Clifton Twp. supervisors said they will continue to listen to the community as they work to update the township's zoning ordinance to regulate the data center industry.
"I appreciate all the respect that everybody gave and received. I thank everybody. Great comments, and this is exactly what we had hoped to get out of this meeting,” Chair Jill Zindle said.
The township held its regularly scheduled supervisors meeting Thursday, which also included the first public hearing on updating the ordinance.
The move is timely. Lackawanna County Judge Mark Powell ruled on Wednesday that the township’s previous ordinance to regulate data centers is void.
"Which means effectively it never became law," said Solicitor Geoffrey Worthington.
That ruling came after Doylestown-developer 1778 Rich Pike LLC, which plans to construct an 11-building data center campus in Clifton and Covington townships, challenged the zoning through three different avenues.
"So my opinion is that now it can no longer serve as a platform for a substantive challenge," Worthington said of the ordinance Powell voided.
Between December and June, Gouldsboro Land LLC, which shares an address with 1778 Rich Pike LLC, purchased 315 acres over three properties on Dorantown Road, Sandy Beach Road and Routes 611 and 380, in Covington Twp.; and a 141-acre property on Routes 611 and 380 in Clifton Twp.
Ordinance's legal challenges
- April 17: 1778 Rich Pike LLC filed a substantive validity challenge to the township's zoning ordinance. They argued that the zoning ordinance excludes the following uses: data center, data center equipment, data center accessory uses/structures and private power generation facility, collectively referred to as data center uses. The developer is seeking site-specific relief. Later that day, Clifton Twp. Supervisors introduced and discussed a data center ordinance that would amend the zoning ordinance to permit data centers as conditional uses within the Industrial District (I) and to provide additional regulations. At the time, Clifton did not have zoning for data centers.
- May 22: Clifton supervisors added a zoning amendment to govern data centers.
- June 20: The developer and property owner, JCO LLC, filed a procedural validity challenge against Clifton Twp. in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas. They said the township violated the Sunshine Act — the state's open meetings law, among other procedural problems.
- July 29: Zoning Hearing Board hearings began in Clifton.
- Nov. 19: After four hearings, the Clifton Twp. Zoning Board backed up its zoning ordinance, stating that it does allow for data centers to be built in the municipality.
- Jan. 2: Clifton Twp. supervisors approved a settlement agreement with 1778 Rich Pike LLC for three properties.
- July 9: Worthington advertises the Aug. 20 meeting and provides the paper with a copy of the proposed ordinance.
- July 17: 1778 again challenged the township’s data center zoning from May 2025. This time, the developer, through its attorney Matthew McHugh, filed a substantive validity challenge with the township board of supervisors and provided a curative amendment.
Residents give feedback
Before Powell’s ruling on Wednesday, Clifton already planned to update its data center zoning ordinance.
The around a dozen residents who spoke during the hearing were all in favor of extending woodland buffer requirements. The current draft ordinance sets the buffer at 100 feet next to the data center development’s property boundaries.
“I would like the board to please review that and maybe start with 500 feet to half a mile,” said Danielle Schneider, whose property is next to where 1778 plans to build. “I know it's new technology, and this is all new to us. So, but 100 feet seems inadequate with houses surrounding the general area.”
Residents' suggestions to the pending ordinance also included:
- Pamela Barton Robinson asked that approval be needed from the Susquehanna or Delaware river basin commissions if a data center project plans to withdraw 50,000 gallons of water per day or less from any source or a combination of sources. The current pending ordinance sets that limit at 100,000 gallons of water per day.
- Gretchen Bentler wants the “ingress and egresses” for the facility kept out of the residential zones. “We don't want to hear the trucks going in and out of the facility,” she said.
- Bentler was also among residents who suggested the height of the buildings be reduced to 35 feet, which is the height level for other facilities zoned by the township. The developer brought in an expert to testify to the zoning hearing board on height requirements.
- Philip Mosely suggested the borough use the Dark Sky International Organization standards for outdoor lighting.
- The pending ordinance requires a decommissioning plan. Karl Knepley said the township should require a financial reserve to decommission and to fund any problems with well water because of the development.
- Rich Troscianecki suggested that the ordinance include a requirement that the developer fund a township department to enforce the zoning ordinance.
"We are not here to design and set up buildings that meet their needs. We live here. We pay the taxes, and we're the ones that are going to be impacted greatly, not only by our health, but our home values, everything,” Bentler said. “Our goal here is to represent everybody behind me and our community.”
Worthington said that McHugh, 1778's lawyer, had sent him a "redlined" version of the new ordinance.
Ordinance's current status
With Powell’s ruling, residents also asked if Clifton is currently protected by any ordinance. Worthington said the proposed ordinance is considered “pending.”
“So, in theory, if a zoning application were to come in, it would be subject to this new ordinance as long as it remains pending, in whatever final form it's enacted in,” he said.
Worthington also said supervisors can only officially change the ordinance during a public meeting.
Supervisors voted to continue the hearing until their next meeting on Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Gouldsboro Fire Hall, 490 Main St., Gouldsboro.
