Penn Forest Twp. supervisors unanimously approved a 45-page curative zoning amendment to regulate data centers in the Carbon County municipality.
"We've written an ordinance that is as expansive as is legally possible to write. It is the strongest thing that currently exists as a proposition in the state of Pennsylvania, as it currently stands,” vice chairman Christian Bartulovich said.
After 50 minutes of public comment Monday night, supervisors Roger Meckes, chair; Bartulovich, Brandon Bell, Patrick Holland and James Denier voted to adopt the zoning amendment. Most of the roughly 50 community members in the audience at Penn’s Peak applauded the move.
The township has not received an application to build a data center in the municipality.
Bartulovich said adding the curative amendment to the ordinance was not about approving a data center but rather permitting a lawful use. In Pennsylvania, and most of the United States, municipalities must provide zoning for all acceptable uses.
"This is a conditional use. If they can't meet the conditions that are in the ordinance, we can deny it," he said.
Residents who spoke were mostly in favor of the amendment, despite being opposed to data center development in the township.
"I'm only thinking about these poor developers out there. If they are thinking of putting a data center in Penn Forest, they should price in the cost of aggravation, money and time, because the opposition is not going anywhere,” Linda Christman said.
She is president of Save Carbon County, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the county's water, farms and land.
What’s in the ordinance
The ordinance defines an overlay district in an area zoned residential.
"An overlay preserves the underlying district. So it's still eligible to use for that, but the overlay allows for the use that we're discussing," Bartulovich said during a hearing on Feb. 24.
Part of that land along Route 903 and Maury Road is owned by Mele Brothers Realty. The Montgomery County company, through its attorney Matthew McHugh, said it plans to build a data center on the land. They filed a substantive validity challenge against the township for lacking zoning regulations for data centers and the industry’s uses, like power generation. That was filed before Penn Forest supervisors added data centers to the township's zoning.
The challenge was still standing as of Tuesday night, McHugh said.
Other stipulations in the ordinance include:
- Dimensional standards, including that the minimum lot area shall be 30 acres.
- Capping the height of data centers at 60 feet, plus 15 feet for rooftop equipment.
- Providing architectural and design standards.
- Setting standards for setbacks and buffer yards and equipment screening and fencing.
- Setting noise and vibration standards.
- Operators have to submit an emergency response plan.
- A study on the amount of power needed for the data center project.
- Woodland protection and replacement requirements state that no more than 50% of woodlands shall be disturbed for non-residential uses.
'Not enough groundwater'
The amount of water needed to cool racks of servers in data centers is not just a concern for Penn Forest residents but for people across Northeast Pennsylvania faced with the possibility of a data center campus near their homes. The amount of water used depends on the developer and/or operator. Some use air-cooled systems.
Water for homes and businesses in Penn Forest Twp. comes from wells. There is no public water source.
The ordinance states that developers must submit a water feasibility study. They also must test wells and water quality throughout its operation.
The ordinance defines an area of influence, which is the region where water resources may be measurably impacted by pumping. There are standards in place if a neighbor’s well is impacted by the data center in that area of influence.
Resident Ashleigh Davis asked about the well agreement.
“How are we going to determine where the aquifer spanned to? What people are actually going to be considered the area of influence?” she asked.
Bartulovich said as it stands, that’s an unknown.
Questions were again asked about the capability of the aquifer to handle the amount of water needed to cool a data center.
"We're not going to know what they would ask for until they ask for it, nor will we know what's available until the studies are completed, but rest assured, they have to comply with what those studies show," Bartulovich said.
Jacob Peterzak from Mayer’s Well Drilling in Albrightsville spoke.
“There is not enough groundwater in this area to provide for a data center," he said.
Transparency and decommissioning
The ordinance includes community transparency measures.
If the data center operator plans to use backup power generators then it has to maintain a public website and announce the times when the generators will be in operation. Routine operation of the generators, including testing, has to be announced on the website at least 24 hours in advance.
Many residents across the region question the long-term need for large data centers. They often point out that computers that were once the size of a room had less computing power then cell phones.
Penn Forest is requiring a decommissioning plan for facilities that are left unused or unfinished, under which an owner or operator would have to restore the property to its condition prior to construction.
To apply for the conditional use, a developer must submit an estimate from an independent professional engineer licensed in Pennsylvania on how much it would cost to decommission the facility.
‘This is what is going to protect us in the future’
A group of residents handed out a paper before the meeting asking residents to join in on an appeal of the ordinance.
Many spoke up to denounce that request.
"I just want to say to the people that are here today that it is important for us to have this amendment go through,” Davis said. “This is what is going to protect us in the future. So please understand that they are trying to do the best they can to make sure they are addressing our concerns as well as our well being.”
Bartulovich argued that a denial of the ordinance would strengthen Mele Brothers substantive validity challenge and could open the township up to other challenges.
Scott Pickford’s home borders the data center overlay zone. He said the last thing he wants is a data center in his backyard.
"By it passing, it protects us in the future. If this doesn't pass, it goes back to square one. And guess what? We don't have ordinances to deal with data centers so they can do whatever they want,” he said.
