A developer appealing Dickson City’s zoning to build four data centers across Bell Mountain will seek zoning approval next month for at least three power plants on the same mountainside.
Operating as “Dickson City Power” under a trio of limited liability companies, firms linked to Kriger Construction Inc. applied with the borough requesting special exceptions to build multiple power plants across the mountain above Business Route 6. The Dickson City Zoning Hearing Board will consider the requests at 6 p.m. June 4 at the Borough Building, 901 Enterprise St., according to a public notice posted on the borough’s Facebook. It was initially scheduled for Wednesday.
Each power plant corresponds with the location of data centers proposed by Dickson City Development LLC, another firm tied to Kriger Construction. Dickson City Development is actively appealing Dickson City’s denial of its applications for four data centers across a roughly 1.5-mile span of Bell Mountain. The developer will go before the zoning hearing board twice this month. Dickson City Development will challenge the validity of Dickson City’s data center zoning ordinance during a hearing on May 20 at 6 p.m., and a week later on May 27 at 5 p.m., it will resume its continued April 29 zoning appeal seeking to overturn the denial of the four data centers, according to a public notice posted on the borough’s Facebook page. Both hearings will be at the Borough Building.
Other companies linked to Kriger Construction and its president and vice president, Jim Marzolino and David Stiles, respectively, have similar plans in Archbald, proposing to build a 620,000-square-foot “Project Boson” data center on Eynon Jermyn Road with a 400-megawatt “Essential Energy LLC” natural gas-fired power plant across the street.
The upper portion of Bell Mountain where Dickson City Power wants to build its power plants falls into a residential/open space zoning district that allows public and private power generation facilities as special exceptions. Special exceptions are similar to the conditional use designations often used locally to regulate data centers. Both designations allow a municipality to establish special criteria that a developer must adhere to in order to receive approval, with the key difference being the governing body that approves or denies an application. Councils and township boards of supervisors decide conditional uses, while zoning hearing boards decide special exceptions.
Dickson City Power One LLC, Dickson City Power Two LLC and Dickson City Power Three LLC filed special exception applications with the borough dated March 19 to build power plants across three parcels on Bell Mountain.
All three applications use the address 99 Power Blvd., Archbald, which corresponds with the address of Kriger Construction Inc. and its affiliated NEPA Concrete & Asphalt plant. The contact information in the applications includes Kriger’s office number and Vice President David Stiles’ email address, and each application includes a $575 check from Kriger Construction. Dickson City Development LLC, uses the same 99 Power Blvd. address, and Stiles signed each of that project’s zoning appeals.
The plans provide little information on the power plants themselves. They do not disclose how much power they will generate, the type of fuel they will use, nor the size of the facilities. Only one of the three plans includes square footage for a “power plant area.”
The easternmost power plant, applied for by Dickson City Power Two, would be less than 1,000 feet above the Circle Drive-In on a separate parcel. The application references an “equitable interest/executed agreement of sale” with Scranton Circle Drive In Company Inc.
Dickson City Development also applied to build a data center with a 147,000-square-foot footprint on the Circle Drive-In’s property. During the zoning hearing last month, a representative for the project drew a data center directly over the drive-in’s existing concession stand when asked to illustrate where it would be constructed.
A marked-up zoning map showing the locations of data centers during a zoning hearing Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Dickson City Borough Building. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
The accompanying zoning appeal described the drive-in’s parcel, including its tax map identification number and its existing use as a “drive-in movie.” However, the drive-in’s president, Joseph Calabro, emphasized on April 30, “There is no plan to sell or to change what’s happening at the Circle Drive-In theater in the current business.”
The developer wants to build another 147,000-square-foot data center on a parcel east of the drive-in on land owned by HFS Realty, 1501 Albright Ave., Scranton.
Moving west, above Cold Spring Road, Dickson City Power One’s application depicts two large building footprints and a smaller one on land owned by Fore Up Realty, 805 Enterprise St., Dickson City, according to the application; Marzolino most recently signed an assignment of rents and leases as the manager of Fore Up last year, according to the document recorded with the Lackawanna County recorder of deeds on March 25, 2025. Dickson City Development proposes a 107,820-square-foot footprint data center on the Fore Up land. It is unclear if the two large footprints represent one or two power plants.
The westernmost power plant, directly behind the former Kmart that is now storage units at 1011 Business Route 6, contains a “775,000-square-foot power plant area,” according to Dickson City Power Three’s application. According to the application, Mountainview DC Realty LLC, 855 Enterprise St., Dickson City, is the property owner. Alfred Kriger Jr., who is Marzolino’s uncle based on Lackawanna County’s marriage license database, is the president of Mountainview. He signed a right-of-way agreement with PPL as the president of Mountainview in 2024, according to the document recorded Oct. 4, 2024. He previously proposed in 2021 to build about 300 townhouses on that land, though that never materialized. Dickson City Development proposed a 147,000-square-foot footprint data center near residences on Bell Mountain just east of McLean Street on Mountainview’s property.
Zoning hearing boards operate as quasi-judicial bodies with sworn testimony and a court stenographer. The hearing will include testimony from Dickson City Power officials about why borough zoners should approve their project, as well as giving residents the opportunity testify for or against the power plants. With lengthy testimony, hearings on data centers and related projects often extend to multiple hearings, making a decision unlikely at the conclusion of the hearing.