BLAKELY, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Another packed house to discuss one of the biggest controversies about the future storage of electronic data and the energy used to run it.
Residents in Blakely got to ask questions to developers and air their concerns about the proposed data sites.
So many people showed up to the Blakely Borough building on Wednesday that even 30 minutes before the meeting started, the seats were filled, and that crowd poured out into the parking lot.
The meeting served as both a presentation by the developers and a chance for residents to ask questions about their proposal.
As it stands, the developers, Jim Marzolino and Alpesh Patel, are trying to rezone what is now residential land for commercial use.
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209 acres of land near Terrace Drive and Business Route 6 would be used to house a 4-building campus, each about 70 feet tall with a roughly 150,000 square foot footprint.
Marzolino says PPL has already committed 1.5 gigawatts of energy to power the center and that it would be one of the highest economic benefits for the area with the least impact, but some people living in Blakely are not convinced.
"Is there a guarantee that they will be local jobs, or will they be outside jobs with people coming in? Because I know you're talking about it benefiting the community, but you're talking very vague, and I'd like specifics," one Blakely resident expressed.
"I believe it's going to change a lot for our day-to-day lives, but I do also feel that we may be in a bubble right now, and when it bursts, smaller communities like ours, I don't know if these data centers will still be around," another Blakely resident said.
This meeting was purely a question-and-answer session.
The next step in the potential development will be a formal hearing on August 26 at Sacred Heart Church, where the decision to approve or deny the rezoning will be made.
