Jessup’s council vice president urged residents not to panic after a split borough council conditionally approved preliminary plans Wednesday for a data center next to the Lackawanna Energy Center.

Council voted 3-2 to approve West Conshohocken-based Sunnyside Road Associates’ land development plan for a 50-foot-tall data center on Sunnyside Road near Alberigi Drive and adjacent to the natural gas power plant. The developer must meet five conditions recommended by the Jessup and Lackawanna County planning commissions. Council must still vote on a final land development plan.

Council Vice President Curt Camoni stressed Thursday that council’s decision was not a “green flag” for the data center to move forward.

“I don’t want anyone panicking — there’s no reason to panic. There’s no reason to be upset,” he said. “This is an early step with many more steps and much more opportunity for the public to make their voices heard, and also, we will be receiving much, much more information before anything is voted on to move forward.”

Councilmen Jerry Crinella, Tom Fiorelli and Ron Kordish voted to approve the preliminary plans Wednesday; Camoni and Councilman Robbie Martin dissented. Council President Gregg Betti was absent, and council accepted the resignation of former Councilman Jeff Castellani during Wednesday’s meeting.

Despite their differing votes, Crinella said every council member is concerned about the impact of data centers and the overall industrialization of the town.

“Every one of us wants to make sure that we’re protecting the public,” Crinella said.

About Sunnyside

Sunnyside Road Associates, 100 Front St., Suite 560, West Conshohocken, initially filed a land development application with Jessup in August, changing its plans from a 334,800-square-foot warehouse to a 487,000-square-foot data center. The West Conshohocken address corresponds with Catalyst Commercial Development LLC, whose website still includes a brochure for the warehouse. The same developer is challenging Jessup in county court as Breaker Street Associates LLC after the zoning hearing board denied its plans for six data centers along Breaker Street. The appeal, which Breaker Street Associates filed in February, is ongoing.

Sunnyside Road Associates applied with the borough before it adopted more stringent standards for data centers. This allows the company to operate under the borough’s legacy zoning that did not define data centers but allowed them in other areas of town such as Breaker Street.

Because the Sunnyside Road data center falls into Jessup’s general industrial zoning district, restrictions apply, such as a 50-foot height restriction Sunnyside tried to exceed. The developer sought a 40-foot variance to build a 90-foot-tall data center, before halving its request to a 20-foot variance to build up to 70 feet. The zoning hearing board denied the variance in April.

Council’s decision

Camoni attributed his vote against the plans to missing information.

“I look at every decision based on, ‘Is this in the best interest of Jessup and its residents?’ and when it comes to development and projects, resident quality of life is my top priority, and that’s been a through line through all of this for council,” Camoni said. “There’s just no way to determine that with this project as of yet.”

There is no end user, and the borough still has questions established as conditions, Camoni said.

“I can’t say, ‘Yes’ to something and then just hope I get the information later, and I understand that the approval is conditioned on that,” he said. “Once we have the information, bring it back and I’ll think about voting on it, but I’m not getting out ahead of the information. I can’t look my neighbors in the eye and say, ‘This is a good idea for Jessup,’ and if I can’t do that, I’m not putting my name on it.”

For Crinella, who was one of the three council members to vote in favor of the preliminary plans, the Sunnyside project is near the Lackawanna Energy Center in a spot that no one else really wants to develop.

“Very few businesses would want to go in there,” Crinella said. “A data center in general is not a bad thing, as long as you have the proper governance around it.”

Jessup wants to keep data centers above the Casey Highway and out of the center of town, he said.

“This is in a very highly industrial area where it belongs, and … at least according to what they submitted so far, they’re going to meet all of our ordinances and requirements and restrictions.”

Throughout the Midvalley, which has become Northeast Pennsylvania’s data center hot spot, residents have almost universally urged their local governments to restrict data centers to land on the opposite side of the Casey Highway from their communities.

Crinella believes approving data centers where they do belong gives Jessup a stronger legal defense against data centers proposed in areas where they don’t belong.

Jessup has to allow for every type of land use, and if the developer is within zoning requirements and meets restrictions, there is no basis to reject the preliminary plans, he said.

Sunnyside Road Associates now has to develop detailed plans to submit to Jessup for its final land development approval, Crinella said. The plans will include information on noise levels, the numbers and types of backup generators and acoustic mitigation systems, he said.

If it falls out of compliance, Jessup still has the ability to reject the data center, he said.

“First and foremost, we want to make sure that the town is protected. We want to make sure that nobody is negatively impacted by this,” he said. “I hope the residents of the town understand that.”

Developer must meet 5 conditions

By voting Wednesday, council followed a recommendation from the borough planning commission to approve Sunnyside’s plans with conditions tied to them. Both the borough and Lackawanna County planning commissions signed off on the plans.

The conditions are:

• Provide the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approvals for amendments to its stormwater control plans for a data center.

• Provide approval for a signature block for the operation and maintenance of post-construction stormwater management plans.

• Coordinate with DEP for an updated sewer usage plan for a data center.

• Provide updated will-serve letters related to all utility companies under a data center, such as Pennsylvania American Water, UGI Utilities and PPL Electric Utilities. Will-serve letters show the utility agrees to serve the data center.

• Provide an updated traffic impact statement for a data center.