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PENNSDALE -- Facing the challenge of crafting a curative amendment to the township's zoning ordinance to address data centers, the Muncy Township Planning Commission met this week to begin the process.
For over two hours the group looked over data center ordinances from other municipalities in order to find a formula that would be restrictive enough but not too much in order to fulfill the letter of the law which prohibits the exclusion of data centers entirely in the township.
The commission is in a race against time to enact the curative amendment as a proposal for a data center has already been received from DANKO Holdings II/Fishlips LLC, a matter which could be headed to litigation.
Once the curative amendment is completed and a hearing held, plans are to have it approved on Dec. 9.
Also present at the meeting was the township engineer, Dan Vassallo, who advised the commission on several of the conditions they were considering attaching to the amendment.
Conditions discussed included: where a data center could be located within the township; the height of the building in order to accommodate emergency services; noise levels; light levels; setbacks; buffers; water usage; and decommissioning to name a few of the topics that need to be addressed in the document.
"The reason why you are doing a data center ordinance is because right now we have no designated area to put them in," Vassallo said.
He told the group that currently if someone wanted to construct a data center in the township, they would be denied a zoning permit and then they would apply for a conditional use.
"But, they can put it anywhere in the township. So, the reason why you're doing this is to say this is the only place you can put it at. You can't put it in the rest of the township," Vassallo said.
The area where the DANKO data center is proposed is in an industrial zone in the township along Yetter Road.
During the session, there were several items which the commission agreed should be reviewed by the township solicitor to see if restrictions such as requiring a data center to use a closed loop system for water usage could be a condition.
The commission will meet Wednesday at 7 p.m.to continue their work on refining their work in order to move forward with the curative amendment to the township's zoning ordinance.
At this month's township supervisor's meeting, Joe Orso, of Rudinski, Orso and Associates, the solicitor, laid out the timeline for approval of the ordinance. By Oct. 4,it has to be referred to the township and county planning commissions and a public hearing will then be tentatively scheduled for Nov. 4 and then the final approval in December, in order to fit within the timeframe of the Municipalities Planning Code.