Our local citizens’ group has mounted a legal challenge to a township zoning change that enables a massive data center complex – potentially the largest industrial project in Monroe County -- in the midst of our peaceful, rural Pocono community.

We are asking your help in raising $15,000 to cover the cost of this challenge. We have already raised (and spent) $28,000 for legal representation and expert witnesses through three Zoning Hearings. Thanks to the many community members who contributed to make this possible!

We anticipate more Zoning Hearings, plus two appeals to higher courts, with an anticipated cost of $15,000. Your gift will help cover our costs for legal representation (attorney fees, court costs, filing fees) and expert consultation. Protect Rural Tobyhanna Township is a non-profit organization, but contributions are not tax-deductible.

With your support, we can win this challenge; the data center overlay will be overturned, preserving our rural way of life. Please donate today!

We have a strong case. Our legal challenge alleges this is spot zoning. The new data center overlay, approved by Tobyhanna Township supervisors in December 2025, encompasses 520 acres on Caughbaugh Road between Route 115 and Locust Ridge Road (Arrowhead Lake). It benefits one landowner to the detriment of the community. It allows an impactful Industrial Use within nearly 7,000 acres of Rural Residential and Open Space lands.

Super-sized Data Center Complex is proposed: Preliminary (draft) plans describe a 2-3 million-square-foot data center complex with seven data center buildings up to 100 feet tall, an electrical substation, 44 gas-powered generators, 85 rooftop chillers, high security features (barbed wire fencing, intense lighting), and more. Below is a DRAFT (as of March 2026) Site Layout Plan for the large-scale data center complex. It's preliminary and has not yet been accepted by the township.

It could be twice as large as Kalahari Waterpark & Convention Center, 2-3 times larger than the warehouse on Route 940 by Mount Pocono.

We must win this challenge. This impactful industrial use threatens the health and wellbeing of our families; it threatens our peace, our water, and our air.

People living near large-scale data centers report:

• Significant spikes in electricity costs;

• Never ending background noise that disrupts sleep, causes anxiety,

and affects heart health;

• Their wells dry up; their water is contaminated;

• Generators on site emit toxic particulates that can be harmful,

particularly to children, older adults, and people with respiratory

issues;

• Rising temperatures (heat island effect) for people living within six

miles of the data center site.

Water, wildlife, welfare of the community

Two Exceptional Value streams are on-site. The data center overlay includes land along the Lehigh River, also an Exceptional Value waterway. (Only 2% of Pennsylvania’s streams are Exceptional Value – the state’s healthiest waters.)

The proposed data center complex adjoins the Thomas Darling Nature Preserve, part of a globally rare Natural Area. The property has a lot of wetlands, is surrounded by extraordinary wildlife habitat, and is within one of Audubon’s Important Bird Areas.

We choose to live here because of the area's wild nature. We value the dark night skies, glimpses of black bears and bobcats, the quiet of rural living.

An industrial use should not be permitted in this sensitive, rural residential part of our community.

Please support this legal challenge today. Thank you!

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