RANSOM TWP. — Dozens of people, including Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, packed the township Municipal Building on Thursday in opposition to a proposed data center.
Cognetti and Lackawanna County Controller Gary DiBileo were among more than 100 people from the township and nearby who filled the building — in the meeting room, standing on the sides of the room, and in the foyer and hallway — before the supervisors later decided to continue the hearing next week.
Scranton Materials LLC is requesting a zoning overlay to allow for a data center on its property at 819 Newton Road. It is the first data center proposal in the Abingtons. The property is zoned as open space/conservation and the company has used the property as a quarry — which is a nonconforming use in that zoning district — since before the township’s zoning ordinance took effect, township Solicitor Kevin Conaboy said at the hearing. The supervisors did not have the plans available for the public at Thursday’s meeting.
Many people at the meeting wore buttons bearing the phrase “no data centers.” Others handed out signs reading the same.
The township is amending its zoning to define and regulate data centers. To maintain local control over developments, Lackawanna County communities, including Ransom Twp., have designated data centers as conditional uses. Ordinances such as Ransom Twp.’s zoning amendment don’t specifically approve data centers — they establish conditions for approval and designate where they can be built.
Conaboy said the proposed amendment is being reviewed by the township’s planning commission and the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission.
Conditional uses establish conditions developers must adhere to. Prior to receiving approval from the municipality, developers must attend a public hearing in front of borough councils or township supervisors where officials can publicly question the developer and residents can testify. Rather than rezoning land for data centers, towns like Ransom use overlays that allow data centers on top of the existing land use — which means if the data center doesn’t materialize, the land retains its original use.
Dozens of people, including Cognetti, filled out forms during the hearing to object to the request. As the hearing got underway, Laura McGarry, a resident of the Fawnwood development in the city’s Keyser Valley section, objected to it, stating she did not believe the application was properly placed before the township. She said it came to the supervisors as a zoning application and the meeting was advertised as a zoning hearing, but the application submitted was really a petition to the supervisors and should have been advertised that way.
McGarry said she requested the application and got a one-page document that doesn’t include information on the plans or the zoning amendment, which she said are required under township zoning laws. McGarry added that she and her neighbors were also not given a copy of the zoning amendment or the overlay ordinance in time for the hearing.
“I have not seen a copy of the plan of where this overlay would exist,” she told the supervisors.
Ransom Twp. resident Ken Cruser, who lives across from the Scranton Materials site, asked why residents weren’t made aware of prior hearings on the plans.
Community members crowd the Ransom Twp. municipal building in anticipation of the Ransom Twp. zoning hearing board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. Scranton Materials LLC submitted a request for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center at the organization’s property on Newton Road. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Board members start the Ransom Twp. zoning hearing meeting at the Ransom Twp. municipal building on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Lackawanna County Controller Gary DiBileo poses for a photo with a “no data centers” pin following a Ransom Twp. supervisors hearing on a request by Scranton Materials LLC’s request for a zoning overlay Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
Scranton resident Hayley Schaffer shows a “no data centers” pin following a hearing for Scranton Materials LLC’s request for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center on their property at 819 Newton Road Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
People pack the Ransom Twp. Municipal Building Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 for a hearing on a request by Scranton Materials LLC for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center on its property at 819 Newton Road. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
Scranton resident Laura McGarry speaks during a Ransom Twp. supervisors hearing on a request by Scranton Materials LLC for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center on their property on 819 Newton Road Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
Members of the Ransom Twp. Board of Supervisors meet during a hearing on a request for a zoning overlay by Scranton Materials LLC for a data center on their property at 819 Newton Road Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. Justin Sulla, one of the attorneys representing Scranton Materials, sits at right. (Christine Lee/Staff Photo)
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Community members crowd the Ransom Twp. municipal building in anticipation of the Ransom Twp. zoning hearing board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. Scranton Materials LLC submitted a request for a zoning overlay to allow for a data center at the organization’s property on Newton Road. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Michael Mey, one of the attorneys representing Scranton Materials in the application process, responded that the application was made in accordance with the township’s zoning ordinance. He said they appeared before the township’s planning commission last month and provided a copy of the overlay they’re seeking, as well as the plans, to the commission.
Throughout the meeting, people in the crowd — particularly those in the foyer and hallway — asked Conaboy and others, who were not using microphones, to speak up. McGarry raised concerns about dozens of people being unable to hear the proceedings.
“They’ve been offered the opportunity to participate as a party and cross-examine witnesses,” she said. “How can they cross-examine witnesses that they can’t hear testify?”
Conaboy asked the supervisors if they wanted to continue with the hearing, acknowledge McGarry’s objection or try to reschedule the hearing. Mey objected to continuing the hearing beyond 60 days from the time the application was filed in November as they provided all information pertaining to the application to the township.
After the discussion, the supervisors and Conaboy left the room and went into an executive session. When they returned, Conaboy said the executive session was to review McGarry’s objection and Mey’s response to it. Conaboy then said the hearing would be continued to Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the garage at the Municipal Building, adding copies of the plans and the proposed amendment would be available to the public.
In an interview after the meeting, Cognetti said she and residents in the Keyser Valley section are concerned that the construction of the data center or water runoff from it could exacerbate existing stormwater issues in Keyser Valley.
“While we understand that data centers will be built in this region, they need to be built responsibly,” she said. “They need to be built with community input, with municipal input, with input from the tech companies themselves who will be running them, and they need to be built with minimal impact.”
Cognetti said she plans to ask the supervisors to work with the landowner and a technology company that would occupy the data center.
DiBileo, who resides in Scranton and is president of the Keyser Valley Neighborhood Association, said the project would have negative results, such as environmental hazards, and noise and air pollution.
“There’s really no benefit to the citizens,” he said.
Scranton Materials, headquartered in Meshoppen, Wyoming County, is a supplier of West Mountain stone and stone products. In February, the company published a blasting notice in The Times-Tribune for a noncoal surface mining operation; the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration lists it as a surface mine.
The data center proposal in Ransom Twp. is the latest as the industry proliferates throughout Lackawanna County, at least on paper. Developers are looking at sites near high-tension power lines in hopes of tapping into the lines to fuel vast amounts of computer hardware needed to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Most of the proposed data centers are in the Midvalley and North Pocono, with active proposals in Dickson City, Jessup and Archbald, and Clifton and Covington townships.