Reorganized Archbald Council weighs ‘Project Green’ data centers

A newly restructured Archbald Borough Council will listen to testimony tonight about the borough’s sixth proposed data center campus.

Following a reorganization Wednesday night where council members voted to remove council President Dave Moran, council Vice President Richard Guman and President Pro Tempore Marie Cooke Andreoli from their leadership positions, new council leadership will preside over a conditional use hearing for the Project Green data center campus at 5 p.m. in the Valley View High School auditorium. Project Green looks to build seven data centers east of the Casey Highway at the Stavola Quarry.

Council restructured its leadership Wednesday night during a packed meeting, naming Councilman Louis Rapoch as the new president, Councilman Joe Altier III as vice president and Councilwoman Erin Owen as president pro tempore. Rapoch began his first term on council this year. Altier was appointed to council earlier this year to replace John Shnipes III, who resigned.

Owen made the motion Wednesday night to remove Moran, Guman and Andreoli from their positions, with Councilman Tom Aniska seconding her motion.

“This gives me no pleasure,” Owen said prior to her motion. “A lot has been lost.”

All seven council members voted in favor of removing Moran, Guman and Andreoli, though the three ousted council members voted against their replacements, with a 4-3 vote to name Rapoch, Altier and Owen for their new roles.

Moran, Guman, Andreoli and former Councilman Francis Burke, who lost reelection in November, all voted in November to adopt a zoning ordinance regulating data centers. Owen and former Councilwoman Laura Lewis voted against the legislation.

Municipalities in Pennsylvania must allow for every type of lawful land use somewhere within their borders, and failing to do so exposes them to legal challenges over exclusionary zoning.

In November, council adopted stricter standards regulating data centers that applied conditions to any developments. The legislation received pushback from the community who sought additional safeguards while reducing the number of locations that the ordinance conditionally allowed data centers. Notably, the ordinance gave the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus the zoning designation it needed to move forward with a conditional use application to build 14 data centers that could use up to 3.3 million gallons of water per day while requiring 1.6 gigawatts of electricity.

Immediately following the votes Wednesday, Aniska said it was nothing personal.

“I just think we need to start looking to the future, start trying to move forward, try new direction,” said Aniska, who also began his first term on council this year. “We are stuck, and it’s Groundhog Day all over again.”

What is Project Green?

Green Mountain 6 LLC filed a conditional use application in January seeking approval from Archbald Borough Council to build seven two-story, 138,000-square-foot buildings with back-up generator yards, a PPL-owned switchyard and a customer substation along an L-shaped piece of land immediately east of the Casey Highway and less than a mile south of Aylesworth Park. The buildings would be up to 65 feet tall, though they can be as tall as 90 feet, and there would be an estimated 28 generators per building, according to a preliminary sound study.

The data centers would be built on previously quarried land, with the entire campus spanning 270.88 acres, or about 11.8 million square feet. A 230-kilovolt PPL transmission line runs down the western side of the property, giving the data centers a power source.

The preliminary sound study accompanying the conditional use application estimates there would be 40 air-cooled, roof-mounted cooling systems called chillers on top of each data center, with an assumed sound output of 101 decibels. That’s about as loud as a snowmobile or motorcycle, according to the National Hearing Conservation Association. Sustained exposure to 90 to 95 decibels may result in hearing loss, according to the association.

However, the data center’s sound study concludes that the project can comply with Archbald’s noise limits of 45 decibels at the nearest residences around Rock and Hill streets, though it notes that emergency generators are considered exempt between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. during power outages or routine testing and maintenance. If the data centers have to further reduce their sound levels, they can use additional mitigation for the air-cooled chillers to reduce the noise by up to 10 decibels.

The property line would be about 1,000 feet from the nearest homes on Rock Street and Hill Street, with the closest data center being more than 2,500 feet away, according to the sound study. The property line is also 3,600 feet from Aylesworth Park.

The application includes a will-serve letter from Pennsylvania American Water, but the request isn’t for water to cool the data centers. The attached letter from PAW, dated Jan. 16, acknowledges the request for Project Green to use up to 14,000 gallons per day, but the conditional use application notes the water is for domestic use, such as in sinks and toilets, and not cooling.

“It has not been determined whether water will be needed for cooling purposes or what quantities for that purpose will be requested. If water is needed for cooling purposes, it will be coordinated with PAWC,” according to the application. “If PAWC is unable to provide the requested demand, alternative measures will be pursued but does not include groundwater or surface water withdrawals.”

Water demands for other proposed data centers in Archbald range from about 360,000 gallons per day to a maximum of 3.3 million gallons per day.

The proposed site for Project Green allows data centers as conditional uses after borough council adopted a zoning ordinance to regulate data centers in November, which means the developer will be required to attend a public hearing while adhering to numerous conditions contained in the ordinance.

Project Green would be built across an L-shaped band near the Casey Highway, which is located in mining, coal mining, resource conservation and commercial/light industrial zoning districts, according to the conditional use application. Tinton Falls, New Jersey-based Stavola has owned the land for nearly five years after buying close to 1,400 acres from Silverbrook Anthracite Inc. of Laflin for $17.355 million, according to a July 2021 property transaction.

Green Mountain 6 entered into a memorandum of purchase and sale agreement with Stavola on Sept. 3 to buy close to 271 acres.

The campus would use Salem Road for ingress and egress, generating just over 1,400 daily trips, according to the plans.