Mary Therese McKane is angry about the Wildcat Ridge Data Center and the pro-data center marketing materials directed to her and other Archbald residents.
"You think we want this?” McKane said of the campus proposed by developer, Cornell Realty Management.
“I want clean air. I want plenty of clean water, a view of the mountains, a healthy future, a healthy present, a garden of food we can eat without fear of it being polluted," McKane said Monday during the third zoning hearing for a 14-building data center campus proposed in Archbald.
“I want what I have now," McKane said, "… a quiet place to live out my time with my family and my dear neighbors nearby.”
"I don't want what you're going to bring,” she added.
McKane was addressing the brochure titled “Myths vs. Facts: Revealing the truth and dispelling rumors about data centers" mailed to residents last week.
She was not alone. Residents turned out to return the mailers to the developer at the hearing. Others raised questions about anticipated traffic at the project site.
Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Cornell wants to build the campus on 500 acres along state Route 247, also known as Wildcat Road, and Business Route 6 in the borough. Before they can build, the developer must go through the borough’s conditional use process and prove that their project aligns with the borough’s zoning rules.
Attorney Edmund Campbell represents Cornell, which was founded by Isaac Hager.
Hager has not attended the three hearings thus far. Campbell has called witnesses in his effort to prove that the company is in compliance with the zoning ordinance.
Wildcat Ridge is one of six data center campuses proposed in Archbald.
'Propaganda' or pamphlet?
Before Monday's hearing, Cornell hired a local marketing firm, Ryan Leckey Media, to mail its glossy pamphlets to Archbald residents.
The pamphlet used information from planner Tom Shepstone’s economic impact study, which was presented at the last hearing.
The brochure reiterates Shepstone’s claim the campus will bring in $45 million in tax revenue each year.
Shepstone, hired by the developer, testified in March that he based the numbers on information from Virginia, which has a different tax structure than Pennsylvania. Shepstone was in the audience Monday.
Ahead of testimony by Campbell’s only witness, residents returned the pamphlets — which they referred to as "propaganda” — to a box on the Valley View auditorium stage.
Campbell said the box was inappropriate and asked for it to be taken off the stage.
Residents protested, then obliged — then rushed to the front of the auditorium to throw away their pamphlets. A filled box with the word “eggs” crossed out and “propaganda” handwritten in its place sat at the base of the stage.
Some of the literature stayed scattered on the stage throughout the hearing in front of borough council and the data center representatives.
WVIA News asked Campbell via email to explain why the developer produced the marketing materials. He did not reply.
Standards vs, square footage
Campbell on Monday questioned Jerilyn D. Luben whose firm, Honesdale-based L&V Engineering, prepared the campus’ traffic analysis.
Highway Occupancy Permits (HOP) are required by PennDOT if there is access to and from a state road. The data center campus is proposed off Route 247. L&V’s analysis provides the basis for the development to receive the HOP.
Using the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) trip generation manual, Luben’s business partner, Jacinta M. Vrabel projects that 2,498 daily trips will be generated by the data center.
Attorney Justin Richards, who was hired by residents, questioned what Luben actually prepared for Cornell.
Her firm created a trip generation summary, she said, not a transportation impact study. She said that is an extensive document that will be prepared as part of the HOP process.
The trip generation summary uses standards and equations from the Institute of Transportation Engineers manual on data centers.
The 2,498 trips are based on part of the square-footage of data centers.
Richards pointed out the ITE standards are based on 557,000 square-foot buildings that are much smaller than the buildings proposed for Wildcat Ridge. Each building is projected to be over 5 million square feet, he said.
"So we can agree that the 14 buildings proposed at the Wildcat campus are nearly 10 times the average of the studies that appear in your traffic generation report,” he asked Luben.
She agreed.
"This is the standard that is used. There is no other data available,” Luben said.
Luben’s analysis also did not include estimates for a proposed commercial building at the site. Campbell argued that development is not part of the conditional use hearing.
'It'd be beneficial for everyone to see'
A retractable screen hung over the stage with a large blue block projected. Tamara Misewicz-Healey, who was granted party status in the hearing, asked if a map of the campus could be projected instead.
"We’re not hooked up. The answer is no. Please ask your question,” Campbell said.
"It'd be beneficial for everyone to see, but that's okay,” she replied.
Misewicz-Healey, quoting the borough’s zoning requirements, asked Luben and Campbell if they would agree that a “deficiency in demonstrating compliance with Archbald borough's traffic requirements, in and of itself, is enough grounds to legally deny an application.”
