86-year-old Pennsylvania farmer turns down $15.7 million data-centre offer, takes $1.9 million to keep his 261 acres as farmland

In the United States, opposition to data centres has been growing as communities grapple with their demands for land, electricity and water. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that just 14% of Americans would support a data centre being built in their community to support artificial intelligence projects for technology companies such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Elon Musk's xAI.

Amid the growing debate, an 86-year-old Pennsylvania farmer made a remarkable decision.

Farmer Mervin Raudabaugh reportedly turned down an offer of about $15.7 million from data-centre developers for his land. Instead, he accepted roughly $1.9 million to permanently give up the right to develop his 261 acres, allowing him to retain the property and continue farming it.


The unusual decision took place in Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County, where data-centre developers were reportedly interested in transforming the farmland into an industrial campus.

The reported developer offer amounted to about $60,000 per acre, or roughly $15.66 million for 261 acres.

But Raudabaugh did not sell the farms.

He sold something else: the development rights.

He kept the land — and the farm

Through a local agricultural preservation program, Raudabaugh received nearly $1.9 million for a permanent conservation easement.

The arrangement means he continues to own the property. He can farm it, pass it on to his heirs, mortgage it or eventually sell it.

What he cannot do is convert the land into the commercial, industrial or residential development prohibited by the easement.

In simple terms, Raudabaugh was paid to permanently remove ordinary development from the list of possible future uses for his land.

The preservation payment worked out to roughly $7,200 per acre, far below the reported $60,000-per-acre figure associated with the proposed data-centre development.

Yet the conservation deal offered something the larger developer offer could not: the ability to keep his land and continue farming it.

Why would a data centre want farmland?

Modern data centres require enormous amounts of physical infrastructure.

They need large, contiguous sites, high-capacity electricity connections, cooling systems, fibre-optic routes, access roads and enough construction space to support facilities at campus scale.

That can make rural property near suitable infrastructure extremely valuable to developers.

For a farmer, however, the value of the same land can be measured very differently.

Raudabaugh's decision effectively separated the two values.

He gave up the possibility of future development while retaining ownership of the land itself.

The $1.9 million came through a voter-backed preservation program

Silver Spring Township voters established the farmland-preservation route through a 2013 referendum, dedicating a portion of the township's earned-income tax to protecting farmland, forests and open space.

The township partnered with the Lancaster Farmland Trust to administer the preservation program and hold and enforce the easements.

For Raudabaugh's farms, the township offered the appraised value of the conservation easement, along with an additional $2,500-per-acre incentive.

The properties were officially preserved on December 30, 2025.

The two contiguous farms cover about 261 acres and produce cash crops. Together, they also expand a larger block of protected land in the area that includes previously preserved farms, Stony Ridge Park and land associated with the Appalachian Trail.

Since 2014, the local program had protected more than 1,384 acres across 23 properties.

The decision lasts beyond one lifetime

A conservation easement is more than a promise made by the current owner.

It is recorded with the property's deed and remains attached to the land when ownership changes.

That means if Raudabaugh eventually sells the farms or passes them on to his heirs, the development restrictions remain in place.

The land can continue to be privately owned and farmed, but a future owner cannot simply repay the preservation money and turn the property back into an unrestricted development site.

That permanence is the central feature of the arrangement.

Raudabaugh effectively chose $1.9 million and permanent farmland over a reported $15.7 million development opportunity — without giving up ownership of the land.

For communities facing pressure from the rapid expansion of data-centre infrastructure, the deal illustrates a growing tension.

The same rural acres can represent valuable agricultural land to one side and a potentially multimillion-dollar development site to another.

In this case, the 86-year-old farmer chose to preserve the land rather than cash in on its potential as a data-centre site.