Plymouth Township announced on August 17th that future zoning hearings involving the proposed data center at 900 Conshohocken Road in Conshohocken (Plymouth Township) will be held at the township building’s meeting room, the normal location for township public meetings. The previous two meetings about the data center were held at the Colonial Middle School auditorium, which seats 750 people. The township’s meeting room seats a few dozen. The last meeting essentially filled the auditorium to capacity.

The township’s reasoning for changing the venue is to “provide an appropriate setting for the continued proceedings and ensure that testimony can be clearly heard and accurately recorded.” The prior meetings had repeated outbursts from the audience, which led the zoning hearing board’s solicitor to ask the audience to be quiet so the court reporter could accurately capture the testimony. There were also concerns about live stream reliability at the middle school.

Ardis Lukens, one of the leaders of No Conshy Data Centers, questioned on Facebook, the move by the township stating:

The township is attempting the change the location of the September meeting to the township building which holds less than 200 people. This is in violation of the PA Sunshine Act and is a tactic they are using to divide and conquer the community of Limerick in their fight against their proposed hyperscale data center. Please share!!!! We need people to show up and protest Also the agenda is not posted on the website which also is not right.

Councilmember Kristen Frederick Leonard (D, District 2) responded to Lukens’ Facebook post and accused Lukens of spreading misinformation. She wrote:

Spreading misinformation as usual. This is not to divide the community. The ZHB, Court Reporter and others couldn’t hear over the shouting. This is being done to ensure that testimony can be clearly heard and accurately recorded since appeals are based on this record.

Please note that over the weekend, we reviewed the agenda on the township’s website, which meets state law requirements (it only needs to be posted on a municipal website 24 hours prior to the meeting).

Regarding meeting rooms, Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act requires that “public” meetings be held, but does not specify room sizes or capacity. Essentially, municipalities have to make “good faith” efforts to accommodate the public, which it did by moving the hearings to the middle school. However, many attendees did not follow the direction to remain quiet, so the hearings had to be moved back to a more controlled environment. Leonard is correct when she states that if the decision of the zoning hearing board is appealed, it will move to a court, which reviews the record of the zoning hearings.

The township does intend to move the hearing to a larger venue when it is time for public comment. Public comment is not allowed until the conclusion of testimony. It is not known how many hearing dates will be needed to conclude testimony.

The zoning hearing board is scheduled to meet tonight for its regular meeting; however, it will also vote to continue the hearing on the proposed data center to September 17th at 7:00 p.m. at the township building. No testimony will be given on August 17th.