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Two Muncy Township residents have filed an appeal against conditional use approval of a data center proposed in April in the township next to their home.
Rae-Ellah B. and Sean S. Tetreault filed in Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas against Muncy Township supervisors and DANKO Holdings II, LP/FISHLIPS, LLC.
The filing is identified as a notice of land use appeal pursuant to the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.
The plaintiffs are challenging the deemed approval of a conditional use application for a data center facility and related landowner curative zoning amendment.
The couple say they reside near the facility, with their property adjoined and would be directly impacted by the proposed development, the filing asserts.
The couple claim the township failed to hold a public hearing or act upon the developer's conditional use application and related curative zoning amendment within the mandatory 60-day period under state code.
They claim the township also failed to advertise deemed approval within 10 days of the township's failure to hold a public hearing.
The developer published a public notice of deemed approval in the newspaper of record.
The proposed data center use, the couple claim, would directly compromise their property values, safety, quiet enjoyment, and use of land by threatening to introduce "unmitigated industrial noise, extreme electrical grid loads, and massive cooling-water consumption," which satisfies the appellant's "aggrieved party status" under a section of the state code.
The couple also claim there has been an absolute failure to hold statutory hearings, or basically a procedural defect.
The couple further claim that there's been a violation of the procedural due process rights of neighboring landowners.
The couple asserts that to the extent that a deemed approval occurred, it constitutes an abuse of discretion and error of law.
They say a curative amendment is intended to cure an exclusionary zoning gap.
The couple says in the suit that because the township lacks basic zoning protections for a data center use at this site, the developers proposed amendment represents unconstitutional spot zoning or a predatory development plan.
Such a plan, they say, includes zoning provisions drafted by the developer with insufficient restrictions to protect the health and safety of neighboring residents, including but not limited to noise thresholds.
They've asked the court to reverse and set aside the deemed approval of the developer's conditional use application and related landowner, curative zoning amendment or, in the alternative, they'd like the court to remand the matter back to the township board of supervisors with an order, instructing them to make an evidentiary record, hold full public hearings and impose strict protective conditions, regulating noise, setbacks and water consumption to protect the surrounding community.
The developer submitted the conditional-use application in late April, hours before the township supervisors voted to pass a temporary nine-month moratorium on high-intensity data centers.
The case is before Judge William P. Carlucci. The developer is challenging the appeal.