Data centers are an issue legislators and residents are now grappling with.
It seems these projects are popping up all over the place.
Government officials on the local and state level are scrambling to get ahead of them.
A grassroots organization tracking the issue says there are 52 current proposals statewide. Lower Mount Bethel Township in Northampton County had to postpone a Monday night meeting on a data center, due to overcrowding from the public. Penn Forest Township in Carbon County passed a controversial amendment Monday night dealing with data centers.
This comes as concerned citizens are looking for ways to push back.
“What is at stake?” 69 News reporter Bo Koltnow asked Penn Forest Township resident Bill Fontaine.
“Your community. What ends up happening? You stigmatize the area,” Fontaine responded.
For Fontaine, that stigma stems from a data center.
Monday night, his township board of supervisors amended zoning, allowing a data center overlay district on 750 acres.
Fontaine, an activist who’s fought other mass industrial developments in court and won, vows to fight this one too.
“There’s nothing in that ordinance that protects us for the diminution of our property value, and you know, and the increased electric bills, they have nothing in there that doesn’t protect us,” he added.
From Penn Forest to Lower Mt. Bethel, citizen resistance is growing as proposed data centers dot Pennsylvania.
Peron Development and J.G. Petrucci Company’s Lower Mt. Bethel plan promise a minimal footprint and alignment with resident priorities.
In Harrisburg, the House Energy Committee approved two bills aimed at addressing data centers.
One would require annual reporting of energy consumption and water use; another would serve as model ordinance municipalities could use.
Republican Jamie Barton, who represents Berks and Schuylkill Counties, voted against both, saying data centers shouldn’t be singled out.
“The problem is, we can’t address development at the speed at which development occurs anymore,” said Penn Forest Twp. Supervisor Christian Bartulovich.
Bartulovich adds he’s not a fan of those bills floating in Harrisburg, saying they wouldn’t help much, but does say their new overlay district curtails a data center township future spread, as it’s now the only spot one could go.
“You can’t, right now, deny a use because your fire company couldn’t put out the fire that the building starts,” explains Bartulovich.
As for Fontaine, “I’m far from done fighting. And I don’t give up,” he said.
There are 52 data center proposals statewide. East Penn meets again on the issue March 23, and Lower Mt. Bethel meets again on August 6.