Campbell objected. He said the ordinance and state law were being mischaracterized.
"The law is clear that if counsel approves the condition of use application, they condition it on an HOP. The value of this witness is to demonstrate that this site can get an HOP, that there is no impediment to getting an HOP, and thereby getting an HOP satisfies the borough's ordinances and standards as it relates to traffic safety,” he said.
'Negligible' truck trips defined
The campus is expected to have 574 diesel fuel generators each with a well for fuel storage. The generators will all need to be tested throughout the year, which means trucks will need to transport the diesel to the site.
Luben’s analysis states that truck trips to the site would be “negligible.”
"Negligible means so small, slight or unimportant that it can be safely ignored, disregarded or neglected. Yes or no. Is that what you meant using the term negligible?” Misewicz-Healey asked.
Luben said “yes.”
Misewicz-Healey asked if — despite the report saying truck traffic was negligible — Luben's estimate included those trucks.
Luben said yes they are included in the sum of the trips, but the amount of truck trips in total is what her firm meant by negligible.
She also said they did not review traffic information from other hyper-scale data centers.
"You provide no breakdown on traffic other than a simple trip generation calculation. In your professional opinion, do you believe that limited value provides everything the public and council needs right now to know to ensure that all things traffic will be safe, compliant, no congestion and no negative impact on the community,” Misewicz-Healey asked.
"Lots more needs to be flushed out in a traffic impact study,” Campbell said.
Council member Erin Owen asked Luben if she was aware of the five other data center campuses proposed in the borough.
Luben said yes, and that their traffic will be taken into consideration during the transportation impact study, which will include a safety study.
Marketing efforts in focus
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan was first to address the information sent to residents, which also included a flyer that asked “hey, Valley View School District! What would you do with an extra $23 million a year?”
Below the question is an image of a fake check paid to the order of the district.
"The pamphlet that was sent out reduces our area, our homes, our lives and our future into a transaction. It asks you to imagine what you would buy, maybe a new swimming pool, without ever asking what you would lose," Gaughan said.
"In the centerpiece, the thing that they want burned into your mind is that check. Except in smaller print, tucked quietly beneath the illusion are the most honest words the developers and Ryan Leckey have written so far — ‘not a real check.’”
Gaughan, who wants a three-year moratorium put on data center construction, said it’s offensive that Cornell thinks that the numbers in the mailers are “enough.”
"They think we'll all look at that number and forget everything we already know. Sadly, we have seen this story before. We've been promised everything in the past, and we're left with something else entirely," he said.
The new Wildcat Ridge website features a section called “Points to Ponder” and “Questions Worth Asking.”
One prompt says “the concerns of many residents are understandable, but is it possible that a few of the more vocal data center opponents are being supported by interests from outside the area?”
Gaughan refuted that claim.
“Have they not been paying attention? It's the people who are sitting behind me tonight,” he said.
The crowd of around 500 people roared. They stood up and waved yellow “NO DATA CENTER” signs.
'Those residents are here in front of you'
The website also asks “do the chief opponents actually live in areas near where data centers will be located?” and “are a certain few people making the most noise, trying to drown out the real feelings of the residents who really want what is best for the entire community?”
"The people of Archbald in our area have been contributing their time and expertise and donating their hard-earned money to self fund the effort to safeguard our town for this and future generations,” resident Madonna Munley said.
“Those residents are here in front of you, telling you what they believe, telling you what they believe is best for the entire community. That is not one of your myths. It is the truth, even if you can't handle the truth.”
Megan Farrell used her time to address Cornell.
"Because they seem to have some questions about me personally, and I never had the pleasure of speaking with them,” she said.
One “question to consider” asks “who's paying the production costs for all the No Data Center T-shirts and No Data Center Signs?”
"I am the lead for the T-shirts and new data center signs,” Farrell said.
Farrell said she helped design and print the signs with help from a small group of family and friends. She said she puts around $1,000 on her credit card at a time for the signs and $1,800 for the T-shirts. She pays the debt down as the signs are sold at $5 a piece, and the t-shirts at $10.
"So again, let me introduce myself. My name is Megan. I am a fifth generation Archbaldian. I am a child of this valley,” she said.
"While we sacrifice our time with our family to oppose you, and you may put a number to that, we do it for our family, our passion to protect this town and its residents, it's something that you will not be able to afford.”
The hearing will continue on May 14 at 5 p.m. at the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive, Archbald.
