Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Tag: Main Line

  • Bryn Mawr birth center Lifecycle Wellness to close in early 2026

    Bryn Mawr birth center Lifecycle Wellness to close in early 2026

    Lifecycle Wellness, a birth center in Bryn Mawr that offered an alternative to hospital delivery for Philadelphia-area parents, is shutting down operations amid growing financial pressure, the nonprofit announced Thursday.

    The nonprofit, which provides “homelike” births for low-risk pregnancies at its birth center and at Bryn Mawr Hospital, will stop delivering babies on Feb. 15. Patients who are due on Feb. 1 or later will need to transition to a different provider.

    In an open letter posted on its website Thursday, Lifecycle leaders said the organization was strained by rising operations and medical malpractice costs that outpaced insurance reimbursement rates — industrywide challenges that have plagued small and large health organizations alike.

    “From the beginning, Lifecycle Wellness has been dedicated to providing evidence-based, family-centered care that empowers clients to make informed choices and experience birth in a supportive, homelike environment,” Jessi Schwarz, executive and clinical director, and Lauren Harrington, board president, wrote. But, they added, “growing challenges have made it increasingly difficult for small, independent, and non-profit maternal health providers to exist.”

    Lifecycle reported a profit of $135,303 last year, down from $221,578 in 2023, according to its most recent tax filings.

    The organization provided prenatal and birthing services to about 600 patients a year, according to its 2024 tax filings. It employed 73 people that year.

    But in their letter announcing the closure, Schwarz and Harrington said that “shifts in public health and rising rates of medical complications have reduced the number of families eligible for this model of care.”

    Medical malpractice strain

    The number of malpractice cases rose in Philadelphia after a 2023 rule change allowed patients to sue outside the county in which they received medical treatment.

    Medical malpractice lawsuits are common in obstetrics, and Philadelphia’s court is known for verdicts with high awards.

    In 2023, a Philadelphia jury awarded a record-setting $180 million to the family of a child who was born with severe brain injuries at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

    The Birth Center is currently facing seven lawsuits in Philadelphia.

    The industry’s financial headwinds can be harder for independent, specialized healthcare organizations to face.

    Last year, Rothman Orthopaedic Institute ended a decades-long run as the official team physicians for the Philadelphia Eagles, citing the risk of medical malpractice liability. A year earlier, a Philadelphia jury awarded $43.5 million to former Eagles safety Chris Maragos, who sued Rothman over the treatment he received for a career-ending knee injury.

    Birth resources outside Philadelphia

    Lifecycle said it would continue to work with families who are expected to give birth by the end of January.

    The organization will work with families due after Feb. 1 to identify a new provider and transition their care.

    Lifecycle plans to continue offering limited prenatal, postnatal, and gynecological care through the end of March. The organization will also phase out its mental health and lactation services in February and March.

    “Access to respectful, equitable, community-based care is shrinking for many, particularly for marginalized communities who need it most,” Schwarz said in a statement to The Inquirer. “Our situation reflects a broader reality that the health, safety, and well-being of pregnant people and families is not prioritized within our current payment structures.”

    They did not offer specifics about where existing patients may be able to transfer their care.

    Birth centers are designed as alternatives to hospitals, offering a more natural, “homelike” setting. They have limited pain medications, and patients are typically not connected to fetal monitoring devices, allowing them to move more freely.

    This type of care is only an option for low-risk pregnancies, as birth centers are not licensed to perform c-section operations, and will need to transfer patients to a hospital if there is a serious complication during birth.

    “I felt very much in the arms of a beloved community of people who were really on your side,” said Monica Moran, who delivered her children with the support of Lifecycle midwives in 2007 and 2009.

    Moran, who lives in Havertown, has continued to go to Lifecycle for routine gynecological services and isn’t sure where she will go instead.

    She said she worries for families who were counting on Lifecycle’s providers for a nonhospital delivery.

    Nearby hospitals with labor and delivery services include Bryn Mawr Hospital and Lankenau Medical Center, both of which are owned by Main Line Health.

    The system is “well-positioned and prepared to manage increased patient volume while maintaining our high standards of care,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

    It has already seen an influx of patients since Crozer Health closed earlier this year. Crozer delivered 960 babies in 2024, according to health department records.

  • Pa.’s new budget has financial help for Delco’s Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospitals

    Pa.’s new budget has financial help for Delco’s Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospitals

    Pennsylvania’s new budget has $5 million in supplemental payments for the two Delaware County Hospitals that have seen significant increases in patient volumes since Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital closed in the spring.

