Hollenback Twp. landowners embrace data centers on their farm land
Landowners in Hollenback Twp., Pennsylvania, are seeking to rezone 460 acres of agricultural land for data center development. Their request was deemed denied due to procedural issues, leading to a legal dispute where their attorneys claim the township's current zoning ordinance is unconstitutional and does not provide for data centers.
A group of approximately 30 landowners in Hollenback Township, Pennsylvania, is seeking to rezone 460 acres of agricultural land to industrial to facilitate the construction of at least 11 data centers. The landowners' attorneys argue that the township's existing zoning ordinance is illegal and unconstitutional because it fails to provide any suitable locations for data centers.
The request for rezoning was effectively denied after township officials failed to conduct a full public hearing within 60 days. Attorneys from Karpowich Law Firm, representing the landowners, attribute this failure to improper meeting advertisement. They also state that the landowners had sought a "curative amendment" to the ordinance before the township attempted to enact new regulations concerning data centers. The legal dispute continues, with the matter currently in "legal limbo." The proposed data center campus would be about a mile from a site where Amazon is developing a large data center campus on land previously sold by Talen Energy.