Change to zoning ordinance approved by Board of Supervisors
A 750,000 sq ft (69,677 sqm) data center could be built in Fairview Township, Pennsylvania.
On June 28, the Fairview Township Board of Supervisors, a township south of Harrisburg, approved a request to change the zoning ordinance in order to allow a data center development as conditional use.
This means that a data center development would be permitted in the township provided it meets several conditions, including those relating to power and utility infrastructure, the submission of a sound study, and adherence to height restrictions and setback restrictions.
Data center developments in Fairview will now be considered under the categories of ‘Commercial Business Zoning District’ and ‘Industrial Business Zoning District.’
As reported by Penn Live, Kevin Brown, a representative of the applicant Fairview Crossroads LLC, said that the facility would be worth $500 million and increase tax revenue for the township by more than $6m annually.
The amendment request was previously recommended for approval by the Fairview Township Planning Commission and the York County Planning Commission. Fairview Township is located in York County.
Little information about Fairview Crossroads LLC is available, but Kevin Brown is listed as a partner of Elysian Partners LLC, a real estate company specialising in commercial and industrial properties.
One such property is the Cumberland Technology Park, an office park housing companies including IBM, Blue Cross, and Pinnacle Health Systems.
The Fairview facility is not the only recent addition to the state's data center footprint.
On July 16, several data center and energy firms, including private equity company Blackstone, pledged to invest $90 billion in the state at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.
This followed CoreWeave’s plan for a $6 billion data center in Lancaster, and a 1.5GW project that could be developed in Lackawanna County. Google and Brookfield also announced a deal that will see the former gain access to 3GW of clean hydro power from Pennsylvania.
