RANSOM TWP. \u2014 Township supervisors took what they say is proactive action to regulate future data center projects by enacting an ordinance outlining their development.<\/p>\n
Supervisors approved the ordinance in the township Monday evening.<\/p>\n
The ordinance stipulates that data centers have a maximum height of 40 feet and lot area of 8 acres. Other requirements address buffering, fencing, wastewater management, air quality, odor, glare and emissions, battery and fuel storage, parking, noise and vibration, and lighting.<\/p>\n
Before the vote, township resident Cheryl Macheska wanted assurance from the governing body that data centers would only be permitted in industrial zones and not residential ones, which Solicitor William Rinaldi conformed.\n<\/p>\n
She pointed to a section of the state constitution stating residents have the constitutional right for clean air, pure water and a healthy environment.<\/p>\n
Macheska said after the meeting updating the township\u2019s zoning ordinance to address data centers is a good thing because it protects residents and the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to do what we have to do to protect that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The vote was made 10 months after supervisors rejected plans submitted by Scranton Materials to construct a data center campus on the company\u2019s property off Newton Road.<\/p>\n
The company in November filed for a curative amendment, challenging the validity of the township\u2019s zoning ordinance, that would have allowed the construction of six data centers \u2014 each with a 156,648-square-foot footprint \u2014 at its 251-acre quarry at 819 Newton Road. The board voted in January to dismiss the proposed changes due to lack of testimony and evidence from Scranton Materials.\n<\/p>\n
Under state law, municipalities are required to allow every type of lawful land use within their borders, or else face legal challenges over exclusionary zoning. The law is the focus of several legal challenges related to the supervisors\u2019 January dismissal of the zoning change.<\/p>\n
The developer appealed the decision and filed a second lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment against the board earlier this year. Both lawsuits are ongoing. A Lackawanna County judge ruled in July that a Scranton woman can legally oppose the plans despite not living in Ransom Twp.<\/p>\n
Asked if the adoption will have any impact on the lawsuits, Solicitor William Rinaldi said after the meeting they remain in litigation.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania Municipal Planning Code states that no zoning changes or other governing ordinance may adversely affect an existing land development application.\n<\/p>\n
Last summer, Mudiita Land Venture LLC, a Carbon County-based firm with a parent company in New Jersey, purchased 528.6 acres south of Ransom Road and west of South Keyser Avenue in the township to build a hyperscale data center campus.\n<\/p>\n
The township has not received any other data center applications.<\/p>\n
How the ordinance works<\/p>\n
As a conditional use, the developer would need to meet specific criteria outlined in the ordinance and receive township approval. The board of supervisors would be required to render a written decision on the application within 45 days after the final hearing. Under state law, if a governing body fails to hold a public hearing within 60 days of the application being received, the decision is deemed in favor of the applicant.\n<\/p>\n
The ordinance limits data center projects to the township\u2019s general commercial\/manufacturing and heavy manufacturing districts \u2013 along the southeastern part of the municipality at the Taylor border and in the southwestern part along the Susquehanna River, respectively.\n<\/p>\n
Other requirements in the ordinance are:\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Setbacks of 400 feet from public roads and neighboring properties, with electrical substations required to be 800 feet from residential areas.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Buildings visible from public roads or sensitive receptor properties must have variations in building materials, color, texture, architectural articulation and facade treatment.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Data centers will be required to use public water where available and can\u2019t use groundwater unless there are no alternatives, withdrawing it won\u2019t adversely affect existing customers, aquifers, streams, wetlands or ecosystems, and all state and federal approvals are obtained. Applicants are also required to submit a water study.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Developers have to demonstrate that the project will use water-conserving cooling technology, including air-cooled and closed-loop cooling systems, and other technology that will protect water resources.<\/p>\n
\u2022 An emergency response plan is required.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The developer is required to decommission the data center upon abandoning it, discontinuing its operations, or if it reaches the end of its useful life, removing all buildings and structures, hazardous materials, construction materials, remediating any environmental contaminations and restoring the property to safe, stable and environmentally sound condition; the owner is also required to provide written notice to the township within 48 hours after permanently ceasing operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RANSOM TWP. \u2014 Township supervisors took what they say is proactive action to regulate future data center projects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,4373,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-300886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-ransom-township","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\/300886","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=300886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}