How we're fighting PAX-1

PAX-1 is 16 hyperscale data centers on 694 acres in Middlesex Township. Every approval for PAX-1 stands on one zoning change, written for this one site. We challenged that change and appealed every approval built on it.

ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersSept. 2May 6Phase 1Claydown yardto comeJuly 1Phase 25 data centersto comeJuly 1Phase 35 data centersto comeSept. 2DATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025STATE STORMWATER PERMIT
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1B6 data centersPhase 1Claydown yardPhase 25 data centersPhase 35 data centersDATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
It starts with the overlay.
On May 30, 2025, the Supervisors put a Data Center Overlay on 694 acres along Country Club Road, land planned for housing. Data centers became permitted there by right. If a plan meets the zoning ordinance, the Supervisors must approve it.
Neighborhood zoning,
industrial use.
MU-1underneath
Overlayon top
Height allowed
40ft
75ft
Share of a lot that can be paved or built on
50%
70%
Middlesex Zoning Ordinance 7-2025, adopted Sept. 3, 2025, Tables 2.11 and 2.18. MU-1 figures are for non-residential uses on public water and sewer.
7 quieterdistrictsMU-1NeighborhoodTHIS LANDMU-2INSC-1C-2IIndustrialDATA CENTERSFour districts skipped
A data center is an industrial use. Outside the overlay, Middlesex allows it in one of its 13 zoning districts: Industrial. This land is zoned MU-1, four districts away.
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That data center overlay essentially allows for data centers, right, it's not a broader use, it's a data center overlay. The project that we're pitching is the project that would be done.

The developer's attorney at the hearing on the overlay, May 30, 2025. Read it in the transcript
One overlay, one project.
The developer's attorney sent the Township a finished overlay in December 2024. About 80 percent of the overlay in the zoning law today matches it word for word.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1B6 data centersPhase 1Claydown yardPhase 25 data centersPhase 35 data centersDATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
So we challenged the foundation.
On May 13, 2026, five families challenged the overlay as spot zoning. That's when a township singles out a parcel for the benefit of one user and treats it differently from the land around it.
May 13
We file the challenge
Nov 13
Hearing on the merits, 2:00 p.m.
Six months to the day.
On October 5, the court scheduled an evidentiary hearing on the merits of the case, on our request to halt construction. It isn't the final ruling, but the evidence gets heard.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1B6 data centersPhase 1Claydown yardPhase 25 data centersPhase 35 data centersDATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025FinalplanPreliminaryplan
Everything else is built on top.
Each data center phase comes before the Supervisors twice, first as a preliminary plan and then as a final plan. Each of those approvals rests on the overlay.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersMay 6Phase 1Claydown yardPhase 25 data centersPhase 35 data centersDATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
May 6: the first pillar.
The Supervisors approved the subdivision, Phase 1A and the Phase 1B preliminary plan. We appealed all three. The court kept the Phase 1B appeal going and dismissed the other two, since their preliminary plans were already approved.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersMay 6Phase 1Claydown yardJuly 1Phase 25 data centersJuly 1Phase 35 data centersDATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
July 1: two more.
The Supervisors approved preliminary plans for Phase 1C, the construction laydown yard, and Phase 2, five more data centers. We appealed both on July 31.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersSept. 2May 6Phase 1Claydown yardJuly 1Phase 25 data centersJuly 1Phase 35 data centersSept. 2DATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
Sept. 2: two more.
The Supervisors approved the final plan for Phase 1B and the preliminary plan for Phase 3, the last five data centers. We appealed both on October 2.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersSept. 2May 6Phase 1Claydown yardto comeJuly 1Phase 25 data centersto comeJuly 1Phase 35 data centersto comeSept. 2DATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
We'll appeal the rest, too.
Final plans for Phases 1C, 2 and 3 still have to come before the Supervisors. We'll appeal each one.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersSept. 2May 6Phase 1Claydown yardto comeJuly 1Phase 25 data centersto comeJuly 1Phase 35 data centersto comeSept. 2DATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025
A house built on sand.
Each appeal also names problems in the decisions themselves, like the dozens of township standards the Supervisors waived. The main fight is the foundation. Without the overlay, the zoning underneath doesn't allow data centers at all.
No hearing, no hold.
We argued state law put development under the overlay on hold while the Zoning Hearing Board had our challenge. The work went on.
May 13

We file the challenge with the Zoning Hearing Board.

May 22

Earth moving begins under the amended stormwater permit.

Conservation District inspection report, August 5, 2026
July 1

The Supervisors approve two more preliminary plans.

Aug 6

With no hearing held, we take the challenge to county court.

Oct 5

The court rules the automatic hold applies only to cases before the board.

ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersSept. 2May 6Phase 1Claydown yardto comeJuly 1Phase 25 data centersto comeJuly 1Phase 35 data centersto comeSept. 2DATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025STATE STORMWATER PERMIT
The permit that moves the dirt.
Moving dirt takes a state stormwater permit. The one PAX-1 uses was written for 58 homes on 15.3 acres, then stretched by four amendments to cover the entire project site. On August 13 we appealed it to the Environmental Hearing Board.
ZONED MU-1, MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODPhase 1AsubstationsPhase 1B6 data centersSept. 2May 6Phase 1Claydown yardto comeJuly 1Phase 25 data centersto comeJuly 1Phase 35 data centersto comeSept. 2DATA CENTER OVERLAYOrdinance 3-2025, adopted May 30, 2025STATE STORMWATER PERMIT
That's how we're fighting PAX-1.
We challenged the overlay. We're appealing every data center approval built on it, and the permit that moves the dirt. We'll appeal each final plan still to come.

Come to court on November 13.

2:00 p.m., Courtroom No. 1 of the Cumberland County Courthouse in Carlisle. The hearing is open to the public.

Read the filings at

StopPAX1.com/legal-challenges

Every case runs on one legal fund. Please consider funding our fight at

StopPAX1.com