Dickson City denies appeals for four Bell Mountain data centers

One by one, the Dickson City Zoning Hearing Board voted Wednesday to deny four appeals for data centers across Bell Mountain.

The zoning hearing board voted 2-0 four times to deny Dickson City Development LLC’s appeals to overturn the borough’s denials of its four proposed data centers spanning about a mile and a half of Bell Mountain above Business Route 6, according to a recording of the vote posted on the Stop Dickson City Data Centers Facebook group. Borough Manager Cesare Forconi confirmed the denials Thursday.

Board Chairman Fred Kohl and member James Shuta voted down the appeals.

Representatives from Dickson City Development, a firm tied to Kriger Construction Inc., first went before the zoning hearing board April 29, but the hearing adjourned without a decision following about 2½ hours of testimony.

Dickson City Development filed four zoning permit applications Jan. 13, each for an individual data center on Bell Mountain. Other limited liability companies affiliated with Kriger Construction applied with the borough in March to build at least three power plants on land near the data centers. Companies tied to Kriger Construction or its executives — President Jim Marzolino and Vice President David Stiles — also applied in Archbald to build a 400-megawatt Essential Energy LLC natural gas power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road, and a nearly 620,000-square-foot Project Boson data center across from the power plant in Archbald.

Dickson City Zoning Officer James Damski denied all four data center applications, which prompted the appeal and triggered the hearing. His denial cited insufficient plans and a then-pending ordinance regulating data centers and prohibiting their development above Business Route 6.

The applications sought to build data centers on four properties across Bell Mountain.

From west to east, those were:

• A 147,000-square-foot footprint data center near residences on Bell Mountain just east of McLean Street. The land is owned by Mountainview DC Realty LLC, 859 Enterprise St., Dickson City.

• A 107,820-square-foot footprint data center just above Cold Spring Road on land owned by Fore Up Realty, 859 Enterprise St., Dickson City. 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.

• A 147,000-square-foot footprint data center on the Circle Drive-In’s property above Business Route 6. Scranton Circle Drive In Company Inc., 11 Hendrick Lane, Carbondale, owns the property.

• A 147,000-square-foot footprint data center on a parcel east of the drive-in on land owned by HFS Realty, 1501 Albright Ave., Scranton.

The denials were Dickson City Development’s second zoning defeat in a week. On May 20, the zoning hearing board unanimously voted to deny the developer’s substantive validity challenge that sought to overturn Dickson City’s data center zoning ordinance that regulates the industry, though the developer is still appealing the ordinance in county court.

The zoning hearing board now has 45 days to issue a written decision on its denials. If Dickson City Development appeals the board’s decision, it will elevate the dispute to the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas.