Community pushback<\/strong><\/p>\nNeighbors who wished to remain anonymous told Metro they feel it is counterintuitive to build something so disruptive, literally across the street from such a positive thing for youth in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s meeting was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m, but community members began lining the aisles of Colonial Middle School an hour prior.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As members of the community arrived, they were greeted by organizers handing out informational pamphlets, stickers, and demonstrations, including a song describing some of the potential side effects of living near data centers playing loudly from a speaker.<\/p>\n
The most impactful demonstration, according to several people in attendance, was a diesel truck running with a sign that states \u201cBack-up diesel generators will consume as much diesel and produce as much exhaust as 21,000 trucks all idling at the same time!\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill did not attend the meeting; however, his lawyer was present.<\/p>\n
In the original notice of the board meeting, the agenda included evidence presentations, with party response as time allows. That did not occur.<\/p>\n
For the parts that did take place, the board explained that those in attendance would have an opportunity to make their case for \u2018status\u2019 in the case, meaning they could join the proceedings as a party and participate in questioning and cross-examination after evidence is presented.<\/p>\n
16 of 17 applications for status were approved based on those parties being \u201cpersonally aggrieved,\u201d as the board members explained.<\/p>\n
One community member whose status was approved during the meeting, Nick Liermann, requested time to speak before the meeting adjourned to express frustrations with the process thus far. Liermann, who is a legal consultant, echoed those sentiments to Metro.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern is, what you have on one side are regular community members with no expertise and no resources. On the other side, you have a developer who’s been doing this for a very long time that has literally billions of dollars of assets and attorneys at his disposal,\u201d Liermann said. \u201cAnd what the zoning hearing board has created is a situation where they are going to present expert testimony, but we have no idea what they’re going to say, who they are, or what their opinions are based on. And we have been told that we have to be prepared to effectively cross-examine experts in the field with no information on which to prepare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liermann requested that advance notice and information be provided to all parties with status in the proceedings. When the board responded saying that O\u2019Neill and his party were not required to do so, the crowd of concerned citizens erupted in boos and chanted \u2018shame, shame, shame,\u2019 at board members. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t do trials by surprise, which is what they’re doing here. There’s already a massive mismatch in the power dynamic, and they have only magnified it with their decision,\u201d Liermann said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also noted that when a new application is made, as is the case in Plymouth Township, a planning meeting should be scheduled before a meeting in front of the zoning board. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey decided to skip over that entire planning meeting, which is where we as the community would be able to ask more questions and get more information,\u201d Liermann said. \u201cThey’ve robbed us of that, because right now all we know is the very short application information that was provided.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As post-meeting discussions were nearly finished, a concerned neighbor, who requested anonymity, told Metro he knows first-hand the environmental impact of massive data centers \u2014 because he works at one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pollution concerns are real, and the new employment is minimal,\u201d the contractor who works in a nearby data center said. \u201cI didn\u2019t care about data centers at all until I had to work there. There\u2019s a hum all day and smoke all around when we walk into work. After seeing a post about this meeting, I had to come and support the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next steps, growing opposition<\/strong><\/p>\nThe next meeting is scheduled for July 28, with another scheduled for July 30 should the earlier one run long. <\/p>\n
One thing is for sure \u2014 local community leaders are ready for a long fight, and they want people in neighboring communities and in the city of Philadelphia to pay close attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the largest data center that’s proposed for the region, and it’s within literally 200 feet of men, women, and children where they live every single day,\u201d Liermann stated. \u201cEverything about this comes up short, and the only people that are going to pay the consequences are the same people that live here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it can happen here, it can happen in your neighborhood,\u201d Lukens said. \u201cDon’t think that the golf course next to you that no one uses anymore [is safe]; it could turn into a data center.\u201d<\/p>\n
MORE: Pennsylvania communities are pushing back on data center proposals<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tPlymouth Township,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Montgomery County,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Conshohocken,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Data Centers,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Zoning Board,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Community News,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Development,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Environment,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Brian O’Neill,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t MLP Ventures\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first of several zoning board meetings took place last week regarding a proposed 2-million-square-foot data center in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":901551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,365053,7366,222891,8296,2556,746,9631,1448,2830,1311,365051,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,365052],"class_list":["post-901550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-brian-o","tag-community-news","tag-conshohocken","tag-data-centers","tag-development","tag-environment","tag-montgomery-county","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-plymouth-township","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zoning-board"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116835311151089993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}