Jessup re-amended its zoning for data centers this month while also setting a new zoning hearing date for a developer looking to build six data centers along Breaker Street.

Borough council adopted a new data center zoning amendment Wednesday updating the boundaries of three zoning districts to align with either parcel boundaries or street boundaries. Council initially adopted a data center zoning ordinance Aug. 19 that applied more than a dozen restrictions intended to protect residents. The new ordinance is nearly identical. Borough solicitor Maura Armezzani Tunis confirmed council’s Wednesday night vote in a text Friday.

In addition to updating its data center zoning ordinance, the borough also published a public notice in The Sunday Times last week scheduling a zoning hearing board meeting Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 395 Lane St., to consider an appeal by Breaker Street Associates LLC regarding its proposal to construct six 130-foot-tall data centers across 131 acres on the south side of Breaker Street between Hill Street and the Casey Highway, according to paperwork obtained via a Right to Know Law request. The zoning hearing board initially scheduled the hearing for Sept. 18.

Catalyst Commercial Development LLC of West Conshohocken, the firm behind Breaker Street Associates, also wants to build a 487,000-square-foot data center near Sunnyside Road and Alberigi Drive, according to an Aug. 13 land development application and accompanying plans obtained via a Right to Know Law request. The data center would be next to the Lackawanna Energy Center natural gas-fired power plant.

According to the public notice published Nov. 2, Breaker Street is appealing a June 25 determination by the borough’s zoning officer that said the proposed use of the property for utility structures and other improvements associated with data centers is not permitted in the residential area. The developer is also requesting a special exception to consider the utility equipment a “public utility facility” that would allow it to be built in the residential space.

In other words, Breaker Street Associates’ proposed switch yard for the site falls into a residential zone, but the developer contends it should be allowed as an accessory use. If the zoning hearing board rejects that, Breaker Street Associates is alternatively arguing that because PPL would have infrastructure on that portion of the land, they should be permitted to use it because of the public utility nature.

When Jessup updated its zoning Aug. 19 to address data centers, it amended its November 2020 zoning ordinance, which had allowed data centers as principally permitted uses in light industrial/business park zones, general industrial zones, interchange commercial zones and mixed use zones. The latter two zones allowed data centers to be built below the Casey Highway, notably on land between the highway and Breaker Street, as well as land surrounding Veterans Memorial Drive near the highway and Moosic Lake Road. The 2020 ordinance did not define data centers, only saying they “may include an internet server building.”

Under Jessup’s updated zoning from Aug. 19 and Wednesday, data centers are now conditional uses, which means developers will have to attend a public hearing and show that they can adhere to conditions in the legislation before council approves their project.

Conditions include:

• Proof from all applicable public utilities (including electrical, water and sewage) certifying they have the capacity to meet the demands of the data center while maintaining the same levels of services for existing residents and businesses.

• Pre- and post-construction studies to control noise.

• Requirements to use backup diesel generators sparingly while locating them at least 500 feet from residential areas. Groups of two or more diesel generators must be surrounded by a fence or wall with permanent evergreen shrubbery or trees. They must also have an uninterruptible power supply to provide adequate power in the event of a disruption.

• Requirements to participate in annual emergency management and fire mitigation training with local first responders, along with evidence of an on-site water supply for firefighting.

• Water conservation stipulations instructing data centers to “strive to deploy” technologies for water conservation, including closed-loop or recirculation cooling systems to reduce the demand for public water.

• A plan to limit light pollution.

• A transportation impact study.

Rather than rezone part of the borough for data centers, Jessup instead created an “energy and information technology overlay district” restricting the facilities to land south of the Casey Highway in light industrial/business park and general industrial zones encompassing the Valley View Business Park and the land surrounding the Lackawanna Energy Center natural gas power plant. Overlay districts allow a certain use, like data centers, without changing the underlying zoning. While previously uncommon in Lackawanna County, municipalities have increasingly used overlays this year to legislate data centers.

Wednesday’s zoning amendment adjusted three zoning district boundaries to align with parcel and/or street boundaries, as well as updating the borough’s zoning map to reflect the Aug. 19 ordinance, according to a copy of the legislation.

The new zoning amendment comes as Jessup defends its August legislation in court after the Lackawanna Energy Center, Pompey Coal Company and Settler’s View LLC asked a Lackawanna County judge in September to overturn the ordinance regulating data centers. The appeals, filed in mid-September, seek to overturn Jessup’s data center ordinance over alleged procedural issues pertaining to the notification and advertisement of the legislation prior to council’s vote in August.

Pompey Coal Company, whose president is developer William Rinaldi, has links to both proposed data center projects in Jessup, either through the property it owns along Breaker Street slated for six data centers, or land it sold last year to Catalyst Commercial Development where Catalyst intends to build a data center next to the power plant. Settler’s View is a townhouse development along Hill Street near Breaker Street; Rinaldi consistently signs deeds recorded in Lackawanna County as the manager of Settler’s View, and both Pompey and Settler’s View share an address in Moosic with Rinaldi’s construction firm, Mark Construction Service Inc. In 2016, Pompey Coal Company sold just over 65 acres to Chicago-based Invenergy for $3.8 million for the construction of its 1,500-megawatt power plant.

The appeals ask the court to invalidate Jessup’s Aug. 19 zoning amendment; remand it for proper notice, posting and planning compliance; and grant any other relief deemed just and proper.

The borough responded to both filings Oct. 9, rebutting the allegations and asking the court to uphold its zoning amendment, dismiss the appeal and grant any other relief.