    Main Line Health’s Riddle Hospital, near Media, is getting $3 million. The amount for Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic’s Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, in Darby, is $2 million, according to budget documents.

    The $5 million will be doubled by a federal match, said Democratic State Sen. Tim Kearney, who represents part of Delaware County. The $5 million is from a fund used to help hospitals the serve a large number of patients with Medicaid and used to go to Crozer Health, Kearney said Friday.

    Main Line said in a statement Thursday that the money will help it maintain services in the county.

    Pa. lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro have approved a $50.1 billion state budget, officially ending monthslong impasse

    “Since Crozer’s shutdown in April, Riddle’s Emergency Department has experienced an unprecedented surge — 46% more patients than the same period last year, an increase of nearly 4,000 overall,“ the nonprofit said.

    Main Line, which also owns Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, and Paoli Hospital, said it has seen 55,000 patients from the Crozer market — a 15% increase over the same time period last year. That figure includes 8,000 patients who went to a Main Line facility for the first time, the health system said.

    Trinity Health did not respond to a request for comment.

    Shuttered hospitals in limbo

    While Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald have scrambled to accommodate patients who used to rely on Crozer Health, efforts are underway to bring healthcare services back to at least Taylor Hospital in Ridley.

    Local investors bought that facility in September for $1 million and are trying to entice one of the region’s nonprofit health systems to bring it back as a hospital.

    A group from New Jersey called Chariot Allaire Partners LLC has agreed to pay $10 million for the former Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland but has not disclosed its plans. That facility served as a key safety provider for a low-income area of Delaware County.

    A partnership of Restorative Health Foundation and Syan Investments won an auction for Springfield Hospital for $3 million, but it does not have support from township officials.

    Delaware County legislators also obtained $1 million from the state to buy emergency department equipment if one of the closed hospitals, such as Taylor, reopens, Kearney said.

    Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional detail on the funding.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Tracking the sharp drop in Philadelphia health systems’ operating margins after COVID-19

    Tracking the sharp drop in Philadelphia health systems’ operating margins after COVID-19

    The worst of the coronavirus pandemic that started nearly six years ago is well in the past, but Philadelphia’s biggest nonprofit health systems are still contending with the financial disruption unleashed by the virus that led to thousands of deaths in the area.

    Operating conditions for hospitals started improving in 2023, but “the slope of the recovery is a bit more shallow than a lot of health systems had planned for,” said Mark Pascaris, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, one of three major credit ratings agencies.

    Patients have returned, but the pandemic led to a resetting of expenses for labor and supplies at a higher level, Pascaris said. “That’s been the challenge over the last two or three or four years now, trying to manage through a very challenging expense situation,” he said.

    To show how the financial landscape has changed, The Inquirer compiled financial data for the region’s six biggest health systems that have fiscal years ending June 30 each year. The analysis compared average operating profits in three years before the pandemic (fiscal years 2017-19) to the results in most recent three years (fiscal years 2023-25).

    All six systems showed a substantial drop in a measure of earnings that excludes certain accounting expenses and interest costs. This slice of financial results is known as earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization. Abbreviated as EBIDA, it’s a primary indicator watched by influential credit ratings agencies.

    window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});

    The experience of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia clearly illustrates what has happened: The organization’s aggregate revenue in the most recent three fiscal years was 58% higher than it was in the three years that ended June 30, 2019, but its EBIDA climbed only by half a percentage point.

    “Hospitals and healthcare systems across the country continue to face significant headwinds, driven by reimbursement challenges, increased supply and labor costs, uncertain governmental pressures, and the continued ripple effect of the pandemic,” CHOP said in a statement.

    Officials at ChristianaCare, Main Line Health, and Temple University Health System echoed CHOP’s remark.

    “Margins were far better prior to the pandemic, largely due to lower supply and labor costs,” Main Line’s chief financial officer Leigh Ehrlich said. “Those costs rose sharply during the pandemic and continue to rise.”

    How an accounting change boosted one profit measure for three Philadelphia area health systems.

    ChristianaCare’s CFO Rob McMurray noted: Not only have Medicare and Medicaid rates not kept up with inflation, but more people have those government forms of insurance for people 65 and older and for low-income people.

    The nonprofit is expanding from its base in northern Delaware to Southeastern Pennsylvania and is expanding alternative formats, such as hospital-care-at-home and micro hospitals, to reduce costs, McMurray said.

