Skip to content

Legal Update

Judge sets November 13 hearing on the Middlesex families' spot zoning challenge

Read the press release

16 hyperscale data centersdo not belong on farmlandsurrounded by homes

In one decision, the Board of Supervisors nearly doubled the industrial land in Middlesex Township. They changed this community forever, without weighing the impact on residents, livestock, wildlife or visitors.

Fund the Fight

Sign no matter where you live to get updates on the fight.

Middlesex TownshipCumberland CountyPennsylvania

The bare ground past the trees is the PAX-1 site, 2026

Where the fight stands#

Updated October 5, 2026

Next in court

November 13, 2026

The county court hears evidence on the merits of the spot zoning case, on our request to halt construction.

Construction continues. On September 22 the court declined to pause the work for now. On October 5 it found that the mandatory hold in state law doesn't apply to the spot zoning case.

View the September 22 orderView the October 5 orderView our request to enforce the hold

See every caseHow it got approved

What is PAX-1?#

A $15 billion campus of 16 data centers: warehouse-sized buildings full of computer servers that run day and night, on farmland in Middlesex Township.

A partnership of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers is building it beside the Conodoguinet Creek, a third of a mile from the Appalachian Trail. 1,333 homes stand within a mile of it.

Construction has started. So have three legal challenges.

The developer's site

An aerial photo of the PAX-1 site, outlined in orange and shown in full color against the muted land around it. The developer's 16 buildings are drawn where its plan puts them, as long light roofs with their shadows, each with a generator yard along one side, inside the paved drives its plans draw. Its four substations and a laydown yard sit inside their fences as gravel yards. A light dot marks every home around it: hundreds packed into the neighborhoods across the creek to the northeast, and more lining Country Club Road to the south. The Conodoguinet Creek wraps the site's west and north sides, the Appalachian Trail runs to the east, and Interstate 81 passes the southern tip.

Buildings, drives and generator yards drawn from the developer's own plans, the substations and the gravel laydown yard from the fences on its site plans, homes from the county's address records. Aerial imagery: USGS and USDA, taken before construction.

The developer's planThe generator yardsThe substationsThe laydown yardCheck our math on the homes

How close are you?

See how far your home is from PAX-1.#

Enter an address to see how far it sits from the site and what to expect there if PAX-1 is built.

We find addresses with the U.S. Census Bureau's address search and Cumberland County's address map. We don't save addresses or locations. We only count lookups by rough distance from the site and by area, such as Middlesex Township.

“one of the largest projects in the whole Harrisburg area in the last 50 years”

Mark Carpenter, the Township's zoning officer, Board of Supervisors workshop, June 26, 2026. Watch it

1.9×

PAX-1 alone will nearly double the industrial land in Middlesex Township.

Industrial land in Middlesex784 acres
With PAX-11,478 acres

Check our math on the industrial land

Most of its sixteen buildings are about 900 feet long and 200 feet wide. Their walls rise about 72 feet, nearly twice the 40-⁠foot limit in the zoning under and around the site. Rooftop penthouses reach about 83.

“The building is two stories.”

A PowerHouse Data Centers representative, after giving the 72-foot parapet height, Board of Supervisors special meeting, August 19, 2026. Watch it
One of the developer's “two-story” buildings, drawn from its own description and its elevation drawings, beside a two-story house, a tree and a person, all to the same scale.

Watch the dimensionsThe zoning ordinance

What does it mean for me?

It doesn't stop at the property line.#

Power and our bills

9×

the electricity of all homes in Cumberland County

Our grid's independent monitor found data centers added $29.4 billion to the region's capacity costs, the price of keeping enough power plants ready, for June 2025 through May 2029, and PPL says rising capacity prices added about $20 a month to its average home's bill. PAX-1 plans for 1.35 gigawatts more.

Check our math on the electricityRead the reportSee PPL's page

Why it doesn't belong here

People who live beside other data centers describe the hum, the lights and the blasting, from next door to a mile away.

See all eight costsWhat it's like to live next to oneWhat our neighbors say

How did it get approved?

The developer was allowed to write their own rules.#

In Middlesex, a warehouse needs a public hearing. A hyperscale data center does not.

“We changed the ordinance. Unfortunately, there's really nothing the board of supervisors can do to stop this project.”

Supervisor Phil Neiderer, Board of Supervisors meeting, May 6, 2026. Watch it

How the rules were writtenHow the permit was stretched

The PAX-1 site from the air: graded farmland, construction trailers and equipment

Can it still be stopped?

