Data centers will be a central theme at municipal meetings throughout Lackawanna County this month with at least five meetings and public hearings scheduled within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n
Archbald, Fell Twp., Greenfield Twp., Olyphant and Scott Twp. each will hold meetings pertaining to data centers in the coming weeks. Archbald will convene its third conditional use hearing on a controversial data center development while the other four communities will consider legislation regulating the industry as conditional uses.\n<\/p>\n
Municipalities in Pennsylvania must allow for every type of lawful land use somewhere within their borders, from data centers to landfills; failing to do so exposes towns to legal challenges over exclusionary zoning. State law also requires municipalities to hold public hearings prior to amending their zoning ordinances, giving residents the opportunity to testify for or against the legislation.<\/p>\n
By designating data centers as conditional uses, municipalities establish conditions that developers must adhere to in order to receive approval from a borough council or township board of supervisors. Developers must attend public hearings to testify on their projects, giving municipal officials and affected residents the opportunity to cross-examine them. Residents also will have time to testify before council members or supervisors vote on a conditional use application.\n<\/p>\n
Archbald<\/p>\n
Archbald Borough Council will hold its third hearing on the borough\u2019s largest proposed data center campus April 13 at 5 p.m. at the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive, Archbald, according to the borough\u2019s website.\n<\/p>\n
Council continued its previous hearing on the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus on March 11.\n<\/p>\n
Officials on behalf of the campus first approached Archbald in January 2025 during a council work session, making it Lackawanna County\u2019s first proposed data center campus. In December, Brooklyn-based Cornell Realty Management LLC applied with Archbald to build 14 two-story data centers, each up to 80 feet tall with a 202,340-square-foot footprint, across 574.2 acres along Business Route 6 and Route 247, or Wildcat Road.\n<\/p>\n
The campus could use just over 3.3 million gallons of water per day during the hottest summer weather while needing 1.6 gigawatts, or 1,600 megawatts, of electricity to power its data centers.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
In addition to data centers, Cornell Realty plans to build 316,000 square feet of commercial space, including a 50,000-square-foot grocery store with 1,800 square feet of retail space; two four-story, 85,000-square-foot buildings, with one mixed use and the other an office; and a 96,000-square-foot surface parking lot with about 360 spaces. Plans also call for two user substations and a PPL Electric Utilities switchyard.\n<\/p>\n
Council held its initial hearing Jan. 28, where the project faced opposition from the public and elected leaders.\n<\/p>\n
Fell Twp.<\/p>\n
Fell Twp.\u2019s board of supervisors scheduled a public hearing Monday at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 1 Veterans Road, Simpson, to consider a zoning amendment that would make data centers conditional uses in the township\u2019s manufacturing district, according to public notices published in The Times-Tribune on March 10 and 17. Supervisors planned to consider the ordinance following the hearing.<\/p>\n
The manufacturing district begins at the township\u2019s southern border with Carbondale between Dundaff Street and Enterprise Drive, encompassing the existing industrial park, and extending north.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The township has not received inquiries or interest from data centers \u2014 the ordinance is proactive, board of supervisors Chairman Andy Gorel said Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a matter of a year or two, (data centers) went from obscure, unknown, to all anybody can talk about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The proposed ordinance requires data centers to be at least 300 feet from all property lines, with that setback extending to 500 feet for residential uses, child care facilities, day cares, schools, personal care homes, places of worship and community centers. The ordinance also limits data centers to 40-feet tall, including roof-mounted equipment like cooling systems. It limits their sound to 65 decibels on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 55 decibels outside those hours, according to a draft ordinance.\n<\/p>\n
It requires preliminary, interim and as-built sound studies, and the sound studies must evaluate and report on anticipated decibels when all emergency power generation equipment is running. The ordinance also mandates a detailed statement of impacts from generator testing, including noise, vibration and emissions.<\/p>\n
If the data centers use a public water supply, the applicant must provide a document showing the water company can supply it, and if it uses a nonpublic water source, the data center must provide a water feasibility study. If the data centers connect to the electrical grid, they must provide documentation from the applicable service provider certifying the necessary capacity is available and it will serve the data centers; any known impacts on electricity rates or availability for other users must be noted, among other conditions.<\/p>\n
Greenfield Twp.<\/p>\n
Greenfield Twp. supervisors will meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 424 Route 106, to hold a public hearing to consider amendments to the township\u2019s zoning ordinance to regulate data centers and accessory uses in its commercial and industrial zoning districts, according to public notices published in The Times-Tribune March 17 and 24.\n<\/p>\n