    A significant worry for Temple University Health System is the impact of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, sometimes called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The North Philadelphia nonprofit estimates that Medicaid cuts in that law will cost it $519 million over the next 10 years, said Jerry Oetzel, the system’s CFO.

  • How three Philadelphia-area health systems changed accounting practices and boosted profits

    How three Philadelphia-area health systems changed accounting practices and boosted profits

    Amid persistently higher costs, three Philadelphia-area health systems have cut expenses over the last two years by changing how they account for investments in facilities and equipment. The change significantly boosted operating income in all three cases.

    ChristianaCare and Main Line Health are now spreading the cost of buildings and building improvements over as many as 80 years, they said in their fiscal 2025 audited financial statements. That is double the maximum number of years they previously used to calculate what accountants call depreciation expense. Thomas Jefferson University made a similar change last year.

    All three health systems use PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as their auditor. The firm, which did not respond to a request for comment, also has Philadelphia health-system clients that have not extended their depreciation schedules.

    The term depreciation expense refers to the way hospitals and other businesses allocate the cost of a building, a piece of equipment such as an MRI machine, or even software to manage patient records across the number of years the asset is likely to be used.

    It’s a noncash expense because the money used to make the purchase is recorded elsewhere in the financial statements. Several financial and accounting experts said the change could be seen as cosmetic.

    “It’s not affecting operations. It’s not increasing their revenues. It’s not decreasing their cash expenditures. It is purely a bookkeeping entry,” said Steven Balsam, a professor of accounting at Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

    Main Line Health

    At Main Line, the extended depreciation schedule reduced the expense by an estimated $37.5 million. That helped the system achieve a small, $4 million operating profit for the first time since fiscal 2021, when federal COVID-19 aid buoyed hospitals.

    Without the depreciation savings, Main Line would have had an operating loss of $33.5 million in the year that ended June 30, compared to a $61 million operating loss in fiscal 2024.

    Asked for comment, Main Line’s chief financial officer Leigh Ehrlich noted that the system’s financial performance had improved, thanks to “increased patient volumes and continued focus on expense management.”

    Excluding noncash depreciation and amortization in each of the last two years, Main Line’s operating income improved to $127.8 million from $96.7 million.

    ChristianaCare

    ChristianaCare reviewed the depreciation schedules of fixed assets “as part of our ongoing commitment to maintain accurate and reliable financial reporting,” the nonprofit’s chief financial officer Rob McMurray said in an email. The result was a $24.4 million reduction in depreciation expense.

    The review also resulted in a $9 million write-off of unspecified assets, which meant that in fiscal 2025 the benefit to operating income was $15 million, McMurray said.

    ChristianaCare’s operating income in the year that ended June 30 was $35.5 million, or $20.5 million without the accounting change. The organization had $126.2 million in operating income in fiscal 2024.

    Thomas Jefferson University

    Last year, Thomas Jefferson University opened its $762 million Honickman Center in Philadelphia. Normally, taking a building like that into service would increase depreciation expense.

    Instead, Jefferson’s depreciation expense fell by $68 million, according to its audited financial statement for the year that ended June 30, 2024. The decline happened after Jefferson opted to spread the cost of all buildings and building improvements over as many as 70 years, according to the depreciation schedule in its financial statement.

    Even with the depreciation change, Jefferson’s operating income in fiscal 2024 was extremely narrow, at $1.34 million on nearly $10 billion in revenue that year.

    The benefit of lower depreciation expense continued in fiscal 2025, as it will in future years for ChristianaCare and Main Line.

    Depreciation expense at other local systems

    Most Philadelphia-area health systems use a schedule for depreciating buildings and building improvements that maxes out at 40 years, an Inquirer review of financial statements found.

    “You’re constantly modernizing your facilities to allow for the delivery of medicine based on current times,” Temple University Health System chief financial officer Jerry Oetzel said in an interview. “Who knows 15 years from now? We don’t have clear insight, but it’s probably going to be more home care.”

    That’s why Temple hasn’t adopted a longer depreciation schedule. “It’s just a savings in operating expenses without the benefit of any cash behind it,” Oetzel said.

    Editor’s note: This article has been updated to remove a reference to American Hospital Association guidelines.

  • Medicare coverage for telehealth suspended as result of government shutdown

    Medicare coverage for telehealth suspended as result of government shutdown

    Steve Hirst relies on virtual visits with his urologist, whose office is an hour away from his Broomall home, to stay on top of his treatment plan and renew medications.

    But earlier this month Hirst, 70, got a notice from his doctor’s office informing him that it could no longer schedule telemedicine visits for patients like him who have Medicare because of new federal policy changes.

