Olyphant’s growing data center opposition movement will hold its first community event Sunday to unite residents and address misinformation.
“It is endlessly important that we have people on the same page, knowing what’s coming, knowing what’s already been applied for and what they can do to make a difference,” said Eva Rappenglueck, a co-organizer of the event.
As one of the latest Lackawanna County communities to navigate data center proposals, Olyphant residents formed Stop Olyphant Data Centers in April to oppose the developments. The grassroots group has since grown to include more than 1,800 members on Facebook while raising over $6,150 through a GoFundMe campaign to pay for legal counsel. The community information night Sunday begins at 4 p.m. at Fern Hill Park on East Grant Street, said Rappenglueck, a member of the group.
“We have a chance to get everybody together and breathe and get everyone on the same page,” she said.
The information night will feature speakers, childcare so parents can focus on the event, light refreshments, aerial imagery, and merchandise including yard signs, T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Rappenglueck will speak, Aline Browning from Lackawanna Citizens’ Overwatch Project will discuss cancer clusters and health concerns, and Emily Van Fleet will talk about some of the wins against data centers in Archbald.
“It’s going to be a little bit of everything, hopefully, so that we can really get people aware of what’s happening, because there is so much misinformation out right now,” Rappenglueck said. “It’s been an uphill battle trying to get the facts out there and get everybody on the same boat as far as what has actually happened already, where we can go from here, different opportunities, and how people can get involved with helping as well.”
Olyphant Borough Council adopted zoning standards for data centers in April and then confirmed its vote in a June settlement that resolved a lawsuit with a Charles DeNaples-managed firm that had applied for and withdrawn plans for seven data centers.
Olyphant conditionally allows data centers across about 1,000 acres of industrially zoned land surrounded by the Casey Highway, Marshwood Road and Route 247. The ordinance faced pushback from residents who urged council to reduce the amount of land for data centers. Borough officials defended the legislation as necessary to protect the town. Failing to zone for data centers exposes a municipality to legal challenges over exclusionary zoning.
In addition to the potential for data centers from the DeNaples-managed Triboro Commerce Park, ERCOR Triboro, a limited liability company operating under St. Louis-based Sansone Group, asked a Lackawanna County judge in June to compel Olyphant to issue a zoning permit for its Project Triboro data center campus, bypassing a lengthy public hearing process. The filing essentially argued that, because the borough approved plans in 2022 for four 1-million-plus-square-foot warehouses across nearly 471 acres, it should be allowed to build seven data centers and a substation within the warehouse footprints without going through the conditional use process. The lawsuit contended that it should be exempt from data center requirements because its original plans predate Olyphant’s legislation regulating the industry, despite changing the use from warehouses to data centers.
Rappenglueck believes a lot of residents see the data centers as a done deal — a topic she plans to address Sunday.
“We have a fighting chance, but we need to band together as a community,” she said. “The council’s not going to listen to five people who are mad about it. We need everybody up there.”