Developer Brian O'Neill is back with a fresh zoning application for a data center at the former Spring Mill site, and the second swing has predictably reignited the same fight the first one started. MoreThanTheCurve reports the new application was filed earlier this month, with a zoning hearing expected sometime in June.
Here is the part worth chewing on. Plymouth Township's Environmental Advisory Board, the body you might reasonably assume has something to say about a massive power-hungry facility going up next door, has no official role in the zoning hearing. None. They can comment as residents like anyone else, but the formal record does not include them by right. Make of that what you will.
Adding another wrinkle, Patch is reporting that the same developer has been lobbying the Shapiro administration on legislation that would strip the right to appeal data center approvals. A primary election is also coming May 19th, and while MoreThanTheCurve characterizes most races as largely uncontested, it remains a chance to weigh in on the candidates who will eventually be shaping local positions on exactly these kinds of projects.
Read the full reporting at MoreThanTheCurve and Plymouth-Whitemarsh Patch.