Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus<\/a> proposed along Business Route 6 and Route 247. That project proposed by Cornell Realty Management LLC would see 14 data centers built across 574.2 mountainside acres and use a maximum of 3.3 million gallons of water per day.<\/p>\nWith concerns about data centers front of mind as local opposition mounts, Gaughan said decisions about whether and where to allow them should rest with municipal officials. But he also described the apparent inability of counties to impose county-level impact fees under current state law as a \u201cpractical constraint.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat authority, as I understand it, would likely require explicit authorization from the General Assembly,\u201d he said. \u201cIn other words, even if we believe that an impact fee is fair, even if we believe it\u2019s necessary, even if we believe that it\u2019s good public policy, we may not have the legal tools to implement it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf data centers place unique burdens on infrastructure \u2014 which I believe they will \u2014 utilities, emergency services, our housing market, environmental systems, among many other (impacts), then it\u2019s entirely reasonable for the Commonwealth to consider legislation that allows host counties to recover some of these costs,\u201d Gaughan continued.<\/p>\n
Fellow Democratic Commissioner Thom Welby said Gaughan was \u201cspot-on,\u201d noting during his own remarks that, as a county government, \u201cwe really don\u2019t have much power\u201d over data center development. While the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission reviews and makes recommendations about zoning ordinance amendments and land-development plans related to data centers and other types of development, Welby stressed the land-use decisions themselves fall outside of the county\u2019s purview.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real power lies in the individuals, and certainly making your noise to all of your elected officials is critically important, but it\u2019s also critically important that you \u2026 stand up, to make your voice clear,\u201d Welby said Wednesday. \u201cIt is your local zoning and your local municipalities that are making these determinations and there should not be even a question, there shouldn\u2019t be a conversation, about a data center being located in any area near residences. I mean they do not belong in neighborhoods, and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody up here that disagrees with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak echoed Thursday concern about the adverse impacts potential data centers could have locally, including in terms of water and power consumption, while noting the tax revenue they could generate for and jobs they could create in the county and its municipalities. He\u2019s neither for nor against data centers, but said they shouldn\u2019t be sited in residential areas or draw water from the local drinking water supply.<\/p>\n
Chermak also said he\u2019s already discussed possible impact fees and other means of generating additional revenue from data center development with state and federal lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as impact fees, it\u2019s just one other avenue that I certainly have already looked into and would certainly be helpful as a revenue-generator,\u201d Chermak said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to look at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email Wednesday that followed a verbal request at the commissioners meeting, Gaughan asked county Solicitor Paul James Walker to look into whether a third-class county like Lackawanna currently has any authority under state law to \u201cimpose an impact fee, mitigation fee, or similar assessment on data centers to offset infrastructure, housing, environmental, or public-service impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
If no such authority presently exists, he also asked Walker to explore whether state-level \u201cenabling legislation\u201d would be required and what form it might take, and to analyze any \u201crelevant case law, statutory provisions, or precedents from other counties that have attempted similar approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan noted his goal \u201cis not to direct local municipalities or substitute the County\u2019s judgement for theirs, but to understand clearly the legal boundaries within which we and our local partners are operating.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 Pennsylvania\u2019s General Assembly should consider legislation explicitly authorizing counties to impose an impact fee on artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-93930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93930","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=93930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}