defending that strategy Wednesday<\/a> when the Dickson City Zoning Hearing Board unanimously voted to deny a data center developer\u2019s challenge to the borough\u2019s data center zoning, including its decision to restrict data centers in a manufacturing zone.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nRequirements in Moosic\u2019s draft ordinance include:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Height restrictions of 45 feet, inclusive of roof-mounted equipment such as cooling and ventilation systems, HVAC units, cooling towers and solar facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0500-foot setbacks from residential areas and \u201csensitive receptors\u201d like schools, daycares, long-term care facilities, hospitals, places of worship, parks and recreational facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Landscape buffer, screening, fencing and aesthetics standards.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A thermal impact and heat dissipation study providing a detailed study showing the amount of heat to be produced and released into the atmosphere during normal operations, and strategies to minimize heat dissipation and achieve a neutral impact on surrounding studies, with a preliminary study, interim study and as-built study six months after a data center receives its occupancy permit.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A requirement for backup power equipment and facility emissions to use the best available technology to minimize air pollution, requiring backup generators to use the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s stringent tier 4 emissions standards.\n<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A detailed decommissioning or repurposing plan, including detailing what will trigger the closure of the facility, how long decommissioning or repurposing will take, the amount and time of site restoration needed, and a plan for utility coordination.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Noise restrictions with stricter standards for pure tones and low-frequency sounds, and requirements for American National Standards Institute-compliant sound meters.\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Preliminary, interim and as-built sound studies. Maximum decibel level restrictions do not apply during power outages, but sound studies must evaluate and report anticipated decibel levels when all emergency power generation equipment is running, including backup generators.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A vibration study from a qualified professional demonstrating that there is no vibration from the data center perceptible to the human sense of feeling beyond the property line.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A water utilization report must be submitted with the zoning application detailing total daily intake volume and sources, discharge volumes and destinations, cooling system type and efficiency, and compliance with borough stormwater regulations. If the data centers use public water, they must have a will-serve letter showing a utility or public authority will supply the water; if it uses a nonpublic source, they must submit a water feasibility study. The borough will not approve a study unless it demonstrates adequate water supply, and that it won\u2019t adversely impact groundwater or surface water in the vicinity.<\/p>\n
\u2022 An energy management plan including annual electricity demand, what supply sources will be used, energy storage capacity, and efforts made to maximize use of renewable or clean energy. If it connects to the grid, it must include a will-serve letter while noting known impacts on electric rates or availability.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0An emergency management response plan.<\/p>\n
By limiting data centers to its manufacturing zones, Moosic would allow them only in a handful of locations throughout the town, including its northern tier near the Scranton border by Davis Street, the bottom of Rocky Glen Road, and the site of the former DuPont or Goex gunpowder plant on Moosic\u2019s southern border near the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport. The northernmost site is already slated for a warehouse.<\/p>\n
Referencing a pending ordinance doctrine that would require any data center applications to abide by the still-underway zoning standards, French said the borough wanted to have a moratorium in place, educate themselves and watch what\u2019s happening in other communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can pull the best from everything and have something really strong,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re setting the parameters around the industry instead of them dictating to us what it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moosic is in the final stages of crafting one of Lackawanna County\u2019s most comprehensive pieces of data center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2116,201,182,1214,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-199250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-moosic","tag-news","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\/199250","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=199250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}