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The two Lancaster County-based farming companies seeking to construct chicken barns for laying eggs and a solar array in Muncy Creek Township have filed an appeal with Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas on land use granted by Muncy Creek Township supervisors.
Sunny Side Up Farms LLC, the landowner, and Bollinger Solar LLC, filed appeals within a 30-day appeal limit on the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) and solar applications for the 164.43 acres of property at 5117 Clarkstown Road.
Supervisors' decision was issued following a public meeting on July 9, giving the time to appeal to the court 30 days from that time. This appeal was filed in early August.
The applicants submitted two separate and distinct applications to the township on Jan. 29, 2025. The case on appeal is before county Judge William P. Carlucci. A grassroots citizens' organization, Muncy Area Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, has filed a notice to intervene in the appeal. Tyler R. Beaston of Salzmann Hughes, represents Bollinger Solar. Sunny Side Up Farms is represented by Samuel E. Wiser Jr., also with Salzmann Hughes. The coalition's attorney is Zachary DuGan of the firm Perciballi & Williams. The township board is represented by Solicitor J. Michael Wiley of McCormick Law Offices.
The two applications are governed by different ordinance and legal standards. The solar application involved a use not provided for under the zoning ordinance. The CAFO is a use expressly permitted by conditional use in the agriculture and conservation district.
For the majority of the 18 public hearings held on conditional use the issues were separately heard.
Notwithstanding the separate and distinct nature of the two applications, the board "merged" the two applications for purposes of its decision, according to the appeal.
The appellants' have argued that the board used evidence and asserted impacts attributable to one application to deny, in part, and to condition the other, and imposed "cumulative" conditions that bind the two uses to one another.
"The board committed an error of law and abused its discretion by conflating the two applications and by cross-conditioning each approval upon the impacts of the other, according to the appellants.
After the hearings, held between April 16, 2025 and May 27, the board voted 2-0 at public meetings held June 25 and July 9 to grant applications subject to 40 conditions.
Notably, the board approved three of the five proposed barns, each barn holding approximately 70,000 chickens, and refused two barns proposed in the southern portion of the site. One of those on the solar portion was the board refused approval of any portion of that facility proposed within the residentially zoned portion of the property.
Before the conditions were set, the project proposed 350,000 free-range chickens in five barns and a solar array on the property between Fogelman and Muncy Exchange roads. The CAFO would be located across the street from many township homes and properties, and less than a mile from the borough of Muncy and Ward L. Myers Elementary School caused those at the hearings to express concerns about their health and welfare from disease-borne illness, loss of natural habitat for bats that eat insects, nuisance from flies, dust and airborne particles, concerns on well water draw and potential contamination of water supplies from manure, safety from glare of the solar panels for motorists on roadways, truck traffic from transporting eggs and chickens, and, overall, diminished property values.