MRP data center, Duncannon, Pennsylvania

MRP Industrial has proposed a data center campus of ten buildings, each 138,000 square feet, on 288 acres near Duncannon in Perry County, Pennsylvania, land where the company had earlier planned a logistics hub called Susquehanna Crossings. The plan went to the Watts Township planning commission on April 8, 2026, and no approvals have been granted. The Watts Township Board of Supervisors will decide a proposed data center ordinance and, under it, MRP's plans.

More than 125 residents packed an April 1, 2026 supervisors meeting, forcing it outside the Watts-Buffalo Community Center, mostly to oppose the ordinance that would allow data centers. Supervisors put off a full hearing until May. Susan Fulmer, who moved to the township in 2020, said she fears for her property value, electricity bills, noise, light and the Susquehanna River: "Now it seems like everything we spent our entire lives working for to achieve is going to be taken."

MRP vice president Nate Chadsey, who says he also part-owns the site, told supervisors the property has "significant visual buffering and distance from residents" and that a data center would create jobs and support the tax base. Volunteer fire chief Kevin Bissonnette supported the project, saying it would "enhance electrical capacity, upgrade roadways and utility expansion." Daniel Welliver, who has led opposition to this and other MRP projects, said his goal is stricter ordinances to protect current residents, not blocking all development.

An April 2026 draft ordinance would treat data centers using 50 megawatts of power as developments of regional impact, requiring at least 20 acres, a 200-foot front yard and a 200-foot setback next to homes or farms. Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered data center developers statewide in August 2026 to meet new environmental standards and file plans with the state, saying only five of more than 100 proposed projects had the needed permits.

The township canceled planned hearings on curative amendments to the ordinance and moved its September supervisors meeting to September 21, 2026, at the Watts-Buffalo Community Center. That meeting has passed; no result on the ordinance has been published.