DICKSON CITY — A local data center developer appealed to the borough zoning hearing board Wednesday night to overturn the denial of four data centers across Bell Mountain — including one on the Circle Drive-In’s property and another the borough solicitor argues is in a residential area — though the drive-in’s president emphasized Thursday neither the theater nor its flea market would be impacted.
Dickson City Development LLC, a firm linked to Kriger Construction Inc., filed four zoning permit applications on Jan. 13 to construct four data centers spanning a roughly 1.5-mile stretch of Bell Mountain above Business Route 6.
Coinciding with the data centers, limited liability companies affiliated with Kriger Construction applied last month to build at least three power plants on Bell Mountain above the data centers. The power plants were not part of Wednesday’s hearing.
Dickson City Development and limited liability companies for the power plants, named Dickson City Power One, Dickson City Power Two and Dickson City Power Three, all filed applications using the address 99 Power Blvd., Archbald, which is the same address as Kriger Construction and its affiliated NEPA Asphalt & Concrete plant. Kriger Vice President David Stiles signed all four data center applications, and his email address with Kriger Construction’s phone number are the provided contact information in the power plant applications. Three $575 checks attached to the power plants’ zoning hearing applications are from Kriger Construction.
Kriger’s president, Jim Marzolino, is also looking to build a nearly 620,000-square-foot data center called “Project Boson” on Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald, and across the street from Boson, he applied to build a 400-megawatt power plant. Archbald held its first hearing on the power plant Monday.
Where are the data centers?
Dickson City’s zoning hearing Wednesday focused solely on the four Bell Mountain data centers.
The data centers would be located on four properties, with footprints ranging from just shy of 108,000 square feet to 147,000 square feet, according to the applications. From west to east, those are:
• 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. Dickson City Solicitor Bill Jones argued Wednesday that this data center falls into a single-family residential zone, not the highway commercial zone the developer cited in its application.
• 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 on a parcel east of the drive-in on land owned by HFS Realty, 1501 Albright Ave., Scranton.
Why were they denied?
Zoning Officer James Damski denied all four applications on Feb. 17, according to a public notice published April 22 in The Times-Tribune.
Damski’s denial cited two reasons: insufficient plans and a then-pending ordinance regulating data centers that prohibited their development on the commercially zoned land above Business Route 6. Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Fred Kohl read Damski’s denial letter into the record at the start of the hearing. The letter described multiple deficiencies in the applications, including failing to sufficiently define what they are requesting as a use for the site and not identifying how the uses will transpire, such as water, energy and number of employees, according to Damski.
The core zoning issue surrounds Dickson City’s previous zoning terminology and a zoning amendment adopted Feb. 12 that regulated data centers as special exceptions in the borough’s manufacturing district, encompassing Enterprise Street near Eagle Lane and undeveloped land southeast of Railroad Street.
Prior to the amendment, the borough’s zoning ordinance permitted “data processing and record storage” facilities in its highway commercial zones, which include the land immediately above Business Route 6. Dickson City Development’s attorneys believe “data processing and record storage” includes data centers, while borough officials disagree. Dickson City initiated the zoning amendment process in November, and borough officials contend a pending ordinance doctrine allows them to apply those new restrictions to any applications received between November and Feb. 12 when council adopted the zoning amendment.
What happened Wednesday?
Attorney Michael Mey of Dunmore-based Mey & Sulla LLP appealed the denials on behalf of Dickson City Development LLC, prompting Wednesday’s hearing.
Mey and Jones, who represented the borough, verbally sparred throughout the night, spending much of the two-and-a-half-hour hearing arguing over maps, debating the qualifications of one of Mey’s subject matter experts to address the data center sites on maps, the accuracy and validity of Dickson City zoning maps displayed during the presentation, the size of the plans submitted to the borough, and where Dickson City Development obtained the zoning map that served as the foundation for its applications.
Mey called two witnesses throughout the night: Stiles, who cited his role at Kriger and 20 years of experience in construction, and Jennifer Leonard, a senior program manager and practice leader at Mechanicsburg-based KCI Technologies who oversaw the preparation of the applications and plans. The two provided testimony on the deficiencies referenced in the denial.
