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The proposed project links potential payments in Hazle Township to property disputes next door. Amazon says it has no definitive agreement with the developer.
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Power delivery and local permitting now sit at the center of NorthPoint Development’s proposed Project Hazelnut: Sugarloaf residents filed 20 formal protests against the utility over the high-voltage line, while Pennsylvania’s August 2026 order removed data centers from fast-track permitting and gave local agencies approval authority. Emails obtained through public-records requests identified Amazon as a potential end user, but Amazon says it is evaluating sites and has no definitive agreement with NorthPoint. The project is tied to a proposed $165 million investment, but its customer and local approvals remain unsettled.
NorthPoint sent letters offering each of Hazle Township’s 4,500 residents a potential $10,000 payment in exchange for permission to build.
About 30 properties in neighboring Sugarloaf Township faced potential eminent domain for the proposed high-voltage line.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said conversations with neighbors and developers highlighted electricity access as a problem for some developers.
Opposition to a proposed Pennsylvania data center has spread beyond its construction site to the power line needed to serve it. Residents have filed 20 formal protests against the utility, Fortune reported October 11, as NorthPoint Development seeks permission for a 1,300-acre project tied to a proposed $165 million investment in Hazle Township.
The dispute brings together two neighboring communities with different stakes in the same development, called Project Hazelnut. Over the summer, NorthPoint sent letters offering each of Hazle Township’s 4,500 residents a potential $10,000 payment in exchange for permission to build. In nearby Sugarloaf Township, about 30 properties faced threats of eminent domain over a proposed high-voltage line that would supply the facility.
Sugarloaf residents formed the Alliance to Stop the Line and lodged their protests over concerns about health and property costs.
Annie Vinatieri, a Sugarloaf protester interviewed by Fortune, described opponents as a mix of working-, middle- and upper-class residents. She said the group was mostly white but nonpartisan, and included people new to environmental protests.
It’s invigorating, in the sense that you’re meeting people who might not be like-minded on a lot of things, but it feels for so many people like this a righteous cause.
Annie Vinatieri, Sugarloaf Township protester, speaking to Fortune
Residents also pursued right-to-know requests to identify the project’s intended customer. Emails obtained through those requests identified Amazon as the end user, according to Fortune.
An Amazon spokesperson told Fortune the company was evaluating multiple sites across Pennsylvania and had no definitive agreement with NorthPoint.
The project’s policy backdrop has changed since Gov. Josh Shapiro announced it in November 2024, following an executive order that fast-tracked permitting. After public pushback over developments in Hazle Township and surrounding areas, Shapiro signed an August 2026 order removing data centers from fast-track permitting and giving local agencies approval authority.
Shapiro told CBS News Philadelphia in September that conversations with neighbors and developers had exposed a problem: some developers disrupting communities did not have access to power. His explanation put electricity supply alongside community objections as a reason for reconsidering the permissive approach.
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