Expand<\/a><\/p>\nThe land-use appeal stems from a procedural debacle April 14 as Olyphant council members considered a data center zoning amendment that defined data centers and associated uses while restricting them as conditional uses in the borough\u2019s \u201clarge scale mixed commercial\/manufacturing district,\u201d or CM-2 zone, which encompasses the Triboro Commerce Park and Triboro Industrial Park properties.<\/p>\n
However, after the amendment received a motion and a second \u2014 priming it for a vote \u2014 Councilman Joseph Collarini asked, \u201cWould it be in our best interest to move for a stay similar to Throop to give us six more months?\u201d The councilman referred to Throop council\u2019s decision in January to declare its zoning exclusionary to data centers and seek a curative amendment remedying the defects.<\/p>\n
Collarini\u2019s suggestion immediately caused visible confusion as council members sought clarification on their next steps.<\/p>\n
Olyphant\u2019s special counsel, Isaac P. Wakefield of Camp Hill-based Salzmann Hughes PC, who was standing in for Mustacchio and is representing the borough against Triboro Commerce\u2019s appeal, stepped in to explain and guide council through the legal process.<\/p>\n
Before council could consider Collarini\u2019s suggestion, it had to vote on the amendment because it received a motion and a second. The ordinance initially passed with a 4-3 vote, with council members Jimmy Baldan, Beth Frushon, Eric Hartshorn and Bob Hudak voting in favor of the ordinance, and Collarini, Michael Abda and Dina Harrington voting against it.<\/p>\n
The vote drew an immediate uproar from residents in the crowd who opposed data centers. Amid the clamor, Bill Shigo, Olyphant\u2019s zoning officer who was standing in as the secretary, suggested a revote. Wakefield echoed him, saying there was confusion about the vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo much noise,\u201d Shigo added.<\/p>\n
Council voted a second time, with Frushon changing her vote to make it a 4-3 denial. Council then voted to amend its agenda to add Collarini\u2019s motion before finally voting to declare the borough\u2019s zoning invalid and seek a curative amendment.<\/p>\n
Triboro\u2019s land-use appeal and injunction petition, signed by attorney Edwin A. Abrahamsen Jr. of Abrahamsen, Conaboy & Abrahamsen PC in Clarks Summit and attorney Patrick A. Walsh of Clarks Green, contends its property is \u201cdirectly and substantially affected\u201d by council\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
The filings argue that Olyphant\u2019s initial vote to adopt the data center zoning ordinance was official, but the second vote lacked \u201clawful procedural authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Triboro\u2019s attorneys allege the borough lacked the authority to negate the completed official action through a second vote because it was requested by a nonmember of council, and council did not make a motion to reconsider, rescind, defer or reopen it. They also characterized it as a violation of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, also known as the Open Meetings Law.<\/p>\n
The first roll-call vote was conducted correctly, but by holding the second vote without a lawful procedural basis, Olyphant \u201cimpaired the openness, transparency, and reliability of the official action taken at the public meeting,\u201d according to the land-use appeal.<\/p>\n
The appeal asks the court to reverse Olyphant\u2019s denial of the zoning amendment, declare the amendment was approved by the initial 4-3 vote or alternatively declare the subsequent vote null and void, and to prohibit the borough from taking any further action based on that second vote or the amended agenda.<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement Wednesday, Wakefield stood by council\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Borough disagrees with the argument that anything improper occurred at the Council meeting,\u201d the borough\u2019s attorney wrote. \u201cFor that reason, the Borough is contesting the appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A firm managed by Charles DeNaples challenged Olyphant\u2019s decision to invalidate borough zoning, a move that gave the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2116,201,182,139,2120,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-179743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-olyphant","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179743","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=179743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-TRIBORO-0430-02.jpg\")
Construction is underway where data centers are proposed to be located at the Triboro Industrial Park in Olyphant Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-OLYPHANT-0416-6-rotated-2.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STT-L-OLYPHANT-0416-7-1.jpg?w=620\")
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