In the waning days of its six-month pause on data centers, Throop will consider a comprehensive set of standards governing the controversial industry as the only Midvalley community that has yet to receive a proposal for a data center campus.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re preparing for the worst, with the understanding that (if) the worst comes, that we\u2019ll have the best protections available for the people,\u201d Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer Andy Hegedus said Monday. \u201cI can\u2019t emphasize that enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Archbald, Dickson City and Throop will hold each hearings this week addressing the data center industry and affiliated projects, with Archbald and Dickson City weighing proposals from a data center developer to build four power plants across the two towns.\n<\/p>\n
Archbald will hold its fourth hearing<\/a> on the 400-megawatt Essential Energy LLC natural gas power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive.\n<\/p>\n The Dickson City Zoning Hearing Board will hold its second hearing<\/a> on Dickson City Power\u2019s proposal for three natural gas power plants totaling 600 megawatts on the mountainside above Business Route 6 on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Borough Building, 901 Enterprise St.\n<\/p>\n Both Essential Energy and Dickson City Power are associated with Kriger Construction Inc. and its executives, President Jim Marzolino and Vice President David Stiles. Kriger-linked companies propose a nearly 620,000-square-foot Project Boson data center in Archbald across from the power plant, and Dickson City\u2019s zoners rejected<\/a> their appeals to build four data centers on Bell Mountain near the power plants.\n<\/p>\n On Thursday, Throop Borough Council will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. in the Throop Community Civic Center, 500 Sanderson St., to gather public input on a proposed data center zoning ordinance that would restrict the developments as conditional uses on 351 acres east of the Casey Highway, according to public notices published July 8 and 14 in The Times-Tribune. Council will then consider the legislation at 8 p.m., or later that night if testimony continues beyond two hours, Hegedus said.<\/p>\n Throop<\/p>\n Out of Lackawanna County\u2019s six Midvalley communities, Throop is the only town that has yet to receive a proposal for data centers.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Archbald has emerged as the hot spot with six developments proposed and a possible seventh, totaling at least 51 data centers; and developers have proposals for data centers in Dickson City, Jessup and Olyphant, though some are tied up in court.\n<\/p>\n Another firm, tied to Marzolino and businessman Alpesh \u201cAl\u201d Patel of Dunmore-based Al\u2019s Quick Stop, previously applied for and withdrew plans last year for up to four data centers in Blakely.\n<\/p>\n Throop has not received any applications for data centers, nor even any informal conversations, Hegedus said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been zero activity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Municipalities in Pennsylvania are required to allow for every type of lawful land use within their borders, or else they face legal challenges over exclusionary zoning.\n<\/p>\n Throop council voted Jan. 27 to declare its own zoning invalid for excluding data centers, buying itself a quasi-moratorium to craft a \u201ccurative amendment\u201d to regulate the industry.<\/p>\n Working with borough planner Jack Varaly, who wrote Throop\u2019s existing zoning ordinance, Hegedus said the two spent hundreds of hours researching and preparing their ordinance.\n<\/p>\n The proposed legislation would limit data centers as conditional uses on a 351-acre overlay directly east of the Keystone Sanitary Landfill across the Casey Highway on land owned by Theta Land Corp. Landfill co-owner Louis DeNaples has most recently signed an easement agreement as the president of Theta last year. DeNaples\u2019 nephew, Charles DeNaples, who is the son of landfill co-owner Dominick DeNaples, previously proposed plans for data centers in Olyphant, though Hegedus said he does not believe Charles DeNaples has any affiliation with Theta.<\/p>\n As conditional uses, any applications for data centers will be subject to a lengthy hearing process where developers will have to testify to prove their projects abide by the borough\u2019s regulations while facing cross-examination from borough officials and effected residents. Council will then vote to approve or deny an application.\n<\/p>\n The land falls into an environmental conservation zoning district, but Hegedus defended the site because it\u2019s on the outskirts of the borough with both the landfill and the highway acting as buffers between any data centers and the town itself. The borough did not want to allow data centers along commercial land on Underwood Road due to its proximity to the Mid Valley School District, nor did the town want to allow them on the undeveloped land near the Marjol Superfund site, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe identified that parcel at 351 acres because we didn\u2019t want to give up the whole mountain for any kind of development related to a data center,\u201d Hegedus said.<\/p>\n The 20-page draft ordinance establishes a slew of restrictions and performance standards, addressing backup generators, building and property dimensions, landscape buffers, screening, fencing, architectural standards, noise, vibration, water and sewer use, electricity, emergency management, parking and decommissioning.\n<\/p>\n Notably, the legislation: restricts data centers to 65 feet tall including roof-mounted equipment; it requires them to approach the borough with a community benefits agreement; it prohibits on-site power generation as a data center use, requiring a separate application for any energy generation systems; it limits backup generators to diesel, natural gas or propane; it mandates pre-construction noise studies to establish baseline sound, measured during the late fall or winter when leaves are off trees; it requires an updated sound study when the developer clarifies its site plan and equipment, followed by another study within 90 days of a data center receiving an occupancy permit; it establishes limits on sounds within both the standard decibel range and lower-frequency sounds; and it requires a vibration study by a qualified professional demonstrating vibrations won\u2019t be perceptible beyond its property lines.<\/p>\n Addressing water, the ordinance limits data centers to closed-loop cooling systems that use less water than evaporative cooling while requiring a water feasibility study and drought contingency plan. An applicant also has to provide documentation from an electric utility showing the project is feasible, and the ordinance requires a decommissioning plan with the developer posting a letter of credit or other financial security to cover the complete cost of decommissioning and site restoration.<\/p>\n One section exempts data centers\u2019 backup generators from noise restrictions \u2014 a common exemption in local zoning that has increasingly come under fire<\/a> as the federal government eyes the generators as grid reliability resources<\/a>. Archbald\u2019s own noise expert criticized<\/a> the borough\u2019s decision to do so at a recent hearing, saying there was no scientific justification.<\/p>\n In light of that growing concern, Hegedus said he anticipates amending the ordinance after adoption to address that language.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to allow some type of loophole to upset the peace and tranquility of the municipality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the waning days of its six-month pause on data centers, Throop will consider a comprehensive set of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,2116,1099,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,3104,181],"class_list":["post-247989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-data-centers","tag-dickson-city","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-throop","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247989","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=247989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}