A plan to convert a former psychiatric hospital near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, into a data center has failed to receive a recommendation from the East Vincent Township planning commission.

The commission concluded that the applicant Pennhurst Holdings LLC had failed to provide enough information in its submission and expressed frustration at the applicant’s decision to submit a letter and the application materials “in lieu of its attendance,” via its lawyer Matthew McHugh.

According to a site plan submitted by the applicant back in October 2025, the facility would be composed of five two-story buildings covering a total of 1.3 million sq ft (120,000 sqm), as well as an ‘industrial building’ and a five-acre substation.

McHugh’s letter also states that Pennhurst is proposing a “closed loop direct-to-chip cooling system to significantly reduce water usage,” and claimed that primary water sources for cooling would “be reusable, treatable effluent from municipal systems and captured rainwater.”

Despite the commission's decision not to recommend the project, its fate will ultimately lie with the township's Board of Supervisors, which will make its decision next month.

The plan to turn the site into a data center has been marked by controversy ever since it was proposed.

Public opposition to the facility has been fierce, and a petition called ‘Protect Pennhurst from Data Center Development' has amassed a sizable 20,242 signatures at time of writing.

Earlier last year, local authorities also considered implementing an ordinance that would have tightened the regulation of data centers, but chose not to do so after the applicant said that its adoption could result in a lawsuit.

Pennhurst Holdings owns the Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a former mental institution that was turned into a museum and tourist attraction after the US Supreme Court ruled that Pennhurst had violated the constitutional rights of its residents.