After successfully blocking plans for a data center campus in their community, residents of Anthony Township say they’re mobilizing to preserve their farmland from future industrial development attempts, and to help neighboring municipalities do the same.
The Montour County Commissioners on February 10 voted unanimously to deny a re-zoning request from Talen Energy, a power company that builds data center infrastructure. Talen’s petition requested that 870 acres of farmland in Anthony Township be redesignated for industrial development. The request also would have permitted Talen Energy to expand its existing fracked gas power plant in the neighboring borough of Washingtonville.
Leading up to the vote, residents had spent months organzing and mobilizing against the petition from Talen – some going door-to-door to speak with neighbors. By the time of the vote, the group leading the organized efforts, Concerned Citizens of Montour County, said they had collected more than 14,000 signatures against the request.
“They are a prime example of a community that came together and went to work,” said Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, who works as the senior Eastern PA organizer for Food & Water Watch, an environmentally focused organization that aids communities in opposition to data center development.
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“It’s a message of hope to other communities,” Marcille-Kerslake said. “And it gives me hope, too. That grassroots community up there can help others do what they did.”
Community history and generational stewardship
The Concerned Citizens of Montour County said their organizing began in early September 2025. Sharon Waltman, a member of the group, said she “learned something was afoot” when a neighbor knocked on her door and told her about plans for a data center campus.
Waltman said she and her neighbor attended a town hall meeting, where more than 100 people had gathered at a fire station that had opened its garage doors to make room for people to sit and stand. Later meetings drew larger crowds; some were held at local churches. To keep everyone informed, CCMC members set up tables at community events, communicated through Facebook, and organized a website with links to local coverage and upcoming meetings.
“If it wouldn’t have been for them reaching out and getting the community engaged, we’d have a humongous data center in Anthony Township,” said Mike Leighow, a member of CCMC and a local farm owner.
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Leighow spoke at a November meeting of the Montour County Planning Commission, where close to 200 community members showed up to give public comment. He said the meeting lasted all day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.. with a short break for lunch. Talen Energy and its affiliate group in the data center development plan, Amazon Web Services, spoke for about an hour and a half. The rest of the time was taken up by citizens.
Leighow and Waltman both said they were struck not only by the number of attendees, but also by the diversity of representation from the community. Leighow noted there were physicians, farmers, 90-year-old residents and young students.
“The rapid data center proliferation across the state is driven by nothing more than profit and these multi-billion-dollar corporations treat the livelihood and health of our residents and the environment as just another cost of doing business.” – State Senator Katie Muth
“One of the most powerful things that occurred here was the huge cross section of individuals and interests that all came together for a common cause,” Leighow said. “People are not just going to sell their soul for the sake of money. And there were people there who stood to benefit greatly.”
Leighow said as an elder community member and a generational farmer, he is “old enough to remember the Strawberry Ridge community.”
Strawberry Ridge, Leighow explained, was a former village adjacent to Anthony Township that had residents, until about 60 years ago when the power plant was built.
READ: Big Tech’s Fast-Expanding Plans for Data Centers Are Running Into Stiff Community Opposition
Leighow said his family transported milk from their farm to Strawberry Ridge. He remembered a railroad depot and many welcoming neighbors. Once the coal-fired plant started operating, he said the community “withered away.”
Most of the residents moved out because they couldn’t stand to live beside the “hustle and bustle” of the power plant. Those who attempted to stay were eventually forced out due to well water pollution.
“That happened once, and it can easily happen again.”
The state-level fight to preserve Pennsylvania
Sam Burleigh, who operates the CCMC Facebook page and helps to keep the community organized and informed, said he believes the group’s biggest challenge going forward will be to keep tabs on what the corporate interests pushing data centers are up to next.
Following the county commissioners’ vote to deny rezoning, Talen Energy said it would consider the concerns expressed by the community and come back with a new petition.
Burleigh said CCMC is focused on preserving the farmland in their community and educating neighboring municipalities on what to do if they’re faced with a similar situation.
“From my perspective, it’s like they just prey on these small, rural communities,” Waltman said.
Having spent time in her career working for the federal government, Waltman is now a member of the committee that is drafting an ordinance to regulate data center operation. The committee hopes the ordinance can be adopted by municipalities in Montour County and across the state, though she noted that representatives from Amazon Web Services have shown up to local meetings to provide input.
At the state level, a battle wages in Harrisburg. A bi-partisan group led by state Senator Katie Muth (D-44) is pushing for a three-year moratorium on data center development, which would give communities across Pennsylvania the chance to enact their own local regulations.
“I introduced a three-year statewide data center moratorium to protect Pennsylvanians from another round of corporate exploitation. The rapid data center proliferation across the state is driven by nothing more than profit and these multi-billion-dollar corporations treat the livelihood and health of our residents and the environment as just another cost of doing business,” said Senator Muth. “This moratorium is important because local governments need time to appropriately update their zoning ordinances to ensure that the public is protected from industrial harm and to ensure our Commonwealth protects the rights guaranteed by Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
In fact, Food & Water Watch released a new report Wednesday reinforcing the case for why a moratorium like the one Muth is proposing is so necessary.
However, data center developers have experienced support from Governor Shapiro, who enacted a fast-tracked permitting system in the state. Additionally, Pennsylvania House Bill 2151 is on the table, which would authorize the Department for Community and Economic Development to write a model ordinance for municipalities.
Marcille-Kerslake said the department has shown itself to be a “cheerleader for data center investments” and “should not be crafting the model ordinance.”
“With this bill, local government and community voices would lose the opportunity to speak for themselves.”
