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The proposed data center project in Muncy Township is starting to get tied up in the courts.
Since April 28, it has been widely reported that Danko Holdings II LP and Fishlips LLC. have applied for conditional use for three data center buildings, two 14-pod facilities, one eight-pod facility, water storage tanks, a water treatment facility, a substation, and auxiliary structures near Yetter Road and John Brady Drive.
In July, however, when the township had not held a conditional use hearing within 60 days of the developer filing April 28, nor rendered a determination on the data center application materials based on procedural steps the municipality was pursuing regarding data center applications, notice was published that the developer's application was "deemed approved" by virtue of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, or what is essentially state law authorizing and overseeing local land use decision making.
When the developer filed the application, the board of supervisors initially denied that there had been an application for a data center and a moratorium on them in the township was passed.
As for deemed approval, not so fast, contends Green Amendments for the Generations, a Bristol-based environmental organization that filed an appeal this past Friday in Commonwealth Court.
"The asserted approval of a data center in Muncy Township is an intentional effort to strip the rights of our residents by a developer without regard for the community being invaded," said Maya van Rossum, founder of the organization in Bucks County that filed the appeal.
"State sanctioned deemed approval of data centers and other projects turns state law on its head; rather than protecting the health, safety, and welfare of our people, it now serves the purely profit goals and business objectives of corporations, big business and now AI companies," the organization said in a news release.
The petitioners are listed as John Schaeffer, as a member of Green Amendments for the Generations and an individual, Sean Tetreault, as a member and an individual, Daniel Waugh, as a member and an individual, Rae-Ellah Tetreault, Muncy Township and the Muncy Township Board of Supervisors.
Dewey and Karin Waugh, who are area residents, also believe the supposed "deemed approval" and the idea of giving data centers deemed approval under state code is unconstitutional and violates environmental rights and due process protections.
Further, with the proposed data center, the residents within the township "will have their clean air, pure water, and the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and esthetic values of their environment corrupted by this developer forever," Dewey Waugh said. "The deemed approval took away our rights to protect our community from this proposed data Center," he said.
"The noise and pollution from a data center will be a constant disruption to our otherwise peaceful township -- a township of farms, historic homes and barns, and an historic Quaker Friends Meetinghouse," he added. "Our wells and river will be affected by the massive water usage."
"This small township is not the place for a data center," added Karin Waugh.
"Data centers are wreaking havoc on our communities and environment, inflicting massive
development, water use, noise, light, vibration and pollution impacts on the communities where we live and the nature we need and enjoy," van Rossum said.
"While we have repeatedly seen the data center companies use state and federal law to advance their projects regardless of local community wishes, today we the people are using our state and federal constitutions to defend the environmental and due process rights of the people, standing in our own defense when faced with the cataclysmic consequences of a data center," she added.
"Unless an extension is granted by the applicant, the MPC includes prescribed time limitations for local government to hold hearings, undertake its own reviews and to enter final decision-making," she said.
"A state law that deems a data center, or other serious development proposals, approved, regardless of its size or impact, without the opportunity for communities to be heard and local government officials to be meaningfully engaged, is a clear overreach of constitutional proportions," she said.