Data centers join Archbald to defend zoning against residents’ appeal

Three data center developers joined Archbald to defend the borough’s data center zoning ordinance against a group of residents appealing the legislation.

Developers affiliated with data center proposals along Business Route 6, Eynon Jermyn Road and the Casey Highway filed petitions in Lackawanna County Court in January and February to intervene against a land use appeal from residents seeking to invalidate Archbald’s data center zoning amendment over alleged procedural issues.

Attorney Donald G. Karpowich filed the land use appeal against Archbald Borough Council on Dec. 23, requesting that the court deem the ordinance void from the beginning, invalid and of no force or effect.

Attorneys on behalf of the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus, Archbald I LLC and Project Green join Archbald in its defense of the appeal, which Karpowich filed on behalf of residents Phillip Sardo, Jack and Amy Swingle, Marilyn Jones, Robert and Phyliss Paone, Joseph Sabia and Justin Healey. Every appellant except Healey, who lives on North Main Street, resides on North or South Cougar Drive in a housing development off Eynon Jermyn Road, less than a mile from proposed data centers, including Archbald I LLC’s.

All three data centers that intervened received favorable zoning designations in the zoning ordinance by receiving data center overlay designations that allowed data centers as conditional uses on their property.

Archbald Borough Council adopted a data center zoning ordinance with a 4-2 vote during a packed Nov. 24 meeting, defining and regulating data centers by tying conditions to their approval in multiple overlay districts throughout the town.

It amended Archbald’s March 2023 zoning ordinance that had principally permitted data centers in large sections of the borough without defining them or providing additional safeguards. The zoning amendment restricted data centers as conditional uses in four overlay districts, requiring developers to attend a public hearing and adhere to conditions established by the town before council considers approving their requests.

The ordinance allows data centers as conditional uses in four data center overlays. They are:

• Hundreds of acres along Business Route 6 and Route 247, which are zoned for conservation and medium/high-density residential uses. This is the site of the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus.

• The wooded area immediately north of the Archbald Pothole State Park and Staback Park along Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road. This is Archbald I LLC’s 18-building data center campus.

• A narrow L-shaped band on the outskirts of Stavola Silverbrook Land LLC’s mining land along the Casey Highway near Aylesworth Park. This is Project Green.

• Industrial land along Power Boulevard and in the Valley View Business Park.

However, the residents challenging the ordinance argue in their appeal that the legislation does not adequately protect them because it “increases building heights and decibel levels; allows data center development in areas where they would not otherwise be allowed; increased allowable impervious coverage; and exempts the development of data centers from the steep slope requirements under the Archbald Borough Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance.”

The appeal further argues that council failed to strictly comply with the procedural requirements in the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, or MPC, and its own zoning ordinance.

Borough Solicitor James J. O’Connor denied those contentions in a Jan. 16 response. O’Connor additionally contended that the residents lack standing because they “failed to establish, and cannot establish, that reliance on the validity of the decision challenged in this matter has resulted, or could result, in a use of property that directly affects Appellants’ substantial property rights.”

O’Connor called the filing frivolous and said in his response that the ordinance and all procedural steps “fully and strictly complied” with the state’s procedural requirements under the MPC.

Less than a week after O’Connor’s response, Green Mountain 6 LLC filed a notice of intervention dated Jan. 20 and received on Jan. 21, joining the appeal as it seeks to build seven two-story, 138,000-square-foot data centers on nearly 271 acres currently owned by the Stavola Quarry just off the Casey Highway and less than a mile from Lackawanna County’s Aylesworth Park.

The Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus then joined the legal battle with its own petition to intervene dated Jan. 21. Attorney Edmund J. Campbell Jr., who represented Wildcat Ridge during a recent conditional use hearing in Archbald, filed a petition to intervene last month, which none of the other attorneys objected to, according to a Feb. 2 filing from Campbell. Campbell represents Cornell Realty Management LLC — the Brooklyn-based firm listed on Wildcat Ridge’s application in Archbald — as well as Wildcat Realty Holdings LLC and Pine Hill Dream LLC, according to the filing.

Wildcat Realty Holdings and Pine Hill Dream are under contract to buy the data center land, according to Campbell’s petition.

Campbell also responded to the appeal in another Feb. 2 filing, asking the court to dismiss the appeal and award attorneys’ fees, costs and any other relief. Like Archbald’s response, Campbell contended the residents lack standing, calling their appeal frivolous and arguing the zoning ordinance does not directly affect their property rights.

The ordinance is valid, and Archbald followed procedures under the MPC, he wrote.

Finally, Archbald I LLC, a limited liability company for Dallas, Texas-based Provident Data Centers, filed a Feb. 5 uncontested petition to intervene as it looks to build as many as 18 two-story data centers, each up to 90 feet tall with a 154,850-square-foot footprint, across about 400 acres between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road. The campus borders Staback Park and Archbald Pothole State Park.

Archbald I’s petition points out that if Archbald’s zoning is declared void, it would be unable to develop its property as a data center. Archbald I attorneys Jeffrey Esch McCombie and Brigid L. Khuri contend in their petition that Archbald’s ordinance is valid and followed proper procedures.

McCombie represented Archbald I at a conditional use hearing earlier this month.

In the case’s most recent filings on Feb. 9 and 12, attorney Nathan C. Favreau, who also represents the residents and has cross-examined data center witnesses at recent hearings, rebutted the responses from the data center attorneys, arguing his clients do have standing to challenge the zoning ordinance.

Archbald will hold its second conditional use hearing on the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus on March 10 at 5 p.m. in the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive.