Lower Towamensing residents oppose proposed data center and seek hearing delay
Nearly 100 residents attended a Lower Towamensing supervisors meeting to oppose a proposed data center and ask that its Dec. 17 curative amendment hearing be postponed. DTA Alliance and Murphy’s Meadow are seeking zoning changes for a 14-building, 4.5-million-square-foot data center complex, while township officials said they would ask the developers whether the hearing date could be moved.
Nearly 100 residents urged the Lower Towamensing Township Board of Supervisors to reschedule a Dec. 17 curative amendment hearing concerning DTA Alliance and Murphy’s Meadow’s proposed data center. Save Carbon County president Linda Christman said holding the hearing shortly before Christmas would limit public participation. Township solicitor Jim Nanovic said the board would ask whether DTA would waive the applicable time frame and, if so, update the hearing date publicly.
The proposed project would span about 700 acres, including the Blue Shamrock Golf Course and the Alliance Sand Quarry, with 14 buildings totaling roughly 4.5 million square feet. DTA is challenging the township’s zoning ordinance because it does not allow data centers anywhere in the municipality and is seeking an overlay district permitting the use. Residents expressed broad opposition to the proposed location, while township officials said the public could present concerns at the hearing.
DTA Alliance and Murphy’s Meadow have also proposed a separate 375,000-square-foot data center on 55 acres in nearby Bowmanstown and filed a similar curative amendment there. The developers’ operations manager, Dan Connor, confirmed that the golf course property remains under contract but has not yet closed.