{"id":2696,"date":"2026-07-16T22:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:12:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:12:51","slug":"planning-commission-considers-how-and-if-data-centers-should-be-built-in-philly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2696","title":{"rendered":"Planning Commission considers how \u2014 and if \u2014 data centers should be built in Philly"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div><audio><\/audio><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>An information-only presentation about data centers before the Philadelphia Planning Commission provoked a firestorm of controversy Thursday, with more than a dozen community groups and other activists rejecting the idea of bringing this energy-intensive use to the city.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2695\">Doug Mastriano wouldn\u2019t say if he believes all American leaders should be Christian as he\u2019s vetted for an ambassadorship<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Demand for data centers has soared in recent years, as tech companies have invested heavily in artificial intelligence products that require vast amounts of computing power. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Several large projects have been proposed in Philadelphia\u2019s suburban counties and South Jersey.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Data center foes, who dominated the public comment section of Thursday\u2019s presentation, repeatedly called for a moratorium akin to the policy recently enacted in New York State. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cData centers are a hot topic in land use around the country,\u201d said Amy Boyd, a city planner who presented the research to the commission. \u201cStaff wants to stay up to date on this issue, so that when the topic becomes more pressing in our city, we can be prepared.\u201d <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s presentation is not a reaction to a particular proposal. Instead, the Planning Commission presented research on the employment, energy, and health effects of data centers, the current state of zoning law in the city, and what parts of Philadelphia could accommodate them. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The Planning Commission found there are only two sites in Philadelphia that could accommodate the largest size of data center, the kind currently being built to support the artificial intelligence boom. Any other possible sites would require consolidating properties and changing zoning. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>One possible location is the former refinery site in South Philadelphia known as the Bellwether District, 3143 W. Passyunk Ave., which contains 1,300 acres of mostly undeveloped land zoned for industrial uses and has long been rumored as a potential data center site. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The other possible site is 2600 Grant Ave., a city-owned property by the airport in Northeast Philadelphia. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The idea of municipally owned land being used for a data center drew protests from citizen attendees of the commission meeting. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>But policymakers emphasized that the presentation was just meant to highlight parcels that were large enough to accommodate the use \u2014 and were not meant to indicate support for such an idea.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe are not currently considering that site. We have not been asked to consider that site,\u201d Octavia Howell, director of the Planning Commission, said about the Grant Avenue property. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe were strictly looking at industrial land that is of a size that could be attractive \u2026 to someone who is looking at Philadelphia and curious about data centers,\u201c Howell said. \u201cThere is no proposal that this research is responding to.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Boyd\u2019s presentation noted that Philadelphia already hosts eight smaller data centers from an era when they were not such a controversial topic. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>These include 365 Data Center, which operates at 3701 Market St. in University City, and 4775 League Island Blvd. in the Navy Yard. At 25,000 square feet, that South Philly building is only a quarter of the size of the smallest contemporary \u201chyperscale\u201d data centers.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2693\">Pew Charitable Trusts has named a new CEO with Lower Merion roots<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Boyd\u2019s presentation also emphasized the amount of resources that are required to keep huge, new data centers going. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>She reported that data centers are now among the 10 largest water-consuming industries in the United States and use 4% of the nation\u2019s electricity \u2014 with that figure expected to grow to 12% by 2035. Local energy providers have had to make large capital investments to accommodate the industry.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Boyd noted that many of the jobs and tax benefits to data centers take place during construction, when up to 1,500 well-paid union workers are employed. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Afterward some well-paid positions will still exist, including tech and maintenance staff, but she found that data centers employ only one worker per 5,000 square feet \u2014 roughly 13% of the jobs that would be expected in a standard warehouse of a similar size. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>But Planning Commissioner Pat Eiding said he thought that might undercount the job-creation potential.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if it considers the amount of maintenance that goes on in these critical facilities,\u201d said Eiding, former head of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO. \u201cAs we go forward, I\u2019d like to see research on how many man hours are needed for maintenance and keeping a facility going.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Public response to the Planning Commission\u2019s report was wholly oppositional to data centers. No one spoke in favor. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Potential health effects were highlighted, and many speakers expressed concern that the amount of electricity used by potential centers would likely be powered by fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Others expressed concerns about surging electricity costs, as capital improvements are paid for by increased consumer costs. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s what\u2019s causing people to not be able to pay their bills,\u201d said Linnea Bond, environment and health education director at Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge health issue, and it\u2019s a huge affordability issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The Planning Commission staff emphasized that data centers are not currently specifically regulated in Philadelphia\u2019s zoning code and suggested the possibility of a new law creating a specific category for them.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>While talk of a potential data center moratorium swirled around City Council earlier this year, only two nonbinding resolutions have been passed related to the topic so far. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>One from Councilmember Rue Landau called for hearings on data centers, which have not been held yet. Councilmember Isaiah Thomas held hearings late last year about rising energy costs, citing data centers as one of the driving forces. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2691\">\ud83c\udf86 The fireworks aren\u2019t over yet | Things to do<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While no data centers have been proposed in Philadelphia, city planners are preparing for the debate to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Planning Commission considers how \u2014 and if \u2014 data centers should be built in Philly - 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