CLINTON TOWNSHIP, PA — On July 1, the Clinton Township Planning Commission voted unanimously to accept the Linde Corporation’s data center plans as complete. The plans were resubmitted after the planning commission deemed their original application incomplete on June 3. 

Brad Bates, a member of the planning commission who also serves on the Clinton Township Board of Supervisors, was not present for the vote. Commission vice chair Matt Tomazic and secretary Joe Franceski did not participate after they recused themselves due to prior business with Linde Corporation.

After the June meeting, township solicitor Ronald Bugaj had sent a letter to Linde Corporation outlining the four deficiencies that the township had identified. Bugaj said that Michael Mey, an attorney for the Linde Corporation, responded to the deficiencies with revised documents and plans.

Mey, summarizing his letter to the township at the July 1 meeting, said that “most, if not all” of the four deficiencies were dependent upon review by third party agencies, such as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). He argued that the stated issues would be proper to review during the review and preliminary approval processes, but that at the current application stage, addressing the concerns would be inappropriate. 

“We think that asking anything more at this point for an application to be determined to be complete would be violating both the SALDO [Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance] and the MPC [Municipalities Planning Code],” he said.

Mey noted that Linde Corporation was “fairly detailed” in its compliance with both the MPC and the SALDO, submitting over 100 checklist items, detailed plans and two binders of completed studies. The four deficiencies had been outlined as present in those submitted materials. 

Lou Cozza, a representative from engineering firm Kiley Associates, LLC, reviewed the application on behalf of the township.  He agreed that all of the deficiencies previously outlined had been included in the new application that he was provided. He also noted in agreement with Mey that issues under the purview of third-party agencies were excluded from deeming the application complete. Cozza stated he believed that the information was sufficient for the commission to accept the plans as complete. 

Tom Wyatt, an attorney from Philadelphia law firm Obermeyer, appeared on behalf of resident James Zefran.  Wyatt asked Cozza if a copy of a sewage planning module had been submitted with the revised documents. This question referred to an earlier concern raised by Wyatt at the June planning commission meeting surrounding Section 402.6 H of the SALDO, which requires applicants to submit “completed sewage facilities planning module(s) for land development and other required sewage planning documents as required by the PA Sewage Facilities Act and PA DEP [Department of Environmental Protection].” 

Cozza stated that a planning module was not submitted, however the applicant had received a response from DEP acknowledging the intake of an application mailer. He explained that after it receives the mailer, DEP determines the necessary sewage planning modules for the project. 

Cozza noted that the mailer was not a part of Linde Corporation’s initial application and was included in the applicant’s resubmission to address the deficiency letter.

Despite these concerns, Cozza stated that he felt this was the correct procedure, saying that the process “starts with the mailer.”

James Zefran, who also served formerly as a supervisor and on the planning commission, asked the commission whether or not it had ever deemed an application complete without an attached sewage planning module. “When I served on this commission a few years ago, I never saw a plan come through that did not have a sewer [planning] module attached to it,” he said.

In response to public concerns over what both Bugaj and Cozza stated were “minor deficiencies,” Bugaj warned residents that if they tried to deem the application incomplete based on “technical violation[s],” “the township is going to get sued.”

“I’m not going to let that happen,” he added. 

A number of residents, including Zefran, suggested to the commission that the township take additional time to review the plans, as notice of the resubmission to the public was made the day before the meeting and no electronic copies of the plans had been made available at the time. The plans were available, according to the planning commission and Bugaj, at the Clinton Township Municipal Office. The office is open Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Additionally, the residents requested the extension due to PA House Bill 2496, which was passed nearly unanimously by lawmakers on June 24. The bill would allow municipalities to pass a 180-day pause on considering new applications for data centers under existing ordinances. It passed through the PA House of Representatives and is awaiting a vote by the PA Senate. 

However, the bill states that the pause would not apply to applications submitted before the passage of the bill. 

Wyatt argued that since the application was rejected during the June meeting, the application being considered at the July meeting was a new application. Mey disagreed, saying that the application has a submission date of April 20.

Bugaj told the commission and residents that an extension for the township would have to be granted by the Linde Corporation. The Linde Corporation declined to give any extension. 

During the roll-call vote, commission member Ron Poska stated to the public that if the commission did not vote to accept the plans, they would face a potential lawsuit. 

“We are going to get sued if we don’t,” he said.

Bugaj stated that the acceptance of the plans does not allow the project to begin, but instead starts a 90-day timeline for the supervisors to review and either approve or reject the preliminary plans before they are automatically approved. The timeline, according to Bugaj, can only be extended by an agreement with the Linde Corporation.

In other news 

Prior to discussion on the application, township solicitor Ronald Bugaj updated the planning commission and attendees on the status of the amendment to the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO), which he had submitted to the planning commission and the board of supervisors on June 24. The revised amendment is available on the township website. 

Bugaj said he had received comments from the commission and the supervisors, as well as from Thomas Wyatt, an attorney from Philadelphia law firm Obermeyer representing resident James Zefran, who he said “provided a substantial amount of input” into revising the ordinance. 

The planning commission did not take any action on the amendment, as Bugaj noted that it required more revisions and comments. The planning commission is expected to further discuss the amendment at its August meeting.

Editor's note: As initially published, this article included the incorrect date for the meeting. This has been corrected as of 1:45 p.m. on Friday, July 17.