A meeting agenda on the township website has supervisors considering the ordinance immediately after the hearing.<\/p>\n
Attempts to reach township officials were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
Olyphant<\/p>\n
Following a March 31 public hearing, Olyphant Borough Council will meet April 14 at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 113 Willow Ave., to consider a zoning ordinance regulating data centers, according to public notices published in The Times-Tribune on March 3 and 10.\n<\/p>\n
Olyphant\u2019s proposed zoning ordinance defines data centers and related uses while restricting them as conditional uses in the borough\u2019s \u201clarge scale mixed commercial\/manufacturing district,\u201d which encompasses land south and east of the Casey Highway opposite most of the town. The district includes the Triboro Industrial Park, where a developer proposes to build 12 data centers.<\/p>\n
Before holding any hearing, Olyphant\u2019s proposed ordinance requires developers to submit a preliminary sound impact analysis, an environmental impact analysis and a community impact analysis.<\/p>\n
The ordinance limits data centers to 80 feet tall, and if a data center adjoins a residential area, it must have a 200-foot setback from the property line.<\/p>\n
Data centers would be required to receive power from Olyphant Borough Electric, which is Olyphant\u2019s electric company, according to the ordinance.<\/p>\n
The data centers would have to pay for all supply lines and electric substations to ensure capacity, along with reimbursing Olyphant for all expenses associated with providing power to the site.<\/p>\n
Applicants will be required to submit an analysis of their raw water needs from private or public sources, and if the source is from a municipal system, they have to include documentation showing the utility can supply their water, according to the ordinance. If developers plan to use nonpublic water sources, they must submit a water feasibility study to determine if there is an adequate supply from existing wells.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Data Center shall be approved without sufficient water supply and no Data Center shall be approved that demonstrates the likelihood of adverse impacts on existing wells in the vicinity,\u201d according to the ordinance.<\/p>\n
Scott Twp.<\/p>\n
Scott Twp. supervisors will hold a public hearing April 15 at 7 p.m. at the Joe Terry Civic Center, 1038 Montdale Road, to consider a zoning amendment regulating both data centers and solar farms, according to public notices published in The Times-Tribune March 27 and April 3. Supervisors will then meet April 21 during their regular meeting to vote on the ordinance, according to the notices.\n<\/p>\n
The proposed ordinance restricts both data centers and solar farms as conditional uses in the township\u2019s industrial zone, which is the northwest corner of the township near Interstate 81.<\/p>\n
The township has not received any verbal or written communication from any data center developer, according to township secretary Diana Campbell, making the legislation proactive.<\/p>\n
Scott Twp.\u2019s ordinance requires data centers to be set back 400 feet or more from any residential structure on an adjoining lot, with data center buildings restricted to 70 feet tall. The ordinance notably restricts data centers to only using closed-loop cooling systems to minimize water consumption, and it prohibits them from using well water for cooling \u2014 only domestic uses or fire protection.\n<\/p>\n
Campuses must have at least 100 feet of woodland buffer surrounding them, and if there are not enough trees, they must plant trees that will grow to at least 15 feet within two years. Applicants will be required to submit an analysis of their raw water needs from private or public sources, and the township can request a developer-funded water study at any time.<\/p>\n
Data centers also will have to submit a water feasibility study to show there is adequate water and to estimate impacts on existing wells within 2 miles of all property lines, according to the ordinance. Data center developers also must perform a water quality baseline test followed by mandatory post-construction testing until a data center is decommissioned, as well as a pre-construction air quality study.<\/p>\n
The ordinance requires an agreement from the electric service provider indicating necessary capacity and that it will serve the data center while maintaining the same levels of service for existing residents and businesses in the township. The agreement will include known impacts and electricity rates directly attributable to the project.<\/p>\n
The proposed ordinance also restricts decibels, both based on dBas and lower-frequency dBcs, with required preliminary and as-built sound studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Data centers will be a central theme at municipal meetings throughout Lackawanna County this month with at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,2116,3101,2665,201,182,139,2120,28,3103,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-158947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-archbald","9":"tag-data-centers","10":"tag-fell-township","11":"tag-greenfield-township","12":"tag-lackawanna-county","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-olyphant","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-scott-township","18":"tag-scranton","19":"tag-scranton-headlines","20":"tag-scranton-news","21":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}