MLP Ventures Data Centers, Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania

Upper Merion Township's Board of Supervisors on August 13, 2026, turned down developer Brian O'Neill's plan for five data centers totaling more than 4.6 million square feet near King of Prussia, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. O'Neill, who heads MLP Ventures, called the proposal the Renaissance Park and Innovation Data Center Campus. He told 6ABC he plans to appeal.

The campus would have been built at Discovery Labs, a health care and life sciences office run by O'Neill's company, and was planned to generate its own power with natural gas turbines and diesel backup generators; O'Neill said it would use scrubbers to control emissions and a closed-loop cooling system. He estimated it would bring in $55.4 million a year in local taxes, nearly $38 million of it for the Upper Merion Area School District.

The applications were filed before Upper Merion adopted data center restrictions in March 2026, so they were reviewed under the old rules. "The plans that were submitted prior to the ordinance change are vested," Township Manager Tony Hamaday said. Residents fought the plan for months, citing air pollution, water use, noise and property values, and a petition against it drew more than 17,000 signatures.

"There is absolutely nothing he could say to make me amenable to multiple power plants being constructed in my own backyard," resident Courtney Smith said in July. O'Neill said then that he was not getting a fair hearing from township staff and planning commission members. In July the planning commission voted not to recommend three of the five projects.

The night before the final vote, O'Neill sued the township for an extension; a Montgomery County judge vacated the injunction the next afternoon, and the supervisors then voted down the extensions and the preliminary plans. Chairperson Tina Garzillo said the township had received no landscape, traffic impact, emergency management or sanitary sewer plans: "The data centers at best are speculative and conceptual in nature, as evidenced by the lack of necessary details on the plan."

Vice chairperson William Jenaway accused O'Neill of "bullying" the board. "I know it's not over. This is a very important first step," Smith said after the vote. O'Neill is also pursuing a 2 million-square-foot data center at the former Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant in neighboring Plymouth Township, which Gov. Josh Shapiro has publicly criticized.

O'Neill can appeal the decision in court or file new or revised plans, which would come back before the Upper Merion Board of Supervisors for review.