Legal notice claims deemed approval for Muncy Township data center
Developers of a proposed data center in Muncy Township, Pennsylvania, have claimed "deemed approval" for their conditional use application due to the township's failure to conduct a required hearing within 60 days. This follows the township's earlier denial of the application and the enactment of a data center moratorium. The situation is expected to result in litigation.
Danko Holdings II, LP / Fishlips, LLC, a local development company owned by Dan Klingerman, has claimed "deemed approval" for its conditional use application to develop a data center in Muncy Township, Pennsylvania. The developer filed the application on April 28, but the township failed to conduct the required hearing within 60 days or request an extension, as mandated by the state's Municipalities Planning Code (MPC).
This legal development follows an earlier period where the Muncy Township board of supervisors initially denied receiving a data center application and subsequently passed a moratorium on data centers in the township. Despite the "deemed approval" claim, township officials, including Planning Commission head Larry Spatz, stated they had not seen the developer's plans. Township solicitor Joe Orso III cited inconsistencies in DANKO's application and indicated that the developer's claim of deemed approval would likely lead to litigation.
Simultaneously, the township's planning commission has begun working on a curative amendment to the zoning ordinance to address the data center issue. The concept of "deemed approval" under the MPC is designed to prevent local governments from intentionally delaying development applications by imposing strict timelines for their review and decision-making processes.