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PENNSDALE -- In an effort to alleviate their fears Solicitor Joe Orso told those at the Muncy Township Supervisors' meeting this week that because of the legal battles and new restrictions placed on data centers by the state he doesn't see a data center in the township in the next 10 years.
"There's a lawsuit in which the township is in, pending in Commonwealth Court fighting the constitutionality of the deemed approval statute, which is, as you know, with the data center, that's one of the arguments that the developer has been relying on, the deemed approval process," Orso, of Rudinski, Orso and Associates said.
The township had joined the lawsuit along with residents Sean and Rae-Ellah Tetreault and Dewey Waugh and Maya van Rossum, founder of the organization in Bucks County that had filed the appeal.
"That process, now in Commonwealth Court, provides for an automatic appeal to the Supreme Court. We're talking five years. Five years until that litigation is resolved. So, with the new requirements that the state put on for DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) approval of data centers, I don't see a data center here in the next 10 years. I just don't see it because of all the constitutional arguments, and then getting all the approvals that they need because the state significantly changed the approval process recently," he said.
Orso explained that a developer cannot get DEP approval unless there is a final plan ready to go, which he contended, DANKO Holdings, IILP/Fishlips LLC, the developer of the proposed data center in the township, does not have.
"Litigation moves slowly, and this whole data center process is moving slowly outside us. We have our ordinance proposal. We're going to have public comment on that next month, and then we're scheduled for adoption in December. So the board will hear the public comment, consider any changes that are recommended. We sent it to the county planning and our local planning, who basically wrote the ordinance in the first place," Orso said.
The hearing on the data center ordinance is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Township Building.
Although the board meetings have drastically cooled down from the heated back and forth rhetoric earlier this year, the data center issue still elicited a passionate plea from resident Karin Waugh to consider the right of the people to have clean air and water as stated in the state's constitution and the duty of elected officials to protect those rights.
"This constitutional obligation requires you, the township supervisors, to do a full and fair review of the environmental consequences, including noise, air pollution, water use, energy, loss of land and historic beauty, before any decisions are made," Waugh said.
In crafting the new data center ordinance, the township's planning commission included many of Waugh's concerns to come up with a 20-page document, which commission chair Larry Spatz called "very good."
"We're going from nothing to something pretty good," Spatz said, adding, "This is the best we can do."
The ordinance was necessary because there was nothing in the township's zoning ordinance specifically addressing data centers. Once the planning commission finished their work, the ordinance was reviewed by the solicitor, the codes officer and the township engineer. The document is now posted on the township's website.
In other business, on the recommendation of the planning commission, the board: granted conditional approval to the WAWA subdivision subject to engineer and codes review; approved the Colburn family trust subdivision; conditional approval of the Spring Farm lot 10 subdivision; and approved the Fry family trust continent upon receiving a variance or complying with zoning due to insufficient acreage.
The board approved court reimbursement pay for the supervisors for the time they missed work in order to appear in court.
Approval was given by the board to close part of Village Road for a trunk or treat event being held in conjunction with Geisinger, Wolf Run Veterinary Clinic and the Pennsdale Fire Company from 6:30 yo 8:30 p.m. Oct. 28.
With the completion and opening of the Chik-fil-A at Lycoming Crossings, the board approved releasing the bond of credit for the project.
Other agenda items approved were: naming Denise Artley as a point-of-contact for the QuickBooks program; appointing Dan Cotner to the Zoning Hearing Board; and seeking a bid for a boom mower.