The Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected a proposed 5-million-square-foot AI data-center campus that had sparked pushback from residents, a lawsuit from the developer, and accusations of mistreatment and intimidation.
After the decision was made at a Thursday night meeting, some in the crowd applauded, danced, and high-fived one another. The rejection came after three hours of fiery exchanges between the developer, Brian O’Neill, and township officials.
O’Neill and his team said they were prepared to go over each of the township’s comments about his five proposed sites in the King of Prussia area. But officials said it was too little, too late, and asked if O’Neill’s team was “filibustering.”
“Are you asking us to not present those facts in defense of those plans when it’s clear all you want to do is deny our plan and go home tonight?” said O’Neill. He later said township officials were violating state and local planning codes, an allegation they denied.
“Your attempt here to lecture us is considered an intimidation. And I don’t want to see our professional staff bullied or coerced,” said William Jenaway, vice chair of the Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors. “Intimidation, coercion and bullying are not good qualities in a professional leader.”
O’Neill, a longtime real-estate developer, has recently turned his sights to data centers. He first proposed building one of the controversial cloud-storage facilities in nearby Plymouth Township. In Upper Merion, he wants to build a data center complex on five properties in the township’s Swedeland section, a small residential and industrial area between West Conshohocken and Bridgeport.
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