This map, now posted on the North Coventry Township web site, shows where the now-rejected ’boutique’ data center would have been located. (Image via North Coventry Township)
A data center summit that was originally set to take place next week has been postponed, according to Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello.
DiBello took to social media to share the update surrounding the March 18 event he was slated to host on Montgomery County Community College’s Blue Bell campus.
DiBello cited “scheduling conflicts with certain providers and growing security concerns” as a reason for the delay. No new date has been scheduled, DiBello told MediaNews Group.
The conference shining a light on data centers comes as municipal boards have received proposals to construct facilities in recent months in East Vincent, Limerick, North Coventry and Plymouth townships, as well as others in the Lehigh Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania.
“The information that was planned to be provided will still be very important so support whatever your position is ‘for or against data centers,’” DiBello said in a statement. “I believe that it is very relevant to provide accurate information about the impacts data centers will have on our current infrastructure.”
The summit was expected to showcase the “real impacts of data center development,” per a digital event poster. Prospective event topics would’ve covered “energy demand and grid capacity, water usage and long term sustainability, infrastructure strain and community impact,” as well as “economic considerations and local effects.”
Data centers provide a physical location for information technology infrastructure operations, “running and delivering applications and services,” according to IBM, while also managing and storing data. Statista counted 5,426 facilities operating in the U.S. as of March 2025.
The notion of installing data centers has brought swift public opposition from area residents, who’ve expressed a number of concerns ranging from environmental, nuisance and an economic development hindrance.
Opposition in Plymouth Township
An application that was eventually withdrawn for a nearly 2 million-square-foot data center at the former Cleveland-Cliffs manufacturing plant in Plymouth Township brought more than 100 people out to township planning and zoning board meetings. MLP Ventures was listed as the developer, but applicant Brian O’Neill did not disclose who would have operated the data center.
Related Facebook groups were created and petitions organized, which have amassed nearly 2,000 signatures in opposition.
“My biggest opposition to this is that this is not in the township’s strategic plan. This was never intended to remain in industrial space. It is next to a high density residential area, and having heavy industrial next to high density residential was a mistake, and it is a mistake that does not need to be continued,” Plymouth Township resident Patti Smith told MediaNews Group in November 2025.
Organizers have also called for a “data center moratorium in Plymouth Township” in a change.org petition that amassed some 291 signatures.
“If Plymouth Township is unwilling to institute a moratorium, they must create ordinances to protect us,” the petition states. “Those ordinances must be developed in coordination with groups that have community interests in mind and have a history of protecting water, air, power, and the environment."
