Opponents of the proposed Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus sounded off about potential noise — and the developer's offer of $17 million to the community.
Thursday’s four-hour hearing focused entirely on the methods used by consultants for Cornell Realty Management to perform a required sound study under the borough’s conditional use process.
The developer plans to construct an 18-building data center on over 500 acres off Wildcat Road and Business Route 6. Cornell needs zoning approval from borough council to move ahead with the project.
About three and a half hours into the meeting, Cornell’s lawyer Edmund Campbell Jr. told the borough that the developer was ready to offer them a $17 million community benefit agreement.
The crowd of around 400 people groaned.
The last half hour was open for public comment.
"The consequences of hosting a data center are too high, costing us our health and changing our environment forever in negative ways that we can't revoke, not even with your community benefit offer,” resident Karen Timmons said.
The sound study
Cornell's acoustical consultants, Caitlin Omsbee and Alex Hornecker, used sound level meters to study ambient sound at the 19 different locations in Archbald close to the campus.
They recorded the sound over a period of several weeks in April. Each meter captured sound for 48 hours. The ambient tone was used to create sound contour maps for the data center campus.
The consultants' sound projections are around 37 to 42 dBA around the data center buildings. dBA is a unit that measures sound levels adjusted to mimic the sensitivity of the human ear.
Campbell asked Omsbee for an example of what 65 dBA sounds like. She said a neighbor mowing their lawn. She said 55 dBA sounds like a household refrigerator.
During Attorney Justin Richards’ cross examination of Omsbee, he pointed out that the consultants did not use ANSI-certified equipment to study how the 18 buildings would sound for residents, as required by the borough's ordinance. The standards were developed by the Acoustical Society of America.
"Our methodology complies with the approved protocol via the borough and the borough's consultant,” Omsbee said.
Richards said he was not referring to protocol.
“I'm talking about what has to be submitted to this borough council,” he said. “I want to know why you have included test results for meters that do not meet the ANSI criteria mandated by the borough's ordinance.”
The borough’s zoning ordinance regulates dBA levels, including:Any project sound five decibels above the determined ambient noise level is a violation of the zoning ordinance.
- 55 dBA from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and 45 dBA from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. in residential districts.
- 65 dBA in the commercial district or R-C district at all times.
- 50 dBA in all other districts at all times.
Omsbee said the equipment was "calibrated for class one," which is the highest classification of sound measuring equipment.
Richards pointed out that while some were calibrated for class one, not all the meters were certified to be class one according to the required ANSI calibration certificates.
Tammy Misewicz-Healey, who has party status in the hearings, asked Omsbee if, without that ANSI certification, if she can guarantee that the sound meters meet the ordinance standards.
Omsbee said no.
Misewicz-Healey said there was a mistake in her copy of the sound study. Campbell later took the blame for sending her the wrong draft.
“I guess these are my concerns. Because why would we have reports with very sensitive data, with changed points, data points, this is inconsistent data,” she said.
Noise from 588 generators
The consultants' study also projected decibel levels for when the campus’ now 588 diesel-powered generators are all running — that number of generators increased from 574.
Misewicz-Healey asked Omsbee about that study.
Campbell objected, reiterating that noise levels in the zoning ordinance do not apply to the generators in emergency situations or during testing.
“So you're asking … a witness for an opinion about noise which is exempt from the ordinance,” he said.
Misewicz-Healey said yes.
"But you know that a part of Archbald borough zoning ordinance is ensuring public health and safety. So even if, under the noise standard, it is exempt, they still have a duty to ensure when the generators run, it doesn't pose a public health or safety concern,” she said.
“Tammy you’re very sharp,” Campbell said. “You also know that when there are objective criteria versus subjective criteria, borough council has to apply the objective criteria, not the subjective."
Misewicz-Healey repeated an earlier question.
“That's why I'm asking, do you have any further studies or data to support that those generators running at those decibels would be safe?” she said.
The question went unanswered.
'Big as a bus'
Archbald council's newest appointed member, Larry Marchetti, noted that all six data center campuses proposed in the borough plan to use backup diesel generators.
He said Cornell's generators are as “big as a bus” and have over 4,000 horsepower, which is what a modern freight locomotive runs at.
“Sometimes that's what's lacking in these meetings, is we don't really have a good handle on how large and the scale of ... what applicants are asking this community to accept,” he said.
Campbell retorted that they will have more details on the generators if the project gets to the land development phase.
'Every development has some impact on the community'
After the second break of the night and ahead of public comment, Campbell asked to put the community benefits agreement in the “record.”
He said the agreements includes:
- $2 million to the borough upon preliminary land development.
- $2 million upon final land development approval.
- A $6 million payment made within 30 days of the first issuance of a building permit.
- An additional $500,000 would then be paid for every building that came online.
“The total is $17 million and it would be to fund programs as the borough saw fit in compensation in response to the development,” Campbell said. “Every development has some impact on the community, and the concept of community benefit agreement is to give the borough, to give a municipality, the resources at its discretion, to respond to that.”
Residents then took to the podium to address council.
Debbie Calpin said data centers are a gift to the rich but a burden to the “rest of us.”
"We are swapping trees and neighborhoods for 80 foot tall, massive, sterile, industrial, gray boxes and humming servers, some the size of seven football fields, destroying the scenic, rural field of our community, and with it our peace and quiet and our life," she said. "This isn't development. This is industrial conversion.”
Janessa Bednash and her husband celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary at the hearing.
"We have sat through hours upon hours of testimony and countless times the same message has been given 'that will be reviewed later, that will be provided later,' this and that will be later, later, later. Later is unacceptable,” she said. “Later gives more time for things to change for the worse.”
She said, after now four hearings, they can’t trust that Cornell can carry out studies without issues.
"How on earth are we supposed to trust this applicant to blast our mountain and tear up our roads without causing complete chaos and significant safety issues?”
The hearing was continued until June 15 at Valley View High School.
