BY Christopher Paone, Blakely Borough Manager
Data Centers, Data Center Campus, Date Center Hyper campus; these terms were foreign to many people across Northeastern Pennsylvania 12-18 months ago. Now, municipalities throughout NEPA are increasingly receiving proposals for data centers. These facilities are critical to the modern economy, cloud data storage, and artificial intelligence. Yet their scale, energy usage, and long-term impacts require thoughtful municipal oversight, particularly in smaller communities with an aging infrastructure that may be unable to handle this new and until recently never thought of rapid expansion.
In Lackawanna County, where boroughs balance progress with residential quality of life, data centers present a great opportunity and a significant challenge. While such projects may offer a large initial capital investment, the limited employment, and extraordinary demands on local utilities including electricity and water, land use planning, and local governance, are of great concern.
Blakely Borough’s experience stresses the importance of proactive municipal planning. As a community served by a publicly owned electric utility, Blakely has a direct responsibility to ensure system reliability and cost stability for its residents and businesses. Data centers, which can consume power equivalent to that of 20 boroughs the size of Blakely, must be evaluated not only for economic benefit but for their impact on existing customers. Our first obligation is to the residents and businesses who rely on that system every day. Any high-load facility must be assessed carefully to ensure it does not compromise reliability or shift costs onto the community. Basically, when a municipality owns and operates its electric system, the stakes are much higher.
Recognizing these realities, Blakely Borough has adopted comprehensive zoning regulations which specifically address data centers and similar high intensity uses. These standards consider electrical demand, infrastructure capacity, site location, and compatibility with surrounding land uses. The goal is not to prohibit innovation, but to ensure that development proceeds in a manner consistent with the borough’s long-term planning objectives. Zoning is one of the most important tools municipalities have to manage emerging technologies. Forward-looking regulations provide certainty for developers while protecting the character and resources of the community.
Regional grid planning, or lack thereof, have made it clear that unchecked data center growth can strain transmission systems and complicate energy planning. The Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Regional Transmission Organization has made it nearly impossible for new electric generators to get new facilities online. They have had backlogs, of three-four years in some instances, that have inevitably begun to put a huge strain on the existing generators and the grid itself. For municipalities, especially those with publicly owned utilities, coordination between land use regulation and utility planning is essential. Decisions made at the local level can have lasting implications for rates, infrastructure investment, and community trust.
Transparency is key during any discussion of large-scale data center projects. Blakely’s approach is to have the public involved as early as possible. This ensures all information is available to stakeholders and the borough concurrently. Understandably, there has been significant public concern surrounding data center development. The opportunity to be well-informed is always of utmost benefit to all parties involved. Throughout this process, Blakely had a strong commitment to ensuring the public was able to access the necessary information to gain a better understanding of all aspects of the proposals.
As Pennsylvania municipalities navigate the next wave of infrastructure development, data centers offer a clear lesson, through comprehensive planning, thoughtful zoning, and stewardship of public utilities. Local governments must ensure that innovation strengthens, rather than burdens, the communities they serve.
Article from the February 2026 Municipal Reporter | Pennsylvania Data Centers Edition
