Muncy Data Center, Muncy, Pennsylvania

Two neighbors have gone to court over the Muncy Data Center, a three-building data center complex proposed by the Williamsport developer Danko Holdings II LP and Fishlips LLC off John Brady Drive near the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in Muncy Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. In September 2026 Rae-Ellah B. and Sean S. Tetreault, whose land adjoins the site, filed a land use appeal in the Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas asking a judge to overturn the project's "deemed approval."

The developer filed a conditional use application on April 28, 2026, hours before township supervisors voted for a moratorium of up to nine months on data center applications. The plan shows three data center buildings, six water tanks, two stormwater basins, water and sewage treatment facilities, a substation and a security building, between private homes to the northwest and southeast. Both companies are owned by The Liberty Group, headed by Daniel Klingerman. At the April 28 meeting, Fire Chief Scott Oldweiler asked whether any application had come in, and Chairman Terri Lauchle said no; the Sun-Gazette later reported that a zoning permit application dated April 15 was already at the township office.

Under Pennsylvania's Municipalities Planning Code, the township had 60 days to hold a hearing on the application or get an extension, and it did neither. In July the developer published a legal notice claiming the application was therefore deemed approved. The township's solicitor, Joseph Orso III, called the developer's filings "inconsistent" and said: "we can't ban data centers. We have to allow them somewhere."

The Tetreaults say the data center would threaten their property values, safety and quiet with unmitigated industrial noise, very heavy loads on the power grid and large amounts of cooling water. They argue the township failed to hold the required hearings, and that the developer's proposed curative zoning amendment amounts to spot zoning with too few protections, including on noise. They ask the court to set aside the approval or send it back to the supervisors for full public hearings with strict conditions on noise, setbacks and water use. The developer is contesting the appeal, which is before Judge William P. Carlucci.

Meanwhile the township is writing its own rules. The supervisors declared the zoning ordinance invalid on July 8, starting a curative amendment process under which the Muncy Township Planning Commission and the Lycoming County Planning Commission review the change, a public hearing follows, and the supervisors plan to adopt it on December 9; the process must be finished by January 4, 2027. If the project goes to a conditional use hearing instead, the Muncy Township Board of Supervisors can approve it with conditions, Orso said.