Hanover Township supervisors ballot measure fails
Hanover Township residents failed to enact a ballot referendum on Tuesday to increase the number of township supervisors from a total of three to five. The measure failed 482-443, according to preliminary county election results.
Supporters had hoped the measure would give residents a greater say in the ongoing permit process for a proposed 350-megawatt data center project in Starpointe Business Park.
According to Gary Munko, a Hanover Township native who advocated for the referendum measure and against the data center proposal, several residents are upset that the measure failed at the ballot box.
“I’m very disappointed,” he said.
Hanover Township has three elected supervisors, two of whom are currently reviewing a conditional use permit for the Starpointe data center project after the third recused himself early in the process after disclosing a potential conflict of interest.
In May, Dallas, Texas-based developer Prime Data Centers LLC submitted an application to build a seven-building data center campus and independent natural gas power plant on an approximately 120-acre parcel within Starpointe near Burgettstown.
The supervisors have reviewed the permit application across more than 10 public hearings since early this summer, with the majority of those hearings attracting a raucous crowd in opposition to the project.
Many attendees bring hand-made signs and shirts with slogans expressing their displeasure with the project and township officials in general.
Residents, including Munko, have repeatedly claimed that the sizable data center facility would create hazardous levels of air, light and noise pollution, plus harmful low-frequency vibration.
Some Hanover Township residents live less than a mile away from the proposed project site.
“It’s a disaster coming,” he said.
Project representatives from Prime have repeatedly emphasized their commitment to follow all applicable environmental regulations and relevant permits to ensure full compliance with state and federal law.
Munko said the two extra supervisors would have allowed residents to have greater leverage over the progression of the project, potentially a way to stop it from proceeding.
“We need those extra supervisors to have some fairness,” he said.
The supervisors will continue their ongoing review of the conditional use permit on Nov. 10 and 11, both at 6 p.m. at the Hanover Volunteer Fire Department at 9 Starck Drive in Burgettstown.