Tense Union County meeting sparks backlash over proposed data center

A proposed data center campus at Great Stream Commons in Gregg Township met a heated public backlash as residents pressed for answers on power demand, water use, traffic and whether the project would generate enough tax revenue to justify the land-use change near Allenwood. The dispute has quickly become one of the sharpest planning fights in Union County, where the future of a 37-acre industrial site now sits at the center of a broader debate over who benefits financially from large-scale development.

Union County commissioners had already acknowledged the potential project after Union County received an offer from PNK P2 LLC to buy the 37-acre lot for a data center. The parcel sits in Great Stream Commons, a business park in Gregg Township, and the county took no immediate action on the offer. That left the proposal moving through local review while public concern around the table deepened.

The developer has said it heard residents’ concerns and was taking them seriously, including questions about power, noise and other impacts tied to a data center campus. Those worries have helped turn what could have been a routine industrial siting decision into a test of how much infrastructure burden Gregg Township and nearby Allenwood are willing to absorb for a project that would replace open industrial ground with a much larger digital operation.

The Union County fight is part of a wider central Pennsylvania pattern. In Middlesex Township, a proposed $15 billion PAX-1 data center project drew attention for the promise of jobs and tax benefits while raising environmental and resource concerns. In Lebanon County’s South Annville Township, residents protested another proposed data center project. Across the region, large campuses have become a recurring flash point because they can bring construction work and a bigger tax base, but also strain roads, power systems and local water supplies while changing rural land use.

Inside Gregg Township, the opposition has already broadened beyond one site. Residents have voiced opposition to four proposed data centers, and a planning board has recommended rejecting a developer’s proposal, showing the issue is now moving through the zoning and land-use process rather than remaining a simple public comment exercise. For Union County officials, the next decisions will determine whether the Allenwood project advances with added commitments or joins the growing list of data center plans that run into organized local resistance.