An ordinance setting rules for data centers sailed through Lower Saucon Township Council on Wednesday night in a noticeably civil atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Comparing Wednesday night\u2019s meeting to those in the previous two years, there weren\u2019t any combative remarks or insults. The meeting lasted two hours, far quicker than previous council meetings, which sometimes ended around midnight.<\/p>\n
Two Republicans on the last council, Jason Banonis and Thomas Carocci, did not run for reelection, and voters in November replaced them with Democrats Chad Heimbecker and Hunter Gress, giving the party a 5-0 majority on the board.\n<\/p>\n
After the meeting, Council President Victoria Opthof-Cordaro said she was pleased civility appears to have been restored to council.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my perspective, I\u2019m very happy we don\u2019t have [council] members who purposely create disruptions. We are now very efficient,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
During the public comment period, Banonis, who was in the audience, accused council of violating Sunshine Laws by gathering at a local restaurant.\n<\/p>\n
Township attorney Steven Goudsouzian said there was no violation because council members were only socializing and did not discuss or deliberate over township issues.<\/p>\n
Data center rules<\/p>\n
The data center and property maintenance ordinances received initial approval in 5-0 votes. The measures still must be reviewed by the township and Lehigh Valley planning commissions and go before a public hearing.<\/p>\n
The data center ordinance revises the township\u2019s land use ordinance to specifically address those types of developments.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been encouraged to revise our ordinance,\u201d Opthof-Cordaro said, because without it a developer could come in without restrictions.<\/p>\n
The data center ordinance would allow the facilities under a conditional use permit in a light manufacturing zone, one of which is along Easton Road and a second off Applebutter Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t make the ordinance so prohibitive that it would open you to legal challenges,\u201d Goudsouzian said.<\/p>\n
Gress also expressed concern about the ordinance being too restrictive. \u201cI don\u2019t want scare away developers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Council member Laura Ray said a data center development would still need to satisfy the items outlined in the conditional use permit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater is our biggest concern,\u201d she said.\u00a0A small to medium data center can use about a 100,000 gallons of water per day while a huge center can use up to 5 million gallons per day.<\/p>\n
Other ordinances<\/p>\n
Council members also passed an initial ordinance on property maintenance and OK\u2019d a resident survey of single-use plastics.<\/p>\n
Opthof-Cordaro said the property maintenance code is aimed at both residential and commercial properties, and would regulate items such as structural integrity. Goudsouzian said it provides minimum standards for safety issues and is a standard measure used by many municipalities.<\/p>\n
One example is it would require food establishments to have a screen door to prevent insects getting into the work environment. It could also be used to prevent blight.<\/p>\n
Resident Mark Ozimek initially told council it\u2019s none of the township\u2019s business what he does in his house \u2014 \u201cIf I want to live in a house with a leaky roof I should be able to,\u201d he said \u2014 but after discussion said he was \u201cup in the air about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opthof-Cordaro said the township would always work first with a property owner and not take a heavy-handed approach. <\/p>\n
The single-use plastics survey would be designed to inform residents of plastic use and potential methods to curb the use of plastics. Opthof-Cordaro said residents would have to sign up for the township newsletter, which they can do on the township website, to participate since the survey would be digital. The survey is expected to be out in February.\n<\/p>\n
Charles Malinchak is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ordinance setting rules for data centers sailed through Lower Saucon Township Council on Wednesday night in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,182,139,432],"class_list":["post-97730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97730","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=97730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}