OLYPHANT — Community members saw no benefit Tuesday to a proposed settlement and $101 million community benefits agreement between the borough and a data center developer.
“We do not want you to willfully neglect your obligation to protect our community, and we are here tonight to hold everyone accountable. We don’t want to insult our sense of community and morality,” Olyphant resident Kathleen Evanina said to borough officials. “For what? A minor discount on a utility bill, some money for the borough? This does not compensate for a ruined landscape, a permanently altered town and an industrial complex demanding its seat and ruling out our table. Data centers are not community assets — they are parasitic drain.”
Borough council held its first meeting since announcing it is considering settling a lawsuit with ERCOR Triboro LLC and entering into a community benefits agreement. The CBA would pay the borough $101 million over 15 years in exchange for allowing Project Triboro to bypass the public hearing process. ERCOR sued Olyphant in June in an effort to circumvent zoning and conditional use hearings to develop more quickly seven data centers and a substation within the footprints of four approved 1-million-plus-square-foot warehouses across 470.61 acres off Marshwood Road and Route 247. Borough officials saw the CBA as a means to significantly reduce residents’ property tax and electricity bills while giving the town more money for its police, parks and schools.
The borough initially scheduled a special meeting Nov. 5 to consider the settlement and CBA but canceled it after learning of potential legal intervention from the neighboring Triboro Commerce Park, which previously applied for and withdrew plans for seven data centers. An attorney for the commerce park later called it a miscommunication.
With the special meeting canceled, about 60 people packed Olyphant’s council chambers Tuesday. Though there was nothing on the agenda regarding the CBA or settlement, a dozen speakers addressed council. Nearly everyone who spoke opposed the agreement.
Residents wearing yellow shirts inscribed with “Stop Olyphant Data Centers” or “Protect Our Queen City” dotted the crowd. Yellow shirts and signs have become synonymous with the local data center opposition movement, particularly in Archbald.
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