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STATUS: Active | Awaiting NPDES Permit. DEP granted an extension on the required response to the technical deficiencies identified by the conservation district expiring on 4/18/2026. No zoning permits issued.
Last updated: 4/1/2026
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Until recently, the 186 acres between Scranton Carbondale Highway and Eynon-Jermyn Road were entirely forested woodland. Project Gravity would replace nearly all of it with a 1.93 million square foot data center campus with seven 70 foot industrial buildings running on diesel generators, for backup power, and evaporative cooling systems projected to consume 91,000 gallons of water every single day.
What makes this particularly jarring for neighbors is the zoning. Classified as Commercial (C-2) and Residential (R-2) rather than Industrial, these 70 foot structures can legally be built as close as 25 feet from a front yard and 40 feet from side or rear yards abutting residential homes. For residents of Valley View Estates and the surrounding Jermyn neighborhoods, that proximity is the view from their window.
The environmental picture is just as troubling. A field investigation identified seven wetlands, two streams, and 31 open water features on the property. The developer's plan to address them is to purchase mitigation bank credits; an accounting solution that does nothing for the ecology that exists here now.
Project Gravity was submitted under the 2023 zoning ordinance as a permitted by-right use, meaning the Borough Council doesn't vote and no public hearings are required. Critical noise and vibration data has been deferred to final planning stages and the developer has acknowledged the buildings are currently "speculative" and haven't been designed by an architect. The community is being asked to accept a project before anyone knows exactly what will be built or how loud it will be.
The developer still needs a Joint Permit from the PA Department of Environmental Protection for wetland impacts and an NPDES permit for stormwater and erosion control. Public hearings can be requested for both and right now, those hearings are the clearest avenue residents have to demand real answers.