A Doylestown developer planning to build a large data center campus in the North Pocono area has appealed the Clifton Twp. Zoning Board’s decision that the township's zoning laws do allow for data centers to be built in the municipality.
A lawyer who filed the land use appeal for 1778 Rich Pike LLC argues that the zoning laws actually exclude data centers, despite what the board ruled.
“The ZHB’s (Zoning Hearing Board) decision was not supported by substantial evidence and, in fact, was contrary to the significant evidence presented by the developer …” according to the appeal filed on Nov. 26 by Matthew McHugh, an attorney from Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP in Philadelphia, who represents 1778 Rich Pike LLC.
1778 Rich Pike LLC has plans to build “Project Gold,” an approximately 30-building data center campus between Clifton and Covington townships along Route 380. The campus would be on at least seven properties. Some of the land is currently zoned for residential use.
The developer is the equitable owner of three properties in Clifton — two on Clifton Road also owned by JCO LLC; and a third on Routes 611 and 380, also owned by Judge Family Estates.
Background on the case
On April 17, the developer brought forth a substantive validity challenge against the township’s zoning ordinance, saying it excluded data centers, data center equipment, data center uses/structures and private power generation.
On May 22, Clifton adopted a data center ordinance that allowed the industry by conditional use in the township’s industrial district.
Hearings on the challenge began in July.
On Nov. 19 — after four hearings — the four-member board unanimously backed up its ordinance. They voted that it “is not defective and is not unlawfully exclusionary as it relates to data center uses and is not substantively invalid.”
Data center zoning appeal
In the appeal, the developer argues that the township and the 15 residents who were granted party status did not present any of their own witnesses or introduce any documents into the record. They argue that their case was supported by "uncontradicted expert testimony” and that the evidence presented in opposition “was in the nature of layperson opinion evidence” and “characterized as general opposition to a proposed data center development.”
During the hearings, Clifton Twp.’s solicitor Geoffrey Worthington and residents did cross examine the developer’s six expert witnesses.
They asked questions based on Clifton’s zoning laws while seeking more information on the developers plans for water and power use, which 1778 Rich Pike has stayed mum about. Many of the expert witnesses were paid by the developer to review the township’s zoning or worked on acquiring land or developing plans for the campus.
In the appeal filed in Lackawanna County, 1778 Rich Pike LLC also argues that the board’s decision:
- Constitutes an error of law
- Failed to recognize that data center uses are legitimate land uses under state law and are entitled to zoning accommodations
- Failed to recognize that the zoning ordinance did not expressly define or classify any of the data center uses and so by law is exclusionary
- Failed to recognize that there was not another comparable use to the data center uses currently in the zoning ordinance
- The zoning ordinance does not provide a reasonable and legitimate path to approval of the data center uses by special exception
- Failed to recognize that even if the data center uses were contemplated by the zoning ordinance, it still lacked performance standards
- Regulations contained in the zoning ordinance, including maximum building height and noise levels, unreasonably restrict data centers and make it impossible to build a data center in the township
1778 Rich Pike is asking that the court grant reverse the zoning hearing board’s decision and grant the developer site-specific relief to develop the data center campus.
