After two and a half hours of public comment, Dickson City Council unanimously voted Thursday to allow for data centers in the borough's manufacturing district.
That move comes as a developer has been looking to build a data center in a residential/open space district off Business Route 6.
"We are bound by a law, and we are looking out for the best of this community,” council Vice President Robert Hall said. “So I just ask everybody, please understand that, it's challenging."
The ordinance passed by council clarifies that data centers are allowed in the area of the borough zoned for manufacturing (M1), solicitor William Jones said.
But data centers will only be allowed as a special exception in that manufacturing zone.
"What we've come up with here is an ordinance that we think is practical and defensible, and it may not please some of the developers, but it's something we feel is going to accomplish the objectives of the borough council, which are to protect the interest of the community,” borough planner Tom Shepstone said.
"It would be subject to a hearing by the zoning hearing board, and those criteria that apply to all special exceptions would have to be met,” Shepstone added.
The vote
Along with Hall, council President Jeff Kovaleski and members Richard Cesari, Casey Sims, Jack Horvath, Kimberly Kanuik and Stanely Prushinski voted in favor of the zoning ordinance.
In Pennsylvania, zoning laws have to provide for every possible use somewhere within a municipality.
Kovaleski said he had to brush up on zoning over the past three and a half months.
"You may not agree. Some of my own family may not agree, some of my own friends may not agree, but I know when I go home tonight that decision that I made, I know I made it in the best decision for this community, and I just wanted everybody to know that I put my heart and soul into this," he said.
Council first met in December to discuss the ordinance, according to Pennsylvania Public Notices.
Thursday's meeting was held at the Dickson City Civic Center to accommodate the crowd of around 150 community members.
Data center proposed for Bell Mountain in borough
Dickson City Development LLC, which incorporated in November, is proposing building a large-scale data center on Bell Mountain off Business Route 6 in the borough. That area is currently zoned residential/open space (ROS).
Attorneys Michael Mey and Raymond Rinaldi represent the developer, whose address, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State, is 99 Power Boulevard, Archbald. That is the same address as the headquarters of Kriger Construction Inc.
The lawyers sat in the front row during the hearing and special meeting. They did not speak and declined comment once it was over.
Both Mey and Rinaldi are also involved in other data center developments in Lackawanna County — Mey in Ransom Twp. and Rinaldi in Archbald.
Because municipalities have to provide for every acceptable use, Dickson City officials decided to put provisions for data centers in their manufacturing zone, which is along the Lackawanna River near the Lackawanna Valley Heritage Trail and the borough building on Eagle Lane, Jones said.
He called the area “the floor of the valley in our borough.”
Mey and Rinaldi asked for a data center overlay, which adds another use to a property, on Bell Mountain, Jones said.
"We're not creating a new zone or anything else … We're not here on the overlay district,” he said.
More residents opposed to data centers
The public hearing began at 5:30 p.m. For more than two hours, Dickson City residents addressed their opposition to data centers to council. They often turned to Mey and Rinaldi.
The residents also recalled the region’s coal mining past.
Christopher Wade is a Carbondale native that has lived with his family in Dickson City for 20 years. He said he grew up in the aftermath of the railroad and coal mining booms of the later 19th and early 20th century.
"That aftermath, after the industries had decided this area was no longer valuable to them, was economic depression, mine fires that burned down part of town, mine subsidences that still happen to this day, polluted rivers and polluted land that we're just beginning to fix almost a century later, this valley is just beginning to recover from that disaster,” he said.
Wade said he imagines the older generations in the county are shaking their heads “... at the idea that we're about to be so foolish as to even consider repeating the same mistake of giving away our valuable land and natural resources to outside companies who are coming in here to strip our resources in the name of profits that will be shipped out of our region, this community."
The residents also raised health concerns and environmental concerns, like noise, water and light pollution.
Data centers require a ton of power and some use millions of gallons of water to cool servers that run hot. The centers run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so they often have diesel or natural gas backup generators.
Leandra Nash believes investors and developers are trying to make money quickly with data centers. She pointed out that the United States already has the most data centers of any country in the world.
There are over 5,000 data centers in the United States, according to a Brookings report.
"Our community stands to lose more than it could ever gain. Forests do not exist just to be cut down. Our land does not exist just to be filled with warehouses that will inevitably become obsolete. Data centers are parasites on the communities around them, and we deserve better,” she said.
Wendy Jones is a fourth generation Dickson City resident and member of the borough’s planning commission. She said there have been no submissions to the commission to put a data center in the manufacturing zone (M1).
She said Dickson City’s M1 zone is about 14 acres. The proposal they received for the borough’s ROS zone was over 400 acres.
"The proposed ordinance before council tonight is similar to an insurance policy like auto or life. You all buy it and you hope that you don't need it. However, if something does occur, you have some remedy for damages,” Wendy Jones said.
She said the ordinance could be amended.
"Let's tell the developers of the proposed data centers who don't live in Dickson City what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do in our borough by adopting the proposed ordinance,” she said.
The youngest resident to address council was 10-year-old Carter Szescila.
"I’m here speaking up for my county and my city. I'm worried about how loud data centers can be, because I am worried about how it can affect learning and teaching, especially for kids with special needs that do not like loud noises,” he said.
Calls to suspend data center construction
Both Lackawanna County Controller Gary DiBileo and Commissioner Bill Gaughan spoke at the start of the hearing. They, along with many residents, called for the state to place a moratorium on data center construction, which would suspend the development of the industry temporarily.
"I asked statewide officials, and you and all elected officials to put the brakes on this runaway freight train as much as you possibly can,” DiBileo said.
Gaughan plans to send a formal letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro asking for the moratorium, so that communities in Pennsylvania have time to study, understand and evaluate the impact data centers have on energy, water, taxes, land use and local infrastructure.
He wants the state to investigate developers who ask local officials to sign nondisclosure agreements to hide the details of the projects from the public.
"This practice should be prohibited in the state of Pennsylvania,” he said.
Lackawanna County is one of Pennsylvania's most sought-after areas for data center development.
Six campuses are proposed in Archbald alone, with some projects already clearing land. If the campuses are all built as is, data centers, ancillary buildings, generators and other components of the industry would take up 1,560 acres in Archbald, which is around 1,200 football fields, or 9.5% of the size of Scranton.
Lawyers for Scranton Materials LLC were denied a data center overlay for their stone quarry in Ransom Twp. to build a data center campus; Jessup has at least two proposed; and there is an 11-building data center campus proposed between Clifton and Covington townships. There are also multiple proposals in Luzerne County.
"We owe it to our residents to pause before we permanently alter the character of our region, because once the mountains are cut, they are cut. Once the grid is committed, it is committed. Once the precedent is set, it is set,” Gaughan said.
