proposed an 18-building campus on roughly 400 acres near Staback Park, between the Scranton-Carbondale Highway and Eynon-Jermyn Road. Borough council voted unanimously to deny it on March 27, 2026. Days later, the developer asserted the project had been "deemed approved" because the conditional use hearing had not concluded within the state deadline. The matter is now before the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas.
Project Gravity. A seven-data-center campus proposed on 186 acres between Eynon-Jermyn Road and Business Route 6. Because it applied before the November 2025 amendment, it has proceeded as a principally permitted use under the 2023 zoning — meaning no conditional use hearings. None of the four new overlay districts include the site.
Why a school district stepped in
The Valley View School District's campuses sit close to both projects. The district educates about 2,400 students across four schools, and it is responsible for their safety every school day.
In May 2026, Valley View's board voted to join the fight, and the district's solicitor — Joyce, Carmody & Moran — filed petitions in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas. In those filings, the district asked to join residents' challenge to the borough's zoning, and asked the court to uphold council's denial of Project Scott or, alternatively, send the application back to council to complete its hearing. The filings identify the specific interests the district is charged with protecting: safe access for buses and emergency vehicles, noise at school property lines, sewer and water capacity, reliable electrical service, and air and water quality. As the filing put it, the projects are sited in "dangerously close proximity" to the district's campuses.
In September 2026, the district filed a separate lawsuit against Project Gravity's developers and the borough, arguing that the campus does not qualify to proceed under the old rules and should be held to the current data center ordinance.
These cases are pending, and the court will decide them. But the reason behind them is easy to understand. When a project could affect the air, water, roads and power that 2,400 kids depend on, someone needs to insist that it go through the full public process.
Regulating isn't the same as saying no
It's worth being honest about the other side. Archbald's borough manager has said a single data center could generate more than $4 million a year in property taxes — more than 60 percent of the borough's annual budget. That's real money for a small town, and it's reasonable for local officials to take it seriously.
But revenue is exactly why the rules matter. When the potential payoff is that large, the pressure to move fast is enormous — and the people who live closest are the easiest to overlook. Good regulation doesn't pick winners. It asks the right questions before the concrete is poured:
Where can these facilities go, and how far must they be from homes, schools and parks?
Is there a real water supply plan, backed by a feasibility study?
What are the noise limits at the property line, day and night?
How often will backup generators run, and what are the emissions?
Who pays for new power infrastructure — the developer, or every household on the grid?
What happens to roads, emergency access and school bus routes during years of construction?
What are the obligations if the facility is ever abandoned?
Other places are asking the same questions. In July 2026, New York became the first state to adopt a statewide moratorium on new data center construction, a one-year pause to study their effects on energy and the environment. Pennsylvania communities don't need to wait for Harrisburg to set sensible local standards.
What trust actually looks like
Trust is easy to claim. Anyone can put it on a billboard.
Real trust is quieter. It's a school district that reads the fine print because it's responsible for other people's children. It's residents who pack a church basement on a weeknight because they want their questions answered on the record. It's attorneys who spend the hours on procedure and deadlines, because that's where the outcome is often decided.
It's also local. The people who work on these cases drive these roads. Their families use these parks and schools. When something big comes to town, they aren't observing from a distance — they live with the results.
That's the same standard people deserve in every legal matter, whether it's a community facing a billion-dollar developer or a single family facing an insurance company after an accident. The other side will usually be bigger and better funded. What matters is having someone who knows the rules, knows the community, and shows up.
What you can do
If there's a data center proposal in your community, a few steps make a real difference:
Watch the legal notices. Hearings for conditional uses must be advertised. Your local newspaper and borough website are the first places to look.
Show up and ask specific questions. Water supply, noise limits, generator testing, truck routes and power agreements are all fair game.
Know the timeline. Deadlines under the Municipalities Planning Code can matter as much as the merits.
Put concerns on the record. Written comments and testimony at hearings become part of the official file.
Ask for help early. Land use questions are easier to address before an approval than after one.
If you have questions about a development in your community — or any legal matter where you need someone in your corner — Joyce, Carmody & Moran is here in Pittston. We're glad to talk it through.
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Sources
Times-Tribune via Yahoo News: "Valley View School District lawsuit could halt Project Gravity data centers" (Sept. 2026)
NewsRadio WILK: "Valley View School District Sues to Block Major Archbald Data Center Development" (Sept. 2026)
Times-Tribune via Yahoo News: "Valley View challenges Project Scott, Project Gravity data center campuses" (May 30, 2026)
WNEP: "Valley View School District joins legal battle over proposed 'Project Scott' data center project" (June 2, 2026)
NewsRadio WILK: "Developer claims 'deemed approval' for Archbald data center" (April 27, 2026)
Times-Tribune via Yahoo News: "Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus faces major opposition in Archbald"
Yale Environment 360: "The Quiet Pennsylvania Town Facing a Data Center Boom"
Philadelphia Inquirer: "Data centers to add billions in power costs in 13 states" (July 15, 2026)
IEEFA: "Projected data center growth spurs PJM capacity prices by factor of 10"
