Municipal authorities have halted a data center development in Masovian Voivodeship, central Poland.

The facility would have occupied a 90-hectare (222-acre) site outside the village of Nowa Wieś. Councillors from the commune of Dobre voted unanimously to remove the development from the area’s general municipal plan.

DCD has approached the municipal authorities for comment.

“This doesn't rule out the possibility that when a major player or a significant investment emerges, we can engage in discussions with residents and consider it,” said Kamil Wichrowski, mayor of the city and commune of Dobre, told TVP3 Warsaw.

The developer petitioning the municipality was a limited company named Energize based in Warsaw, according to local political activist Paweł Kasprzak, though DCD was unable to verify this independently.

According to earlier reporting by the outlet, the data center itself would have been three stories high and contributed €60 million ($69m) in taxes to the local municipality. Parts of the land designated for the development – agricultural land outside Nowa Wieś – were also designated as third-class under Polish law.

Despite this, local opposition to the data center quickly surfaced, motivated by the facility’s size and the perceived lack of consultation about its arrival in the village. Eventually, more than 200 residents from four surrounding villages signed a petition against it. Local landowner Zbigniew Zalewski, who owned the estate upon which the facility would have been built, expressed his dismay about the council’s decision to TVP3 Warsaw. “This commune needs money to develop, build roads, bike paths, schools – to maintain its current needs,” said Zalewski.

Poland’s Masovian Voivodeship hosts 41 data centers, according to DataCenters.com, with the overwhelming majority concentrated in Warsaw. The market for new facilities throughout the country remains strong, with protests against new projects remaining rare compared to other countries like Germany and the UK – but not unknown. In August, a joint data center development by Polish construction firm Budimex and the Spanish infrastructure operator Ferrovial in Piaseczno attracted opposition from residents of the nearby town of Józefosław. In that case, the latter complained that the new facility would exacerbate existing water pressure issues in the area.

Learn more about the data center market in Poland and Eastern Europe, and meet with other executives and experts from the region at the DCN Warsaw event later this year.