At a social hall in Allenwood, in Gregg Township in Union County, local residents milled around — looking at information displays and asking questions. The topic was construction of a proposed data center, and most of the community members there seem skeptical.
“We don’t want it. Everyone I’ve spoken to says ‘We don’t want it,'" said Susan Smith-Milley, one of the people at the meeting that was held in early April. Like others, she’s concerned about noise, the environment and the impact on the electric grid.
“That’s my backyard," said James Krouse, who with his wife, Taylor, was looking at the information displays at the meeting.
They live in the neighborhood next to the Great Stream Commons Industrial Park that could be home to that data center.
“Property values, electric costs, water contamination, noise levels, all of it. Every station here is a problem for us," James Krouse said. "Every one of them.”
Plans for data centers are cropping up across Pennsylvania, including in Tioga, Jefferson and Mifflin counties and Gregg Township in Union County. While companies say they’ll bring revenue and jobs, many residents are unconvinced and are speaking out against them.
New York-based PNK Group wants to build the data center in Gregg Township, starting with retrofitting an existing 478,000 square foot building. More buildings are possible over time. The company does not have a finalized tenant for the site, but it will likely be used for artificial intelligence, according to information presented at a webinar it hosted.
Outside the meeting, Jared Welch is collecting signatures of residents against the project and handing out information.
“We the people here in the community do not need this or want this," Welch said.
He lives in the neighborhood with a view of the industrial park. So do Kimberly Palm and her mother, Cheryl Palm. Kimberly Palm said she convinced her parents to move there, and now they’re all concerned about the noise and impact on their property value.
“I'm taking care of my parents. I have a daughter. We're just trying to enjoy the rest of our lives," Kimberly Palm said.
Cheryl Palm added: “And it really is a nice neighborhood here. We can walk. We have streetlights. We hear the birds, and the deer come up.”
PNK Group recently held an informational webinar about the proposed project on Zoom. They said they’re trying to be responsive to community concerns, doing things like moving the substation and chillers to reduce the noise. The project will have a closed-loop cooling system, that will need much less water than old systems.
And, they said, it will expand the local tax base and bring jobs.
“We’re really trying to design this site that has the community in mind, has the residents in mind, has the township code in mind and also is a well-run facility for the clients," said Aaron Bodenschatz, an engineer on the project.
The site is zoned for commercial-manufacturing use. But, as with a lot of municipalities in Pennsylvania, the township’s zoning does not specifically include data centers.
The company says the data center is already “compatible” with the industrial zone. But Bodenschatz said they’re asking the township for “conditional use approval” to make sure they’re complying with the township’s rules.
The situation is not unique to Union County. There is no statewide rule for how or where data centers can be built or operate. That leaves much of the oversight up to municipalities.
Mike Helbing, executive director of the Penn State Center for Energy Law and Policy, said, in general, municipalities in Pennsylvania cannot ban a “lawful use” of property.
“So they can't zone out data centers or any other lawful use, but what they can do is control the way that they're developed and the location that they're developed," he said. "So that's what we're seeing from local municipalities.”
Helbing said that could mean using zoning – requiring data centers to be built in industrial or commercial zones, having minimum lot sizes and setbacks, and addressing noise levels.
Shane Nickerson is a commissioner in Tioga County. It’s a rural county in northern Pennsylvania and, Nickerson noted, it has a lot of natural gas. But not a lot of land control.
“Over half of our county has no zoning," Nickerson said.
So after hearing from a developer about a potential data center, they started doing research. They ended up creating a data center ordinance that includes things like setbacks and noise levels and decommissioning requirements.
Nickerson’s recommendation?
“Put an ordinance in place yesterday," he said. "As soon as you can, get an ordinance so you have some control. Especially if they are close to people. Minimize the impacts on your community. And the other thing is realize what you can do and what you can't do. Do your homework and then leverage all you can. The other part of that is a community benefits agreement. So on the front end of stuff, you can make some concessions with them.”
He looked into what other communities have done to protect themselves.
“We don't have a choice whether it comes or not," Nickerson said. "What I would rather do is have a seat at the table than be on the menu."
Developers in Pennsylvania have the option of following Governor Josh Shapiro’s “GRID” standards for water use and pollution. But it’s not required. And, the Shapiro administration recently introduced a “toolkit” to help guide municipalities through the process.
The hearing on a proposed zoning amendment and conditional use approval in Gregg Township in Union County, is scheduled for July 20.
