Penn Forest Township Data Center (Maury Rd), Penn Forest Township, Pennsylvania

Mele Brothers Realty, based in Montgomery County, plans a data center campus along Route 903 and Maury Road in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, where homes rely on private wells and there is no public water supply. Records obtained by the Times News show the company paid more than $2 million for properties around Maury Road. "One way or the other, we're going to pursue a data center development on this site, whether it's through this ordinance or through the validity challenge," attorney Matthew McHugh told the township in January 2026.

Mele's challenge argued the township's zoning was unconstitutional because it excluded data centers entirely. The township answered on March 2, 2026 when supervisors unanimously adopted a curative amendment creating a data center overlay on about 500 acres, including Mele's land. "We determined that it is simply the least worst option," vice chairman Christian Bartulovich said, since the township's own industrial zone covers only about 50 acres next to state game lands.

The ordinance sets a 30-acre minimum lot size, a 60-foot height cap, setback and buffer rules, noise standards, an emergency response plan, water and power feasibility studies with well testing, a 50 percent cap on clearing woodland, a decommissioning plan, and a public website giving 24 hours' notice before backup generators run. "We've written an ordinance that is as expansive as is legally possible to write," Bartulovich said.

Residents who spoke mostly backed the rules while opposing any data center outright. Jacob Peterzak of Mayer's Well Drilling said, "There is not enough groundwater in this area to provide for a data center." Linda Christman, president of Save Carbon County, said the opposition "is not going anywhere" and cited two federally protected bat species and a wildflower on the site. Resident Ashleigh Davis questioned the water rule: "How are we going to determine where the aquifer spanned to?"

No application to build a data center has been filed. A separate challenge to the new overlay itself, filed by resident William John Fontaine, went before the township's zoning hearing board on August 19, 2026. The board put off ruling on who could join the case and continued the hearing to September 1, 2026, and no report of that hearing has been published.