Meet the ‘mini Erin Brockoviches’ fighting off eminent domain—and the shadow of Amazon—as a data center hands out $10,000 to their neighbors

Erika Cook knew about NorthPoint Development’s plans for a 1,300-acre data center years before Hazle Township residents received a letter in the mail in June, outlining a potential $10,000 payday for eligible households who agreed to the data center’s construction. Receiving the money was contingent upon the residents of the rural Pennsylvania region at the foot of the Poconos allowing the developer to build a 15-building campus, dubbed Project Hazelnut. NorthPoint’s proposal to Hazle Township was a $165 million investment in the area, which beyond the payout for “eligible households” in the township’s 4,500-property township, also included funding for a local police department, according to the letter to residents viewed by Fortune. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the $10,000 incentive, which would only be paid once the first building of the data center campus is complete, and which was largely rejected by the township’s residents. In their efforts to combat Project Hazelnut,…