Opponents of a proposed 2-million-square-foot data center in Plymouth Township took their fight to the streets Saturday, Sept. 12, rallying along Fayette Street in Conshohocken ahead of a Sept. 17 zoning hearing.
More than a dozen protesters held signs, handed out flyers and spoke with passersby, the Times Herald reported. The Plymouth Township Zoning Hearing Board reconvenes at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, at the Karen B. Weiss Meeting Room inside the Plymouth Township Municipal Building, 700 Belvoir Road.
Conshohocken resident Christine Bertino, one of the protest organizers, collected more than 320 signatures on a petition asking Conshohocken Borough Council to seek party status in the Plymouth Township zoning proceedings. A separate Change.org petition calling to stop the project had 552 signatures as of Saturday.
Bertino and Ardis Lukens, a Plymouth Township resident who helps lead the No Conshy Data Centers group, stressed that residents who want a legal say in the outcome should attend Thursday's hearing and request party status.
"If they don't ask for party status, what are you going to do if it gets approved? Then you have no right to appeal. You have no right to sue," Bertino said at the rally.
Seats will be limited.
More than two dozen participants were granted party status when proceedings began over the summer. The Municipality of Norristown also sought party status but was denied by Plymouth Township zoning officials, the Reporter reported.
Smaller venue draws criticism
The zoning board voted unanimously in August to move the hearing from Colonial Middle School to the smaller township building. Previous hearings at Colonial drew hundreds of residents. The township's official notice says only a small number of public seats will be available, with priority given to parties and participants. A public comment session is expected at a larger venue at a later date.
The hearing will be livestreamed at the Greater Plymouth Community Center, 2910 Jolly Road.
Lukens said the township building is about one-third the size of the Colonial Middle School auditorium. She estimated 9,000 people live within a square mile of the proposed site.
The project
Developer Brian O'Neill, CEO of MLP Ventures, wants to convert the former Cleveland-Cliffs plate finishing site at 900 Conshohocken Road into a data center with standby generators and gas turbines. An economic impact report cited by the Times Herald pegs the project at $6.45 billion, projecting 371 jobs by 2030 and $21.2 million in tax revenue for Colonial School District, Montgomery County, Montgomery County Community College and Plymouth Township.
O'Neill first applied in 2025. That application was withdrawn in November 2025 after planning and zoning officials denied relief. The revived application seeks a special exception in the township's heavy industrial zoning district.
Plymouth Township Council Chairwoman Lynne Viscio formally opposed the application in late July, authorizing the township solicitor to fight both the special exception request and any challenge to the zoning ordinance. At a July 27 council meeting, Viscio said the township would continue opposing the application for as long as it "blatantly disregards the health, welfare and safety of the community."
O'Neill also proposed a roughly 4.6-million-square-foot data center cluster in Upper Merion Township. Upper Merion supervisors unanimously denied five preliminary land development applications in August, and O'Neill filed an appeal and sued.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order in August imposing stricter state standards on data center projects, though local opponents reacted with skepticism about its impact.
No public response from O'Neill or MLP Ventures regarding the Sept. 12 protest or the upcoming hearing appeared in available records.