    Medicare began covering telemedicine services during the COVID-19 pandemic and has maintained the popular offering through temporary waivers approved by Congress since. But the most recent of those waivers expired at the end of September when Congress failed to reach a budget deal and the government shut down.

    The change specifically affects traditional Medicare, which is administered by the government for people 65 and older and some with disabilities. People with Medicare Advantage plans, which are administered by private insurers, should check with their plan.

    Medicare coverage for virtual visits for mental health was made permanent after the pandemic and are not affected by the shutdown.

    Some of the Philadelphia area’s leading health systems, including Temple Health and Penn Medicine, have said they are continuing to provide telehealth services to people with Medicare and temporarily suspending billing for those services, with hope that coverage will be reinstated when a budget deal is eventually reached.

    But smaller provider practices may not have the luxury of delaying payment for thousands of dollars in services for an indefinite period of time.

    With the government shutdown in its third week, Republicans and Democrats seem no closer to reaching a deal. The next vote is scheduled for Monday evening, though no deal is expected.

    Another health policy issue — tax credits for people who buy insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, including Pennie in Pennsylvania — has been a major sticking point in the ongoing federal budget debate. Democrats want the enhanced subsidies extended permanently as part of the budget deal, and Republicans have refused, arguing that lawmakers could address the issue separately, before the subsidies expire at the end of the year.

    Meanwhile, the waiver’s expiration has left Hirst and others who are covered by Medicare unsure how they will access needed health services.

    Here’s what’s new for Medicare in 2026.

    Telehealth’s rise

    Telehealth rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were urged to avoid hospitals unless they were having an emergency and when most routine procedures were canceled.

    The approach was especially helpful to older adults and people with disabilities, who needed to stay in contact with doctors for ongoing treatment and who were considered particularly vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19.

    After the pandemic ended, many private insurers, Medicaid, and Medicare permanently adopted telehealth coverage for certain services, such as mental health, because of its popularity during the pandemic.

    Medicare has used temporary waivers to continue telehealth coverage for other types of doctors’ visits.

    Beyond patient popularity, research has found that telehealth visits can be as effective as in-person visits for certain types of care, such as palliative care for cancer patients, while improving access to patients with transportation challenges.

    Philadelphia health systems respond

    Philadelphia’s largest health systems said they are optimistic that coverage will be reinstated — either by a new temporary waiver or a permanent change — when Congress reaches a new budget agreement and the shutdown ends.

    Temple Health will continue to provide telehealth services to Medicare patients for the next three weeks, in anticipation of Congress reaching a deal.

    Penn Medicine has not billed Medicare patients for telehealth visits since the shutdown began and has paused its process for filing claims until the government reopens, a spokesperson said.

    “Congress has been vocal in its support of telehealth and its value, and we are hopeful that legislation will be passed to ensure permanent Medicare telehealth coverage and flexibilities once the government reopens,” Penn said in a statement.

    Main Line Health has been reaching out to affected patients to help them change previously scheduled virtual visits into in-person appointments or reschedule virtual visits that can be put off.

    Jefferson Health did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

    Patients in limbo

    Hirst drives into Philadelphia to see his urologist in person once a year. Every three months, he has a virtual visit to check in and renew prescriptions.

    Driving to Philadelphia for every appointment would be inconvenient, but Hirst will probably do it “for now,” he said.

    But he worries about older adults and people with disabilities who can’t safely drive to the doctor’s office, and for whom virtual care is a lifeline. They could end up putting themselves or others at risk being on the road when they shouldn’t be. Or they may end up skipping needed care because they don’t have a ride.

    “It makes no sense,” Hirst said.

  • The wooded Malvern-area home of a famous Main Line builder is for sale for nearly $2 million

    The wooded Malvern-area home of a famous Main Line builder is for sale for nearly $2 million

    A Chester County home full of beautiful woodwork and secluded on five acres of land is for sale for nearly $2 million.

    Advertised as the “McElroy House” in an ode to the late builder Robert McElroy, the 4,300-square-foot property near Malvern hit the market last week for $1.99 million.

    This Willistown Township home, for sale for nearly $2 million, was designed by Robert McElroy and has a wing that was devoted to his wife Annamaria’s art studio.

    McElroy, who is credited with building more than 200 homes around the Main Line, designed and built this home for his own family in 1975, according to Marion Dinofa, Compass RE Realtor and modern home specialist.

