Pennsylvania residents reject $10,000 per-household payments to block construction of an AI data center in their region.

The war against data centers has intensified even as public attention has shifted toward artificial intelligence itself. In one Pennsylvania township, opposition has grown strong enough that residents are rejecting $10,000 checks—money offered with the condition that they accept a massive data-center complex in their backyard.

In Hazle Township, NorthPoint Development wants to build Project Hazelnut: a 15-building data-center campus spanning roughly 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills. The proposed site would sit about 750 feet from a local residential community and roughly 1,500 feet from the nearest home. To win support, NorthPoint has offered $10,000 to every eligible household in the township—a $45 million direct-payment fund covering about 4,500 households—along with a broader $165 million community-benefits package. For a township with median household income near $60,000, that represents substantial money. It could cover months of rent, groceries, fuel, home repairs, or simply provide the financial breathing room many families lack.

Yet according to The Wall Street Journal, many Hazle Township residents interviewed were unmoved by the offer. The checks have not been enough to overcome concerns—some misguided, others not—about noise, property values, water and energy use, and the suspicion that the developer is attempting to bribe local residents.

"$10,000 doesn't match how much it's going to tank my property value," said Jeff Fasnacht, a retired teacher whose house sits near the proposed data center. He also worries about the noise from years of construction.

Diana Spallone, a special-education teacher, expressed similar concerns about the facility's effect on her home's value, though she acknowledged that "$10,000 would be nice."

Carl Majusiak, a retired foundry worker, said the payment gave him pause, but ultimately concluded that "we don't need that around here."

Noise concerns are understandable, particularly for a project located so close to an established residential community. But fears about property values are less settled. The prevailing assumption is that data centers automatically depress nearby home prices, yet available evidence suggests their effect is more often neutral to modestly positive. These projects bring tens of millions in local investment, a substantial tax base, and the public revenue that enables communities to improve schools, roads, emergency services, and other basic needs.

Others, like Ed Negra, a retired homeowner helping organize opposition to the data center, argue that the $10,000 is simply a bribe, and that residents will reject the project precisely because they recognize it as such. But what, exactly, separates a bribe from an effort to compensate the people who will live nearest a major development?

The residents opposing this project are entitled to decide what kind of development they want near their homes. But for those who want to build the infrastructure for America's next technological era, the challenge is clear: if $10,000 per household, a larger tax base, and millions in local investment cannot begin to change the conversation, then the country's AI ambitions may eventually collide with an unavoidable question—where, exactly, does it expect the infrastructure to go?