Signs stating “No data center” sprawl across lawns in East Whiteland Township, reflecting opposition to the planned construction of Sentinel Green Fig Data Center on Swedesford Road. According to a March 13 news release by Suburban Realtor’s Alliance, the East Whiteland Board of Supervisors approved a proposal from developers Sentinel Data Centers and Green Fig Land LLC in 2024 for a 1.5 million square feet data center to power the growing use of artificial intelligence. However, the recent opposition largely stems from an updated proposal by developers in December 2025, which included expanding the size of the data center by around 60%.

“Imagine that all of a sudden, if you’re in East Whiteland and suddenly you feel like you have this airport that’s moved in next door to you because of all the jet engines about,” said Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors member KS Bhaskar.

Following continued community discontent, a May 8 East Whiteland Township Board of Supervisors FAQ release states that the developers renounced the 2025 land development plan and are planning to move forward with the approved plan from 2024. The situation in East Whiteland prompted legislation regarding data centers in townships across Chester County, such as Tredyffrin, while also sparking continued community response against the data center’s construction. On April 20, the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors passed a motion to begin drafting regulations for data center construction.

“I think eventually we would have gotten around to (creating legislation) with data centers, certainly from a timing point of view. The fact that there was this issue happening in East Whiteland kind of added a certain amount of urgency to it,” Bhaskar said. “We don’t want to be caught flat-footed when someone comes to us and says, ‘We want to build a data center.’”

According to Bhaskar, while drafting the legislation, the township will reference a data center ordinance guide created by Chester County and the Montgomery County Planning Commission. Bhaskar said the goal of the legislation is to address public concerns by establishing specific areas where developers can construct data centers and setting requirements for size, electricity, energy, cooling systems, stormwater management and traffic near the data center during construction.

“You can’t say no to data centers, but what you can say is, ‘If you’re going to have data centers, we’re going to restrict them to places like (where) you’ve already zoned for heavy industry,’” Bhaskar said. “Then what you need to do is also make sure that when the data center comes in, there are ways of managing it. Instead of saying you’re using water, we can say things like you must have a geothermal cooling system.”

Bhaskar said that data centers have existed for years, though more recently, companies are constructing data centers specifically for AI-related purposes and to meet the demands of increasing use.

“We’ve been living with data centers for a long time. Anytime if you’re using Gmail or you’re using a search engine or anything like that, you’re basically using a data center,” Bhaskar said. “So now people are building these giant data centers specifically for the purposes of doing AI, and anytime you have computers, you’re going to have electricity consumption, heat generation, you’re going to need network access and all of those things. Those are things that any data center has to deal with, except that when you have a hyperscaler-type data center, then it just means that you need all of these in much larger quantities, to the point that people get concerned about it.”

According to Bhaskar, the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors will likely pass the final legislation next year, following a public review. Junior Jack Myers feels that the legislation is critical for Tredyffrin because of the community impact of a data center.

“I think it’s important because it’s very essential that we make sure (the data centers) aren’t having a negative environmental impact,” Myers said. “And that these companies are building the data centers ethically with the community in mind.”

Tvisha Jani can be reached at [email protected].