In a unanimous vote, the East Vincent Planning Commission recommended that the township’s board of supervisors deny a proposed data center at the historic Pennhurst site, stating the submission was “technically deficient” and failed to comply with zoning ordinance, writes Brooke Schultz for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

The decision was met enthusiastically by residents who have been against the proposed project for months.

However, the project is not halted entirely, as the township’s board of supervisors will hold a hearing in March. 

The developer failed to appear at the Tuesday meeting and instead sent a letter to the commission outlining plans to revise the proposal and urging a positive vote. Commission members took note of the absence. 

“I take exception to the fact that the applicant and the applicant’s lawyers have declined to present this evening, and they informed us by letter [this morning]”, said vice chairman Lawson Macartney. “This is especially germane, given the lamentably poor technical quality of detail presented in the plans.” 

The plan calls for five two-story data-center buildings, a separate building, an electrical substation, and a solar field, on the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital site.

Read more about state of the proposed data center at Pennhurst in The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

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Crops of data center applications have sprouted up around Pennsylvania, including Chester County.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on VISTA.Today in February 2026.