Planners cancel data center hearing after Lancaster city mayor, zoning officer decline invite

• By Chris Reber / LNP | LancasterOnline

A hearing on the zoning determinations that allowed the data centers will not go forward as planned during the Lancaster city planning commission meeting on Oct. 1, but the centers will still be on the agenda.

Earlier this month, the commission canceled an informational hearing that would have looked at how the determinations were made. The commission canceled the informational hearing after learning that Mayor Danene Sorace and Zoning Officer Jameel Thrash wouldn’t accept their invitation to answer questions.

The news that the mayor and zoning officer would not appear was shared in a memo to the commission from the city’s director of Community Planning and Economic Development, Chris Delfs. He also requested that the commission cancel the meeting because it doesn’t have jurisdiction over interpreting the zoning ordinance.

Commission members said they still plan to discuss the data centers during the 5:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall, including city council’s expected timeline for adopting a zoning ordinance amendment regulating data centers.

The planning commission scheduled its hearing prior to a resident filing an appeal of the zoning determinations. The appeal is currently on hold so a judge can hear the developers’ lawsuit challenging the appeal’s validity. The resident and zoning hearing board have until Oct. 7 to respond to the suit.