RANSOM TWP. — Members of the public increasingly worry about new data center development even as they recognize the benefits of township supervisors’ efforts to address future projects.
About 40 people attended a hearing Tuesday on an ordinance updating the township’s zoning to regulate data center development. Speakers commended the Board of Supervisors for addressing data centers, but hope more can be done to stop future development.
Many speakers asked how the ordinance regulates data center components, such as power and water use.
Resident Cheryl Macheska asked if the proposed ordinance regulates power plants, referencing plans by Renewable Energy Aggregators Inc. of Pittston and Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, to build two large reservoirs and a power plant facility in a 1,300-acre project area in Old Forge, Ransom Twp. and Duryea.
A lower reservoir would be constructed along the Lackawanna River on the Old Forge/Duryea border and an upper reservoir would be constructed in Ransom Twp., above Austin Heights, at an elevation of around 1,500 feet, connected by underground pipes.
Solicitor William Rinaldi said the ordinance requires applicants indicate where their power and water are coming from. It doesn’t regulate dams, which are under the purview of the federal government.
Resident Marc Bozzacco praised the supervisors for the ordinance, which he said took the community’s feelings into account.
“I’ve read a lot of data center ordinances across the state … and I think this is one of the more thorough, well-thought-out ordinances out there,” he said.
Mike Rusinko of Scranton asked who has the legal authority to determine what is reasonable in a data center application. Rinaldi said the supervisors have the authority.
Duryea resident Jane D’Alessandro said she came to the hearing to learn what other communities are doing to protect themselves against future development.
Resident Cheryl Macheska speaks during a hearing on an ordinance amending Ransom Twp.’s zoning ordinance to address data centers Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
People fill the Ransom Twp. Municipal Building Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026 for a hearing on an ordinance amending the township’s zoning to address data center development.
(Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
Members of the Ransom Twp. Board of Supervisors listen to public comment during a hearing on an ordinance amending the township’s zoning to address data centers Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
Resident Marc Bozzacco speaks during a hearing held by the Ransom Twp. supervisors amending the township’s ordinance to address data centers Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
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Resident Cheryl Macheska speaks during a hearing on an ordinance amending Ransom Twp.’s zoning ordinance to address data centers Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
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What the ordinance does
Data centers are only allowed as conditional uses under the ordinance, meaning they are required to meet conditions and receive township approval. The township’s general commercial/manufacturing and heavy manufacturing districts — along the southeastern part of the municipality at the Taylor border and in the southwestern part along the Susquehanna River, respectively — would have a maximum height of 40 feet and lot area of 8 acres.
It includes requirements for data center development, including buffering, fencing, wastewater management, air quality, odor, glare and emissions, battery and fuel storage, parking, noise and vibration, and lighting.
The Lackawanna County Planning Commission reviewed the 40-page ordinance.
Rinaldi said the supervisors want to ensure township zoning covers data centers, which have unique requirements. He said it will have extra regulations, adding the township can’t ban a use, but can regulate it.
Under state law, municipalities are required to allow every type of lawful land use within their borders, or else face legal challenges over exclusionary zoning. The law is the focus of several legal challenges related to the supervisors’ dismissal in January of a zoning change that would have permitted data centers.
Supervisor Robert Wells said legally, they can’t tell a data center developer no if they apply, but they can give them guidelines, which is what the ordinances does.
“All we can do is direct,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing, we’re directing.”
Rinaldi said the township has a right to amend their zoning ordinance.
Officials said the ordinance is proactive to address data centers, which Rinaldi said have special conditions like cooling systems and generators that allow them to run 24 hours, seven days a week.
“It overlays your current zoning ordinance and fills in gaps for this new data center (use) that nobody knew about three years ago when you reviewed the ordinance,” he told the supervisors and those in attendance. “So that’s why this ordinance is amending it to include those extra regulations specifically for data center uses.”
Amendment, land purchase
The ordinance comes nearly a year since the township received its first data center proposal from Scranton Materials for a campus on their Newton Road property.
Scranton Materials LLC filed a curative amendment, which challenged the validity of the township’s zoning ordinance, in November that would have allowed the construction of six data centers, each with a 156,648-square-foot footprint, at its 251-acre quarry at 819 Newton Road. The board voted in January to dismiss the proposed changes due to lack of testimony and evidence from Scranton Materials.
The developer appealed the decision and filed a second lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment against the board earlier this year. The second lawsuit is ongoing.
A Lackawanna County judge ruled in July a Scranton woman can legally oppose the plans despite not living in Ransom Twp.
Macheska, who has lived in the township for more than 50 years, said after the hearing she is glad the supervisors are putting the ordinance in place because there were no regulations in place when Scranton Materials applied.
“There was nothing in our ordinance at that time to cover data centers,” Macheska said. “I said, ‘you guys need to work on it and get restrictions and requirements to protect the citizens and the town from this.’”
Recently, Mudiita Land Venture LLC, a Carbon County-based firm with a parent company in New Jersey, spent $2.4 million to purchase 528.6 acres south of Ransom Road and west of South Keyser Avenue in the township to build a hyperscale data center campus.
Officials said no other data center developer has filed an application with the township.
Officials have not set a date to vote on adopting the ordinance. Supervisor Chairman David Bird said after the hearing they will review it