EAST COVENTRY — Add East Coventry to the ever-growing list of places where data centers are on the public agenda.
Just one day after East Vincent held its hours-long meeting on a proposed new ordinance covering data centers, neighboring East Coventry Township had its first public discussion of a request to amend the township’s zoning code to include language to allow data centers.
“A data center is a sprawling collection of computer servers that perform essential functions of the online world, like processing and storing information. As tools like artificial intelligence, which require a lot of processing power, rapidly advance, these centers are being built frequently and quickly nationwide,” according to reporting by Spotlight PA. “These centers require a lot of electrical power and water to cool their servers.”
In this case, the data center request came from an unusual source, Constellation Energy, which operates the nuclear power station across the river in Limerick Township.
On Oct. 22, Township Manager Eugene Briggs received a letter from a York-based law firm, Barley Snyder, representing Constellation, making the request. The letter was referred to the township planning commission, which discussed the matter publicly for the first time at the Nov. 13 meeting.
Planning Commission Chairman Lawrence Tietjen said the township had already been mulling the potential need for a data center ordinance for the last seven months. Township Solicitor Mark Hosterman said much of that discussion had focused on an examination of the ever-evolving ordinance being considered in East Vincent, where a data center has been proposed on the property of the former Pennhurst Asylum.
The letter indicates that Constellation has purchased five parcels, using different limited liability corporations, on Route 724 and Sanatoga Road, which are in the limited industrial and commercial zoning districts.
Signed by Stacey R. MacNeal, an attorney with the firm who also spoke to the planning commission on Nov. 13, the letter indicated Constellation feels there are many benefits to allowing a data center to be built, primarily economic and tax revenue benefits.
Concerns most often raised with data centers, noise and water consumption, can be addressed by the fact that “next generation facilities are being constructed with mitigation measures that address these concerns, even in areas with close proximity to suburban development.”
MacNeal told the planning commission Thursday that the draft ordinance Constellation had submitted for the township to consider was not directly related to the property it had purchased, but could be applied anywhere the specified conditions exist.
MacNeal insisted Constellation is acting “as a property owner, not a developer.”
“I just don’t buy that,” Tietjen responded. “It does not seem to me like buying land is your core business. Why is an energy company buying land?”
He dismissed the argument that a data center is not much different than a warehouse use. “These larger data centers, which are water-cooled,” are not being built to assist an existing facility, but to serve a wider-ranging network. “You’re now providing a product, whether it’s AI, cryptocurrency or something else,” Tietjen said. “This is a heavy industrial use. I fundamentally disagree if this is what’s contemplated for this area.”
Later, he noted, “I’m not against data centers, I just think they have to be in the right spot. And I just don’t think this is the right spot.”
“It’s incredibly important to Constellation that this (data center) is right for the community, MacNeal said.
“You can’t convince me that you don’t have an end user in mind, considering what you paid for the property,” said Planning Commission Vice Chair N. Lance Parson.
“And why did you buy the land under several aliases?” Tietjen added. “You can understand why we’re a little skeptical. You would not be paying that kind of money for these parcels if it was not part of a long-range plan.”
The planners also heard from eight speakers, including state Sen. Katie Muth, D-24th Dist., and not one of them spoke in favor of siting a data center in East Coventry.
Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, Eastern Pennsylvania Organizer with Food & Water Watch and a member of the West Whiteland Township Planning Commission, offered up her organization’s model data center ordinance and criticized aspects of the ordinance Constellation had submitted.
“One hundred feet is not a recommended setback, and 120 feet is not a recommended height,” she said. “Constellation is asking you to roll out the red carpet for this.”
Marcille-Kerslake said the township should also be cautious to “make sure there is a de-commissioning plan because “in five to 10 years, these centers will be obsolete and you could end up with a stranded asset. They should be responsible and pay for that up front.”
Resident Tom Kennedy agreed. “I work in finance and these things are in an economic bubble right now. There is a lot of money going back and forth and in 10 years, we could end up with a bunch of empty buildings along the Schuylkill,” he said.
Muth, who has also spoken extensively at the meetings on this subject in East Vincent, where she lives, said areas near high voltage lines, like those attached to the nuclear power plant, “are a target for community exploitation.”
She noted that local emergency response teams “are not trained for an emergency at these data centers. There are a lot of batteries and a lot of diesel generators.”
“They’re going to need a lot of fire suppression on site and not rely on our volunteer fire company,” Tierjen agreed. “They are not going to want our guys spraying water all over their servers.”
Muth also warned that “Pennsylvania state laws are not protective. There is no cap or limit in state law to the number of data centers in one area. I assure you, the state is not going to protect you. They have rolled out the red carpet.”
She said data centers are currently being proposed in Cumberland and York counties as well as in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Montour counties.
Case in point, in June, Amazon announced a $20 billion plan to build two data centers in Pennsylvania.
And while Gov. Josh Shapiro has touted the number of jobs those projects could generate, Spotlight PA reported “under a state program passed into law in 2016 and expanded in 2021, companies that spend at least $75 million on a data center and create at least 25 new jobs are exempt from state sales taxes when they purchase equipment to operate servers, cooling systems, software, and more. The law requires neither the buyer nor the seller to report the cost of exempt transactions to the state. That means the exact cost is unknown.”
Also potentially unknown to the public is the actual amount of water required to operate a specific data center because they are often the subject of non-disclosure agreements as trade secrets, Muth warned.
That worries Brady Flaharty, East Coventry’s township engineer, who became alarmed at some water usage figures being offered up, such as 1 million gallons a day. East Coventry is currently involved in litigation with North Coventry Municipal Authority regarding the sale of its sewer system to Aqua PA, which recently merged with its rival, PA American.
“Our public sewer is treated at the plant in North Coventry, and under that agreement, we have about 186,000 gallons of capacity left, and that’s reserved for residential use. Those numbers are scaring me,” Flaharty said.
Tietjen ended the meeting by noting that the issues brought up are just some of those that are connected to this burgeoning use and he wants to be sure to give Constellation the opportunity to address some of them and answer those questions.