    Tucked far off Rabbit Run Road in Willistown Township, McElroy’s three-bedroom, 3½-bath home features a contemporary design and floor-to-ceiling windows that let in abundant natural light.

    “I see a lot of really cool houses, but this one, almost more than any other house, is truly like you’re living in a work of art, between the craftsmanship of the woodworking, the views through the windows that are ever changing with the seasons, and the design of the home itself,” Dinofa said.

    Wooden details make Robert McElroy’s former home in Willistown Township unique, said Realtor Marion Dinofa.

    Almost every piece of wood in the home was crafted by Horace Hartshaw, who collaborated with the renowned sculptural furniture maker Wharton Esherick. This includes everything from the wood doors to the custom kitchen cabinets to the staircases, including a spiral one at its center.

    McElroy wasn’t the only artist who resided in the home: His wife, Annamaria, a painter and sculptor, also left her mark, showcasing her artwork on the walls and using a wing of the home as her studio.

    Dinofa noted that the house also includes a detached two-story garage that could be converted into more creative space.

    The secluded home features custom wood features that were crafted by renowned artist Horace Hartshaw and lots of windows.

    Between Robert’s vision and Annamaria’s artistic touches, their home “was a labor of love,” Dinofa said. “And it’s really well preserved. You can tell it hasn’t changed much.”

    Annamaria and Robert lived at the home into their 90s, Dinofa said. They died in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Dinofa said the home is being sold by their daughter, Loretta.

    Dinofa said she could see the property being bought by artists or by adventurous young parents who want to raise their children amid nature.

    “It would be such a fun place for kids to play outside,” with a stream in the backyard and plenty of space to run around, Dinofa said. “I can only imagine the wildlife that they have viewed from that house.”

  • Plan to turn Pennhurst site into massive data center outrages neighbors

    Plan to turn Pennhurst site into massive data center outrages neighbors

    Megan Heiken recently bought a home near the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital, once a center for people with developmental disabilities that now operates as a popular haunted Halloween attraction.

    A new plan to convert Pennhurst into a massive data center has outraged and mobilized local residents, as well as people in neighboring communities in an area known for rolling hills, farms, and an overall rural character.

    Heiken launched an online petition urging her Chester County neighbors and East Vincent Township officials to “work together toward a solution that preserves the Pennhurst property, honors its history, and protects the environment and quality of life for all who live, work and visit here.”

    The petition had 1,825 signatures as of Friday.

    “I made this move to be out in an area with more space, more nature,” Heiken said. “The fact that the owner just wants to plow it over and swap in a data center is kind of alarming.”

    Her sentiments are widely shared. The board of supervisors and planning commission in East Vincent have hosted public meetings on the issue that stretched for hours as residents from Spring City to Pottstown voiced objections.

    Data centers require a large-scale way of cooling computing equipment and are often dependent on water to do that. The amount of water they use can be about the same as an average large office building, although a few require substantially more, according to a recent report from Virginia, which has become a data center hub.

    Steve Hacker, of East Vincent, told the board that his well had already gone dry, as has his neighbor’s, even before a data center has been built. He’s concerned about where the data center would get its water.

    The pushback comes as both President Donald Trump and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro champion data center development. Trump aims to fast-track data centers and exempt them from some environmental regulations. Shapiro promotes a 10-year plan that includes cutting regulatory “red tape.”

    A Main Line developer is planning an AI data center outside Conshohocken. Within days, neighbors have rallied against it.

    State legislators and local governments are scrambling to rewrite local laws as most have no local zoning to accommodate data centers or regulate them.

    window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});

    1.3 million square feet

    Pennhurst‘s owner has not yet filed a formal application to develop the site, but an engineering firm has submitted a sketch of a preliminary plan to East Vincent Township to develop 125 acres for use as a data center.

    The land is owned by Pennhurst Holdings LLC, whose principal is Derek Strine.

    Strine deferred comment to a spokesperson, Kevin Feeley.

    “Pennhurst AI is aware of the concerns expressed by the residents of East Vincent Township, and we are committed to working through the Township to address them,” Feeley wrote in an email. “What we propose is a facility that would be among the first of its kind in the United States: a state-of-the-art data center project that would address environmental concerns while also providing significant economic investment, jobs, and tax rateables as well as other benefits that would directly address the needs of the community.”

    Feeley said Pennhurst AI plans to continue “working cooperatively with the Township.”

    The sketch calls for five, two-story data center buildings, a sixth building, an electrical substation, and a solar field. Together, the buildings to house data operations would total more than 1.3 million square feet.

