--- title: "A Tiny Town Is Building So Many Data Centers That There’ll Be Almost Nothing Else Left" description: "Archbald, Pennsylvania is being inundated with proposals for 51 data center warehouses that would consume 14 percent of the town's land." date: "2026-04-28" modified: "2026-04-28" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/archbald-pennsylvania-data-centers" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Future Society" --- # A Tiny Town Is Building So Many Data Centers That There’ll Be Almost Nothing Else Left ![A man wearing a blue shirt and sunglasses leans on a white wooden porch railing, holding a clear plastic cup. The porch is attached to a house with gray and white siding. In the foreground and background, there are bright yellow signs with black text that read "NO DATA CENTERS." The scene is set along a quiet street with some trees and utility poles visible.]() *Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post via Getty Images* Enticed by cheap land, abundant resources, and massive tax breaks, tech companies are [gobbling up land]() in small, rural communities like never before for their inconvenient real-world infrastructure. One humble burg in Northeastern Pennsylvania is inundated with so many data center proposals, in fact, that the facilities could soon make up a staggering 14 percent of the town's surface area. In the borough of Archbald, Pennsylvania, incoming developers have threatened to erect six separate data center campuses to power the tech industry's insatiable demand for AI computing power, [the *Washington Post* reports](). A town of only 7,000 residents, Archbald is situated directly along a major regional transmission line which offers a [direct connection]() to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. With relatively cheap land just a two hour drive away from both Philadelphia and New York City, the town is a veritable fly trap for data center developers. According to *WaPo*, the six campus proposals encompass 51 separate warehouses, each the size of a Walmart Supercenter at [4 to 6 acres]() a pop. Seven campus buildings, the paper reports, measure in at over a million square feet each, roughly the equivalent to 23 acres. The payoff is dubious. As we've seen repeatedly, data centers don't [typically end up employing very many people](), and place major strain on [municipal resources](), not to mention the [local energy grid](). The citizens of Archbald haven't taken it lying down. "THE PUBLIC TRUST HAS BEEN VIOLATED," one anti-data center petition launched on March 18 declared. "Borough governance must be conducted in the interest of the public, not shaped in private by the interests of developers seeking approvals." According to [local news station *WNEP*](), Archbald borough council leadership went through a dramatic purge in March, when the president, vice president, and president pro tem were ousted by the remaining council members. That decision was met with a standing ovation from Archbald residents, who blame the politicians for allowing so many data center proposals into the burrough to begin with. "You have presided over numerous meetings, scolding residents like children when they voiced their frustrations that were of your making," Archbald resident Geralyn Esposito told local reporters. "You have wielded that gavel like a weapon to silence and stamp out opposition." Archbald Mayor Shirley Barrett, for her part, told *WaPo* that the "debate has destroyed this community." "We want answers, but we have no clue what is going on because this is all happening so quickly," she continued. With each of the six data center campuses at various stages of the planning process, it remains to be seen how successful residents are at keeping the tech industry at bay. If [unruly borough meetings]() and a [massive social media campaign]() are any indication, their fight is just getting started. **More on data centers:** *[Tech Companies Are Using Insidious Tactics to Build Data Centers on Indigenous Lands, Activists Say]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()