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Residents often rally against development, especially buildings that can be seen as intrusive, such as large warehouses, highrise buildings, or big-box retail stores. In recent years, another culprit has joined the NIMBY (Not in My Backy Yard) debate: data centers.
Data centers are large facilities that house everything needed for the digital age, including servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and the power and cooling infrastructure to support it all. They serve many roles beyond simply storing anything you upload to the cloud. They provide data processing services, support connectivity, help protect against cyber threats and data breaches, and serve as data redundancy and offsite backups for a myriad of industries. It's also the backbone of artificial intelligence, or AI, which requires massive amounts of computing power. Most of us use AI every day without even realizing it, on our phones, or even streaming our favorite TV shows.
The U.S. has more data centers, including hyperscale data centers that support AI, than anywhere else in the world — more than 5,400 as of late 2025. Many states oppose them, but in some areas the fight is more local. In southcentral Pennsylvania, a farmer recently made headlines when he turned down a $15 million data center deal in favor of a farmland trust, a deal that may provide him with only a few million. Mervin Raudabaugh lived on the land for more than 50 years and chose preservation over a payday.
Data centers encroach on rural areas
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Raudabaugh's farm is in Silver Spring Township, Pennsylvania which lies about 20 minutes west of the state capitol, Harrisburg. He was approached by an unnamed data center developer who wanted to purchase his land for $15 million. According to local ABC affiliate WHTM, Raudabaugh felt "harassed" by the developer, and instead turned to the local land preservation program. Only four municipalities outside of the Philadelphia region, including Silver Spring Township, have approved funneling income tax to acquire land development rights. The local preservation was compensated by the township to hold Raudabaugh's farm — now, he can sell it, but only as farmland, which will likely earn him much less than what the data center developer offered.
Silver Spring Township isn't the only community in Pennsylvania that is grappling with the reality of data centers. The Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers plan to build three data center campuses in the town of Carlisle, which is also located in the southcentral region of the state near Harrisburg. The proposal, known as Pennsylvania Digital 1, is moving through the approvals process, and in January 2026 local supervisors okayed plans to subdivide the land for an 18-building campus. Residents are concerned about how much power and water the campuses will require, along with additional environmental impacts. Proponents of the project state that it will be a boon for the local community, adding that Pennsylvania is quickly becoming a mecca for data centers, despite the fact that some are collecting dust in other states.