    The plan states that a data center is an allowable use within the Pennhurst property because the land is zoned for industrial, mixed-use development. Township officials have agreed a data center would be allowed under that zoning.

    The grounds are bordered by Pennhurst Road to the west. The Schuylkill lies down a steep gorge to the east and north. The property is near the border of Spring City, which is just to the south.

    A view of the entrance to the Halloween attraction at the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital grounds in East Vincent Township, Chester County.

    What’s Pennhurst?

    Pennhurst State School and Hospital, known today as Pennhurst Asylum for its Halloween attraction, has had a long and troubled history. It opened in 1908 to house individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It became severely overcrowded by the time it closed in 1987.

    A 1968 documentary Suffer the Little Children highlighted abusive and neglectful practices, and resulted in legal actions and a landmark disability rights ruling in 1978 that declared conditions as “cruel and unusual punishment.”

    The last patient left Pennhurst in 1987, and the facility sat abandoned until it was purchased in 2008 and converted into a Halloween attraction despite protests from various advocacy groups.

    Pennhurst Asylum haunted house draws criticism every Halloween. A group of disabled actors running the show says there is more to the story.

    The Halloween attraction has continued and operators say it shows sensitivity toward those once housed at Pennhurst. Separately, visitors can take historical tours of the exteriors of 16 buildings and learn about people who lived and worked there. The site also has a small Pennhurst history museum.

    A view of the vacant buildings on the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital grounds in East Vincent Township, Chester County.

    Contentious meetings

    In recent months, East Vincent officials have raced to draft an ordinance that would govern data centers by limiting building heights, mandating buffers, requiring lighting, noting the amount of trees that can be cut down, and other restrictions.

    At two contentious meetings in September, residents and the board of supervisors argued about the draft ordinance’s specifics. Residents said the ordinance did not incorporate some community-suggested safeguards aimed at preserving the township’s rural character.

    Residents asked how much water the data center would consume, how much power it would need, and how much noise it would generate.

    Pennhurst’s zoning was changed in 2012 from allowing only residential development to permitting industrial and mixed-use buildings. Township Solicitor Joe Clement told residents that it is difficult for the municipality to argue that a data center would not fit within that zone.

    “If there’s a use that is covered by the zoning ordinance, we can’t stop that use,” board vice chair Mark Brancato explained at a Sept. 18 meeting.

    Officials said the draft ordinance was not specifically aimed at the Pennhurst site but was meant to broadly govern any data centers proposed in the township.

    Dave McCormick, Donald Trump announce billions in AI and energy investments in Pa. at innovation summit: ‘The nation’s future depends on us’

    “What we’re trying to do is to come up with a set of reasonable guidelines, guardrails, and conditions in the new zoning ordinance that will … provide as much protection as we possibly can for the residents,” Brancato said. ”We are committed to protecting and preserving the rural character of the township.”

    Township meetings, some of which have lasted hours, have been marked by raised voices and emotional appeals.

    “Our whole community is kind of anxious about the thought of this new data center,” Gabrielle Gehron, of Spring City, said during one meeting. “I’m confused about whether we are or not doing something to prevent that from happening.”

    Pa. State Rep. Paul Friel, and State Sen. Katie Muth, both Democrats from East Vincent, have spoken at meetings. Muth noted that Strine received a $10 million grant and loan package from the state in 2017 to prepare the site for “a large distribution facility” and other industrial structures, new office development, and the renovation of six existing buildings for additional commercial use, amid ample open space, according to a funding request provided by the governor’s office.

    Muth fears Strine is paving a path to clear the data center for development and sell the property — after benefiting from tax dollars.

    “These are not good things to live next to,” Muth said of data centers.

    The board tabled the draft ordinance on Sept. 22 after receiving legal advice that they still had time to incorporate more residents’ concerns.

    Beyond Pennhurst

    Other municipalities in Pennsylvania face a similar issue: Most don’t have existing zoning for data centers. However, state law mandates that municipalities must provide zoning for all uses of land — just as state and federal officials are ramping up plans to embrace the centers.

    Plymouth Township is dealing with pressure as Brian J. O’Neill, a Main Line developer, wants to turn the Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill into a 2 million-square-foot data center that would span 10 existing buildings. The Plymouth Township Planning Commission voted against the project given resident backlash. The plan goes to the zoning board later this month.

    And Covington and Clifton Townships in Lackawanna County in the Poconos are also dealing with zoning issues and widespread opposition regarding a plan to build a data center on 1,000 acres.