During cross examination, Jones brought out a large zoning map and asked Leonard to draw the locations of the four sites on it. Leonard did so, although Mey objected. Zoning hearing board Solicitor Frank Marcin assured Mey the board would not consider Leonard’s hand-drawn sites to be scale.
As Leonard plotted the location of the westernmost data center on Mountainview’s property, Jones indicated that it actually fell into a single-family residential zone.
Leonard acknowledged the residential zone, saying, “This map doesn’t match what was electronically pulled off of record drawings online.”
“So you say,” Jones replied. “And I would object as hearsay, and I guess you should’ve brought that (map) in.”
Jones also latched onto a discrepancy in the property size of that data center site where one of its parcels actually encompasses 200-plus acres and extends into a residential open space zone. Stiles said they are only using a portion of the property; Jones pointed out their application did not specify it was using “part of” the parcel.
Mey concluded Dickson City Development’s presentation by directly addressing the board, telling borough zoners that Leonard’s testimony addressed every deficiency in the denial. He also contended that Dickson City’s data center zoning amendment did not contain language repealing anything from the previous ordinance, meaning it only allowed data centers in the manufacturing zone without removing “data processing and record storage” from the land above Business Route 6.
“Our position is we believe that the zoning officer, respectfully, was wrong when he said that the pending zoning ordinance applied and was wrong when he said that the plans that were given to him were insufficient for his ability to evaluate,” Mey said.
The board opted to continue the hearing before Jones presented Dickson City’s case. The hearing will resume May 21.
What about the drive-in?
Some of the residents packing Dickson City’s council chambers audibly gasped after realizing Leonard drew a data center outline directly over the 77-year-old Circle Drive-In’s property, using a yellow highlighter to draw a rectangle roughly in the center of the theater’s grounds and concession building.
Drive-in President Joseph Calabro emphasized Thursday, “There is no plan to sell or to change what’s happening at the Circle Drive-In theater in the current business.”
Calabro took over the business six years ago after the February 2020 death of his uncle, lifelong Carbondale resident, business owner and philanthropist Michael Delfino, who acquired the drive-in in 1969.
“Just to clarify at the meeting that occurred yesterday at Dickson City, from what I am told, there was a perception that the Circle Drive-In theater property, and the business would be a potential future site for the data center,” Calabro said. “However, I’m clearly stating that there is no plan to change the current business at the Circle Drive-In theater.”
Calabro pointed to a 49-acre undeveloped parcel behind the drive-in.
“The plan was that the undeveloped area behind the drive-in is the goal for potentially having a data center or other development,” he said.
Plans for one of the proposed power plants fall into that property. Asked whether the developments could impact his business’s operations, Calabro assured, “We have looked into that, and we have no concern that, in order to continue to operate a drive-in theater and flea market, that there would be any negative implications at all.”
The drive-in and flea market are open for business, he said.
“The worry that a longstanding community business that has been around for decades will be closing is not true,” Calabro said.
The zoning hearing board will resume the hearing May 21 at 5 p.m. in the Dickson City Borough Building, 901 Enterprise St.
Attorney Michael Mey, left, looks on as Dickson City Solicitor Bill Jones instructs subject matter witness Jennifer Leonard to draw data center sites on a map during a zoning hearing Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Dickson City Borough Building. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
(Left to right) Dickson City Development LLC attorney Michael Mey, senior program manager Jennifer Leonard of KCI Technologies and Kriger Construction Vice President David Stiles prepare for their presentation during a zoning hearing Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Dickson City Borough Building. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Residents gather for a zoning hearing Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Dickson City Borough Building. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Dickson City Solicitor Bill Jones, standing, speaks during a zoning hearing Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Dickson City Borough Building. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
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)
Dickson City Development subject matter expert Jennifer Leonard draws a data center site on a zoning map as Dickson City Solicitor Bill Jones spectates during a zoning hearing Wednesday, April 29, 2026, at the Dickson City Borough Building. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)