Land ordinance amendment represents red tape, not red carpet

12/23/25

By Lauren Royce, Editor
MONTROSE — An amendment to Susquehanna County’s Subdivision and Land Ordinance (SALDO) may not fully stop data centers from attempting to build in the area, but it could slow them down and make it less likely. An upcoming meeting on Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. in the Commissioners’ conference room in the Susquehanna County Courthouse will review the amendment and its requirements that could hamper data centers from encroaching upon the area.
Susquehanna County Commissioner Alan Hall broke down what the amendment and its meeting signifies.
“What it’s saying is, currently we have no ordinances for data centers, and so the amendment is to have an ordinance for a data center,” Hall said. “Basically, under the purpose of the section is to provide for the development, construction, operation and decommissioning of data centers in the county. It’s subject to reasonable conditions that will protect the public health, safety and welfare, so without this ordinance, whoever wants to build a data center can do whatever they want. With this ordinance, or a derivative of this ordinance, then they are bound by certain rules and regulations they have to follow if they construct one. So the purpose of the ordinance is to protect the public and to protect the environment.”
A June report by WTAE said Amazon expects to spend $20 billion on data centers in Pennsylvania, including plans to build one right next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Berwick. While some argue it could create jobs, others say it will do more harm than good. As of November, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had rejected the amendments that would have allowed the data center to plug into the plant according to K&L Gates.
Because Susquehanna County does not have county wide zoning, it can’t forbid a data center from coming here, Hall said. State law prohibits it and if it tried, Hall said, the county would get sued for being discriminatory, lose and the data center builders would win. Even so, under the law there would have to be a designated industrial and commercial area for them to build there. But what can be done is adding regulations the builders would have to follow.
“The regulations like in this case deals with everything, from the height of the building, the water usage, the sewer usage, the lighting, the signage, emergency management and the decommissioning of a facility,” Hall said. “Everything in there is to protect the public in the county.”
But Pennsylvania is a commonwealth, not a state. In a commonwealth, the highest form of government, is the lowest form of government. “If we put this ordinance in place, there’s five or six townships or municipalities that do not follow our SALDO, they have their own, they can do whatever they want to do,” Hall said. “So if they don’t pass something, they could end up with whatever that comes in.” Such as with Clifford’s solar panel farm issues. Clifford passed an ordinance in 2024 with restrictions on solar panel height, location and requirements of obtaining a landowner agreement among other things should the solar companies want to build there.
If the state puts out regulations, those townships and municipalities that want to do their own thing still have to follow state restrictions.
“When it comes to state regulation, you can be stronger, it can be more restrictive than the state regulation, but it can’t be less restrictive. So those are state agencies and fed agencies, but as far as the county goes, they can have something that’s less than the county or more restrictive than the county.”
One of the things in the SALDO amendment is the same as the solar panel one, Hall said, is the company would have to put money or a bond up to pay for the decommissioning of the data center. So if it’s built, uses up 10 acres of land, they have to pay to put the ground back to what it was before. Meaning there’s no mess and escape after they get done using it.
“This is corporate America, the last thing you want (is for) them to come in here and throw a building up that’s 250 feet tall, that’s sucking a million gallons of water out of the ground every 10 days, and dumping a million gallons of contaminated water back out,” Hall said, “huge fans running with vibration and got all kinds of vented fumes coming out of it, well you don’t want any of that around your house. So this is what controls that so you don’t have those issues.”
One of the standards in the ordinance reads, “The maximum building height for a Data Center shall be [60] feet, inclusive of roof-mounted equipment such as cooling and ventilation systems, HVAC units and cooling towers.”
The height of the accessory uses shall be no greater than the height of the principal building and should set back 200 feet from the boundary of a residential or the lot line of any property developed with a sensitive receptor, according to section 713.6 of the ordinance (2025-01).
The noise and vibration section (713.8) says the daytime noise level of a data center should not surpass 67 decibels between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday— that’s the same level of noise as a washing machine, or plain conversation. For nights and weekends, the level is 57 decibels, like the humming of a refrigerator.
While the government can’t control when people decide to accept money offered to them by data center companies for their private land, what can be controlled is once that transaction takes place, what goes on the property can be controlled by the regulations in this amendment and enforcing them.
Ron Parsons, a county resident who, like many, was trying to piece together its meaning online, said he had also spoken with commissioners to get clarification.
“Because we are a county without zoning, it is challenging to stop any plan to bring data centers here,” Parsons said. “It pretty much would only require a willing land owner. Susquehanna County has an ordinance in place for solar farms and the addition of data center ordinance will protect our county.”
Parsons said he encourages people to go to susqco.org and download the .pdf document of the ordinance, review its requirements of any planned data center, and lastly bring all questions, comments, suggestions and concerns to the commissioners public meeting on December 29. On susqco.com, scroll to the current events section and click the top link to the notice of the land ordinance. Within that there is a link to the .pdf with the information.
“Data centers are on everyone’s radar screens across the country,” Parsons said. “The commissioners are putting this ordinance in place to protect the interests of the people. Instead of panicking and creating a fire storm, people should do a bit of research and attend the meeting with ideas of how to make the ordinance better.”