Hearing on proposed Newton Twp. data center continued

Newton Twp. residents have to wait a bit longer to testify on their community’s first proposed data center.

The zoning hearing board was going to meet last week to hear an appeal of the township zoning officer’s denial of plans for a data center campus with two buildings on a nearly 76-acre property on Newton Road. However, the developer, Popca LLC, requested a continuance and the meeting was canceled.

The developer did not provide a reason for continuing the hearing, township officials said Wednesday, and a new hearing date has not been set. Efforts to reach Popca LLC representatives for a reason for the continuance were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Mark Gawron is seeking a zoning permit to build two data center buildings, each 35 feet high, 660 feet long and 220 feet wide. Each of the proposed buildings has a footprint of 145,200 square feet, according to the application.

The plans, which Gawron filed under the Popca LLC name, also call for two generation yards, a well, septic tank, substation, guard building and two stormwater management facilities. He stated in the application the project will cost $280 million. It does not specify how the proposed data center campus will be powered or cooled, or how loud it will be.

The plans are the second data center proposal in the Abingtons, following those filed last year by Scranton Materials LLC for a data center campus at 819 Newton Road in Ransom Twp. — less than a mile from the Newton Twp. site.

Scranton Materials LLC filed a curative amendment, which challenged the validity of Ransom Twp.’s zoning ordinance, in November that would have allowed the construction of six data centers, each with a 156,648-square-foot footprint.

Ransom Twp.’s Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 in January to dismiss the proposed changes due to lack of testimony and evidence from the developer. Scranton Materials appealed the decision and filed a lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment against the supervisors last month. Both the appeal and the lawsuit are ongoing.

Newton Twp. is the first municipality in the Scranton-Abingtons Planning Association, a zoning collaborative that allows municipalities to share land uses, to navigate a data center proposal. The collaborative is composed of Clarks Green, Clarks Summit, Dalton, Dunmore, Newton Twp., South Abington Twp., Waverly Twp., West Abington Twp. and Scranton.

Gawron filed the application with the township in January. Scot Haan, the township’s zoning officer, denied his request in February because as a commercial land use, it is not allowed in the township. Haan added that as a member of the SAPA, Newton Twp. does not not have heavy commercial or industrial uses. The property is located in the township’s rural resource zoning district.

William and Brian Vinsko, the attorneys representing Gawron, appealed Haan’s decision in March, arguing it improperly excludes a legitimate land use, including data center development, in violation of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.

To maintain local control over developments, Lackawanna County communities have designated data centers as conditional uses, meaning developers would be required to go before a governing body at a public hearing while adhering to conditions established by the municipality. The Vinskos contend that Haan did not identify a proper classification for the proposed data center under the township’s zoning ordinance, nor did he analyze whether it could be permitted by right, special exception or conditional use in any zoning district.

The attorneys claim the proposed use of the site for data center facilities and related infrastructure is similar to existing township zoning, which allows for commercial, institutional, utility-related or light industrial uses.

Normally, municipalities have to allow every type of land use within their boundaries, but a collaborative like SAPA requires only one municipality to allow a land use like data centers, meaning only one municipality in SAPA has to agree to accept them. For instance, because Dunmore has the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, none of the other SAPA communities have to allow landfills.

No municipality in SAPA has data centers outlined in their zoning, and there is also no language outlining data centers in the current SAPA comprehensive plan. With an update to the comprehensive plan a few years away, Lackawanna County planning officials have advised municipalities to address data centers on their own.