Legal issues have forced a developer to withdraw its data center proposal in Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania.

At the November 17 meeting of the Plymouth zoning board of appeals, it was revealed that the applicant, developer Brian O’Neill, did not have legal standing to pursue the application.

According to Dave Sander, solicitor for the Plymouth Township zoning area, the agreement of sale between himself and the owner of the property was not finalized.

O’Neill can refile his application, but ABC reports that the matter would not be revisited until at least next year.

The proposal, if approved, would rezone a 66-acre land parcel at 900 Conshohocken Road for the construction of a data center campus consisting of ten buildings.

The parcel is currently home to a recently retired steel mill, and its land designation – heavy industrial use – does not cover data center uses. O’Neill previously tried to argue that data centers were “consistent with and have the same general character” as laboratories and warehouses, both of which are permitted uses in a heavy industrial district.

The Township's planning agency, disagreeing with this argument, had previously voted not to recommend the proposal to the council, which is why the board of appeals was set to consider the proposal in the first place.

The majority of data centers in Pennsylvania are concentrated in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania has seen much interest from data center developers and investors as of late.

According to a report published by DC Byte in September of this year, the state’s data center market has grown exponentially, jumping from 231MW of total IT load in 2021 to around 7.8GW in 2025.

In July, various firms pledged to invest $90 billion in the state’s digital infrastructure following a summit attended by President Donald Trump.