TURN OUT OCTOBER 20TH!
In Plymouth Township, the current Cleveland Cliffs Steel Mill is being proposed to be turned into a 2 million square foot data center located at 900 Conshohocken Road.
The Township Zoning Hearing Board is holding a public hearing on Monday, October 20 to hear the case and make a decision on whether a Special Exception should be granted to allow the data center to be built. As it stands, data centers are not a permitted use in the town code. Any citizen of Plymouth Township or interested party may attend the public hearing and have an opportunity to be heard.
We need you to turn out to the meeting and make it known this data center project is bad for the environment, it is bad for people, and the zoning hearing board should not accept the application for Special Exception.
Read further to see what we know and some possible suggested comments you can make at the meeting.
ATTEND THE ZONING BOARD HEARING
Monday, October 20th at 7PM
Plymouth Township Building
700 Belvoir Road
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
What we know and don’t know about the project:
- The project is currently projected to produce its own power via natural gas. The exact number of generators is yet to be revealed to the public.
- The site is currently zoned as Heavy Industrial. But right next to the site are several athletic fields, a park, townhomes, and a restaurant. Just across I-476 are a multitude of residential neighborhoods that will not be immune from emissions. The project also lies directly adjacent to the Schuylkill River.
- It is not clear how much and what kind of emissions will come out of this project. Data Centers are known to have emissions of NOx, Particulate Matter, Volatile Organic Compounds, Greenhouse Gases, etc.
- We do not yet know how much water the project will use daily, where this water will be sourced from, or how local drinking water will be impacted. Some data centers are estimated to use up to 5 million gallons of water a day.
- While the developer likens the proposed data center to warehousing and laboratories which are included in areas zoned Heavy Industrial; the differences in water usage, noise, lighting, and air emissions make this proposed data center a very different and disruptive use that is not comparable.
- The Zoning Hearing Board has a constitutional duty to protect the rights of the community members to pure water, clean air, and to the natural values of the environment; and a duty to protect natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations, including water and air. Does approving this project comport with these obligations?