Muncy Township working to amend zoning ordinance with focus on data centers before it’s too late

PENNSDALE -- As the clock ticks, the Muncy Township Planning Commission is busy working on putting together a curative amendment for their zoning ordinance that will address the

construction of data centers in the township.

Between now and a tentative date of Dec. 9 when the amendment could be adopted, the commission has to decide what to include in the amendment, such as conditions that would be placed on any proposed data centers.

At the planning commission's meeting prior to the board meeting, Larry Spatz, chairman of the planning commission, said that he had used ChatGPT to provide the framework for the curative amendment, although he wanted to continue working on it and getting input from other sources.

Spatz also commented that the next meeting of the commission, Aug. 12, would be a work session and would not be open to the public because no votes would be taken.

The Sun-Gazette has contacted the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association's media legal counsel, Melissa Melewsky who wrote, "The Sunshine Act requires public meetings anytime an agency, like a Planning Commission, takes official action OR deliberates agency business. The fact that the commission doesn't plan to vote is irrelevant. If there is a quorum of the commission discussing agency business, like data center regulation, the law requires they do so at a properly advertised public meeting. The law guarantees the public's right to witness and participate at all stages of policy formation, not just the end vote."

Following the supervisors' meeting the Sun-Gazette reporter had spoken with the board solicitor Joe Orso, of Rudinski, Orso and Associates, raising an objection to Spatz's statement, but later that evening the Planning Commission had posted on the township website stating: "Next meeting on August 12, 2026, at 7:00 PM is for work session only and will NOT be open to public," which, according to Melewsky, would be in violation of the Sunshine Act.