Dickson City will hold its second public hearing on legislation governing data centers on Tuesday.
Borough officials will listen to testimony Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Borough Building, 901 Enterprise St., as council considers proposed zoning amendments to regulate data centers by making them special exceptions in the town’s light manufacturing zoning districts, according to public notices published Dec. 11 and Dec. 26 in The Times-Tribune.
The hearing comes after a local data center developer applied with the borough to build four data centers along undeveloped land above Business Route 6, spanning from the Blakely border to near the residential housing on Bell Mountain toward the Scranton border and behind the former Kmart. That project would require zoning relief because the proposed data centers are in a more restrictive residential/open space zone, but council Vice President Robert Hall said Monday that the borough has not received an official submission for that relief, so it will not be up for consideration Tuesday. Hall is also the chairman of the Dickson City Planning Commission.
Dickson City Development LLC filed a certificate of organization with the Pennsylvania Department of State on Nov. 27 using the address 99 Power Blvd., Archbald, which is the business address of Kriger Construction Inc. and its affiliated NEPA Concrete & Asphalt plant. Jim Marzolino, the president of Kriger, is involved with two data center projects in Archbald along the Eynon Jermyn Road and was the co-developer in a proposal to build a data center campus in Blakely, though that application was subsequently withdrawn.
As special exceptions in light manufacturing zones, data centers would be restricted to Enterprise Street near Eagle Lane and undeveloped land southeast of Railroad Street. Special exceptions are comparable to the conditional use designations for data centers used in nearby towns like Archbald, Blakely and Jessup by also requiring developers to adhere to special criteria contained in the ordinance — but rather than going before council for approval, special exceptions require approval from a town’s zoning hearing board.
The borough began the zoning process Nov. 16 with a public notice in The Times-Tribune scheduling a Dec. 9 public hearing, and 10 days later on Nov. 26, Dickson City Development LLC submitted four sets of sketch plans for data centers above Business Route 6. The town subsequently tightened the language in a second proposed ordinance and better defined data centers using wording recommended by the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission when county planners reviewed the draft ordinance, borough Manager Cesare Forconi said.
The ordinance defines data centers as: “A building or buildings which are occupied primarily by computers and/or telecommunications and related equipment where digital information is processed, transferred and/or stored, primarily to and from offsite locations. This use does not include computers or telecommunications related equipment that is secondary and customarily incidental to an otherwise permitted use on the property, such as servers associated with an office building. This use shall also include cryptocurrency mining, blockchain transaction processing, and server farms.”
Dickson City Development submitted new plans for its data centers last week, though council has not yet reviewed them, Hall said.
Borough officials want to ensure everyone in Dickson City has the opportunity to have their voices heard, he said. The public hearing is also an opportunity for council to learn from the residents, Hall said.
“We’re here to learn their concerns, and, how do we properly address them?” he said. “We have a council who cares about their community, and they are our first priority — our residents.”
A special meeting agenda posted on Dickson City’s website Monday evening has two motions: a motion to adopt the first data center ordinance, and a second motion giving council the option to continue the public hearings and meeting until Feb. 12 at 5:30 p.m. for all data center ordinances.