PENNSDALE – As they work to get a data center ordinance drafted, the Muncy Township Planning Commission is seeking to get the okay from township leaders to hire a data center lawyer to help with the process.

Residents attending this week’s meeting seemed in favor of bringing a lawyer on board to give the commission instruction and advice on how to craft an ordinance which will legally restrict where data centers can build in the township.

“I totally support a lawyer who specializes in this kind of law. Who knows their zoning; who maybe has data center experiences. Who has big development project experience,” said township resident Amy Ruth-Swart.

“We really need that and I know that’s not easy to find locally, so we have to branch out, but for the record I do support that,” she added.

Although there were fewer people at the meeting, several of those who were there were residents whose properties will be directly impacted if a data center moves next door.

Beth George is one of those residents who lives on Yetter Road near the possible site of a data center in the township.

At last week’s meeting township engineer Dan Vassallo said that by putting a number of conditions on the construction of ;a project, a developer will realize that it’s not in their best interest to proceed. George detailed at this week’s meeting all the conditions she feels should be put on data centers in hopes that they will just give up building in the township.

Commission chairman Larry Spatz cautioned that conditions in the ordinance have to be reasonable.

“I’m sure your interpretation of reasonable is different than theirs,” Spatz told George.

He urged residents to go online and check out ordinances from other municipalities to see how they handled the issue.

Referring to some that he had found, Spatz said, “Most of these towns are doing anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 feet setback. We can ask for 2,500. It’s too much. It’s unreasonable. Their lawyer is going to shoot that down.”

“We have to find a reasonable number,” he added.

Spatz explained that the commission has to remain neutral during the process of writing an ordinance.

“We have to come up with an ordinance for this town and it has to be the best that we can do. We have to come up with ideas for an ordinance… then we have to give it to a lawyer who knows what he’s doing and put it in the right context,” he said.

“As residents it’s important that we ask you what you want in there and we have to all be reasonable. That’s the main thing. We can’t be too far off from everybody else,” he said.

The commission also brought up that one of the conditions could be to require a buffer around the data center, such as planting trees around the structure. They also noted that because of the limitations of the township fire equipment, buildings constructed for a data center couldn’t be over two stories in height.

Earlier this year the township had passed a six-month moratorium on the construction of data centers in the community, an action which some say is unenforceable, so basically the clock is ticking for the commission to complete the work of drafting an ordinance.

Spatz announced that at their next meeting, 7 p.m. July 15, Rep. Joe Hamm will be on hand to report on the bills that are moving through the state legislature regarding a state moratorium on data centers. That meeting will be held at the Township Municipal Building, 1922 Pond Road.