A data center developer will go before Clifton Twp. zoners Tuesday to challenge the validity of the township’s zoning ordinance amid efforts to construct more than two dozen data center buildings in Clifton and Covington townships.
The Clifton Twp. Zoning Hearing Board will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Gouldsboro Fire Station, 490 Main St., to consider a substantive validity challenge filed by 1778 Rich Pike LLC, according to a public notice published July 18 in The Times-Tribune. The challenge contends that the township’s zoning ordinance wrongfully excluded data centers, data center equipment, data center accessory uses/structures and private power generation facilities. Municipalities in Pennsylvania are required to allow for every type of lawful land use somewhere within their boundaries.
The proposed data center campus has faced substantial resistance from North Pocono residents.
Based out of Doylestown, 1778 Rich Pike LLC proposes to build as many as 30 data centers across just under 1,000 acres split between Clifton and Covington townships on either side of Interstate 380, just north of Clifton Beach Road. Each building would be up to three stories with about 125,000 square feet per floor. The developer previously proposed up to 34 data centers, but attorney Tony Maras, who represents 1778 Rich Pike, said in a text Monday 25 to 30 buildings is a likely range.
Maras previously explained the site selection due to its proximity to PPL’s 230-kilovolt power lines, access to high-speed fiber optic data lines and the available local workforce.
Last week, Covington Twp. supervisors approved an ordinance on Thursday amending the township’s zoning to address data centers and related uses, creating a “Data Center and Energy Technology” zoning district along Interstate 380, and putting in place the zoning and standards to establish, construct and operate data centers while protecting the public, according to the ordinance.
The ordinance allows data centers to be up to 120 feet tall, with up to 200 feet for water towers and power generation facilities. It also adds small modular reactors, or SMRs, to township zoning, requiring approval as special exceptions. SMRs are a class of small nuclear fission reactors designed to be built in a factory, shipped to operational sites for installation and then used to power buildings or other commercial operations, according to the ordinance.
Covington Twp.’s ordinance makes data centers a conditional use, meaning the developer would have to apply for a conditional use permit that requires them to meet a series of conditions established by the township for approval from supervisors.
The township also requires data center developers or users to submit a master plan.
The master plan will show the data centers and their accessory uses, energy generation stations, preserved land, flood plains, wetlands, surveys, traffic information, an estimated economic impact statement and an environmental impact statement, Covington Twp. Solicitor Joel Wolff said Monday. As part of the process, data center developers will have to show items like 100-foot woodland buffers around the property, sound studies and an analysis of all water needs, he said.
The water study is more demanding, with developers having to submit an analysis of all their water needs, whether they will use public or private sources for water, documentation of existing wells within 1,000 feet of their property lines, and show whether there is an adequate water supply, Wolff said.
“If there’s any likelihood of adverse impacts on the existing wells, they won’t get approved,” he said, explaining the ordinance aims to protect citizens and natural resources.
The township’s board of supervisors can also conduct their own sound and water studies at the expense of the developer, Wolff said.
Supervisors voted 3-2 on the legislation last week following a lengthy public hearing, Wolff said.
In Clifton Twp., 1778 Rich Pike LLC filed its substantive validity challenge on April 17. Later that day, supervisors met to introduce a zoning amendment governing data centers, which they adopted the following month. Similar to Covington Twp., the ordinance defined data centers and made them conditional uses, establishing conditions like woodland buffers and setback requirements; an analysis of raw water needs with a water feasibility study required for nonpublic sources of water, including approval from the Susquehanna or Delaware river basin commissions; an agreement with an electric service provider; and a sound study. The ordinance also restricts the height of data centers to 35 feet — a figure the developer’s attorney previously said is too low to allow for adequate cooling and airflow.
On June 20, 1778 Rich Pike LLC and JCO LLC, 207 Drinker Turnpike, Covington Twp. — which is the legal owner of a large chunk of the proposed data center land — filed a procedural validity challenge against Clifton Twp. in the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas that asked the court to declare the data center ordinance void due to procedural issues like failing to properly post an agenda 24 hours ahead of the May 22 special meeting to adopt the ordinance and failing to have its planning commission review the ordinance, according to the challenge.
Rich Troscianecki, president of the nonprofit North Pocono CARE (Citizens Alert Regarding the Environment), raised concerns Monday about the high environmental impact of data centers, pointing to their power utilization and water utilization, noise, and pollution if they use gas generators.
“Just the destruction of 1,000 forested acres is mind boggling to me,” he said. “That’s what keeps the water clean up here. … There won’t be any recovery from it. If they do any damage at all, one slip of the finger, and it’s gone.”
Troscianecki worried about the impacts on residents, flora, fauna, water quality and fisheries. The land slated for development includes forests, wetlands, swamps, ponds, and the Meadow Brook as well as two unnamed streams flow through it, he said.
“It’s just the wrong spot to put it,” he said. “We’re trying to protect what we have up here.”
Like Troscianecki, June Ejk, a former Clifton Twp. supervisor of 12 years who helped launch a “Concerned Clifton Citizens” Facebook page in February, also criticized the location. Residents in both Clifton and Covington townships use wells for water, as there is no public water system, she said, raising concerns over the impact on their water, the environment, wildlife, deforestation, light pollution and the potential for small modular nuclear reactors in Covington Twp.’s zoning.
If her township’s zoning hearing board grants the substantive validity challenge, Ejk hopes they ensure it will not harm the public health, safety and welfare.
“That might be raising concerns about water usage, noise, fire protection, power surges, the increased cost of power to the residents,” she said. “If they find that the ordinance is not exclusionary, the developer will not be able to build the project as proposed.”