Clifton Township is close to settling with the Project Gold developer, clearing the way for a massive data center campus with five large buildings plus a 400 MW substation and 230 kV switchyard.
The deal trades the developer’s zoning lawsuits for by-right approval of data centers, backup generators, and battery storage on the site, sidestepping conditional use fights but with detailed conditions.
A key signal is power strategy: the developer drops plans for a small modular nuclear reactor and gas plant, meaning this 400 MW-class load will lean on grid power rather than on-site generation.
Water and cooling are tightly constrained, with bans on centralized well systems, strict hydrology review, outside-sourced initial fill, and daily caps on township well withdrawals, which will shape cooling design and site scalability.
Building envelopes are big and tall by township standards (up to 1 million square feet per building, 65–80 feet height), indicating room for dense GPU deployments and significant mechanical and electrical overhead.
This project sits in the middle of a regional land rush, with nearly a dozen proposed data center campuses in Lackawanna County, so local zoning precedent here will matter for future GPU and power siting in the area.
Worth reading in full for how a township is codifying power, water, and height constraints around a 400 MW data center in a way other communities may copy.
Source: Clifton Twp. to consider settlement with data center developer