They haven't won yet.#

Yes, bulldozers are rolling, but that doesn't make it legal, and it doesn't make it final. We see significant issues with how this was approved, and we are challenging them in every way we can.

  1. Zoning drawn for the developer's land, and nowhere else.

    We're challenging the zoning.

  2. An environmental study written by the developer's own engineer.

    We've appealed the plan approvals.

  3. A stormwater permit amended four times without public comment.

    We've appealed the permit.

See every case

The PAX-1 site, September 22, 2026

Why does it matter beyond Middlesex?

If it can happen here, it can happen next to you.#

The companies behind PAX-1 are already looking at other townships.

  • Monroe Township, Cumberland County

    144 acres

    secured by the partnership behind PAX-1, which asked in April 2026 to present plans for another data center there

    The letter to MonroeThe Sentinel on Monroe

  • Granville Township, Mifflin County

    6 buildings

    filed for in July 2026 by one of the companies behind PAX-1, two days before a planned pause on data centers there

    abc27 on Granville

10 other data centers, Monroe and Granville among them, are in the works within 60 miles of Middlesex.

  • PAX-1
  • Proposed or under review
  • Paused or withdrawn after residents pushed back

Each township still writes its own rules. Statewide, the Governor wrote in August 2026 that most proposed data centers are “speculative in nature, with no identified end user.”

DEP's trackerThe Governor's orderCheck our math on the nearby data centers

All 12 projects

  1. Monroe Township, Cumberland County: The partnership behind PAX-1 asked in April 2026 to present plans for a data center.

    The letter to Monroe

  2. Swatara Township, Dauphin County: Highlands East, a $10.5 billion campus on 157 acres, with plans before the township. DEP lists it as proposed.

    WITF on SwataraSee the tracker

  3. Swatara Township, Dauphin County: Highlands West, by the same company. DEP lists it as proposed.

    See the tracker

  4. South Hanover Township, Dauphin County: Two data centers at a former quarry, filed in June 2026 and put on hold in August after residents raised concerns.

    Read about the filingRead about the pause

  5. Londonderry Township, Dauphin County: DEP lists it as proposed.

    See the tracker

  6. South Annville Township, Lebanon County: A $1.7 billion campus, withdrawn in May 2026 after the planning commission voted unanimously against the rezoning it needed.

    LebTown on South Annville

  7. Granville Township, Mifflin County: One of the companies behind PAX-1 applied in July 2026 for six buildings, two days before a planned pause on data centers there.

    abc27 on Granville

  8. City of Lancaster: Lancaster AI Hub West, at 1375 Harrisburg Pike, under a benefits agreement with the city.

    See the city's page

  9. City of Lancaster: Lancaster AI Hub East, at 216 Greenfield Road. DEP has finished its review.

    See the city's pageSee the tracker

  10. Mount Carmel Township, Northumberland County: DEP lists it as proposed.

    See the tracker

  11. Butler Township, Schuylkill County: A campus for the company Nebius, under DEP review.

    See the tracker

  12. New Castle Township, Schuylkill County: DEP lists it as proposed.

    See the tracker

Middlesex Township is the line in the sand.Stop them here, and we set the precedent that communities are shaped by the people who call them home, not by outside developers.

A gym packed with residents at the Middlesex Township Board of Supervisors special meeting on August 19, 2026. Rows of neighbors fill the folding chairs, more stand along the back and side walls, and news cameras film from the side.
Neighbors at the Board of Supervisors special meeting, August 19, 2026

Who are we?

We're your neighbors.#

We didn't ask for this fight, but everyone who should have protected us failed, so we chose to stand in the gap. We're not activists or experts, we're ordinary people like you.

Hear how it feels to live next to PAX-1

What can I do?

Help us Stop PAX-1#

Updated live

2,768

neighbors have added their names

Join the fight

Wherever you live, we're all neighbors in this. Stand with us against PAX-1 and get every update as the fight moves forward.

$52,322

raised toward our $100,000 legal fund

Lawyers stop bulldozers.

Laws only hold when someone enforces them. That falls to us now, and every dollar buys the attorneys and experts we need to push back.

Fund the Fight100% goes to the legal fund.

More ways to help, and signs to print

Want to go deeper?

The whole story, with the record behind it.#

Start here

Why it doesn't belong here

How it got approved

How we stop it

The record