The legal argument over whether a Scranton woman has standing to oppose plans for data centers in neighboring Ransom Twp. could set a precedent as Lackawanna County residents push back against developments proposed near their homes.
Susan Magnotta should have standing to intervene based on the proposed data centers’ proximity to her home, her attorney argues in a court petition. Scranton Materials’ proposed data center campus in Ransom Twp. is about two-thirds of a mile, or the length of about eight Harrison Avenue bridges, from where Magnotta resides on Fawnwood Drive in Scranton’s Keyser Valley section.
Ransom Twp. does not oppose Magnotta’s intervention, according to a legal brief filed last week. But Scranton Materials argues she does not have standing, in part because she does not live in the township.
Residents of municipalities that border towns with proposed data centers said their effects will be felt regardless of where someone lives.
Scranton Materials’ plans for a six-building data center campus also hit home for Keyser Valley Neighborhood Association President Gary DiBileo. Only a stream separates the Keyser Valley section of Scranton from Scranton Materials’ property off Newton Road in Ransom Twp.
“Because this Ransom Twp. data center bumps right up to the Scranton line, next door to our neighborhood, I believe we should have a say in this matter,” he said. “I understand we’re Scranton and they’re Ransom Twp., but we literally touch each other.”
Scranton Materials’ plans could wipe out stormwater improvements city officials have made in the neighborhood, he said. Noise from a data center can travel for miles, he added.
DiBileo, who is also Lackawanna County controller, has appeared at multiple hearings for proposed data center projects throughout the county.
“These data centers are absolute environmental monsters that impact not only our health, but our land, our air, our noise, our water, our electricity, and the natural habitat on the West Mountain,” DiBileo said.
Janessa Bednash of Jermyn, a core member of the grassroots group Stop Archbald Data Centers, also believes residents of neighboring municipalities should have legal standing to oppose data center plans. The Jermyn borough solicitor advised her and her neighbors in November there was nothing they could do to formally oppose data center projects in neighboring Archbald, because the projects aren’t in Jermyn.
Bednash, who lives within a few miles of all of Archbald’s proposed data center projects, said everyone will feel the health, economic and environmental effects if they are built.
“It really isn’t something that stops at a town line,” Bednash said. “Those problems are going to spread out through the entire county.”
Magnotta’s attorney, her daughter Laura McGarry, argues Scranton Materials’ proposed data center campus is just 3,365 feet from where Magnotta lives. The project will negatively affect the already overtaxed stormwater runoff system, causing more water to run onto Magnotta’s property, McGarry says. It will also create noise, light, air and water pollution; strain the local water and electric supply grid; increase prices for water and electricity consumption; threaten local wildlife, and decrease property values.
“I presently experience ongoing problems with the power to my house going out on a regular basis,” Magnotta said in an affidavit included in the petition. “If the data center is constructed as proposed, the electrical problems will be exacerbated.”
McGarry, who also lives in Keyser Valley, filed the petition in the spring in response to Scranton Materials’ appeal after Ransom Twp. rejected its data center plans. Scranton Materials argues in its appeal that the township must legally allow data centers and the township supervisors acted improperly and went against the advice of their solicitor when they dismissed the application for a zoning change that would have allowed the data center campus.
McGarry appeared on behalf of Magnotta at hearings for the data center plans and requested the supervisors make the motion to deny the zoning change. Magnotta had no standing in the proceeding because she doesn’t live close enough to Scranton Materials’ property, and McGarry did not disclose that Magnotta lives in Scranton, the developer’s appeal states.
Ransom Twp. Solicitor William Rinaldi said in a legal brief the township Board of Supervisors does not oppose Magnotta’s motion to intervene in the appeal.
Scranton Materials filed a curative amendment, which challenged the validity of the township’s zoning ordinance, in November to create a data center district encompassing its 251-acre property. The township supervisors voted in January to dismiss the proposed changes due to lack of testimony and evidence from Scranton Materials.
Scranton Materials planned to build a data center campus with six buildings, each with a 156,648-square-foot footprint, with two stormwater management ponds, each containing around 8 million gallons of water.
The developer appealed the decision and filed a second lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgement against the board earlier this year.
Attorney Michael Mey, who represents Scranton Materials, maintains that Magnotta doesn’t have standing because she doesn’t live in Ransom Twp., nor does she have a “substantial, direct and immediate interest” in the litigation. He further argues there was no testimony presented that the data center would be close enough to Magnotta’s property to cause harm, stating her concerns are speculative and unrealized.
“No adverse effects have been established by the proposed intervener,” Mey said.
Mey asks the court to deny Magnotta’s request to intervene in the appeal.
Lackawanna County Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle will hear arguments in the appeal Thursday at 10 a.m.