Council moves to block data centers at former McGinness airfield site

JOE LINTNER | COLUMBIA SPY 

Columbia Borough Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to advance an ordinance that would remove data centers from the list of permitted uses in light business zoning districts. The move could block a data center from being built on the long-vacant former McGinness airfield property. (Byers, Cooper, Ziegler, and Geesey voted for the motion. Kauffman, Zink, and Murphy voted against.)

The motion was introduced by Councilman Ethan Byers and seconded by Councilman Tom Ziegler. If ultimately adopted after review by county and municipal planning commissions, the ordinance would designate data centers as “Not Permitted” in light business zones and shift them to “Conditional Use” status in general industrial zones instead.

In a written statement dated July 14, Byers laid out his reasoning for pressing the issue now rather than waiting for a broader zoning overhaul. He said the one-page ordinance had already been reviewed by borough solicitor Evan Gabel and drew on language used in the borough’s past zoning ordinances. He also said he had briefed councilors Jeanne Cooper and Tom Ziegler, who lead the community development committee overseeing zoning and planning.

Byers said he’d been mulling the change for weeks as delays piled up around re-advertising the McGinness property, and that data centers had come to dominate public discussion of the site’s future. He wanted the property sold without the complications data centers bring, he said, adding that a legal appeal could tie up the sale for years.

Byers had originally hoped to raise the change at a workshop session ahead of a separate, more comprehensive ordinance (numbered 966) covering the same topic. When that workshop was canceled and 966 got pushed to a future meeting, Byers said he decided not to wait: “I believe we should not wait and instead get this simple zoning change in now.”

He said he’d asked council President Eric Kauffman twice to add the item to the agenda — first for the July 7 workshop, then again on July 9 for Tuesday’s regular meeting — and that both requests were turned down before he brought the motion directly to the floor, asking that it be placed at the top of New Business.

The motion didn’t go unchallenged. Councilman Kelly Murphy questioned whether it had followed proper legislative procedure. Byers defended the move, arguing that introducing legislation is not the exclusive domain of any single council member and that, as an elected councilman, he is himself part of that legislative process.

Supporters of blocking a data center at the McGinness site are treating the vote as an early win, but the matter isn’t resolved. The ordinance still needs to clear review at both the municipal and county planning commission levels before it can come back to council for a final vote.

The zoning fight follows a contentious meeting earlier this year involving the McGinness property itself. In May, Saadia Holdings LLC — a New York-based company that runs a distribution center in West Hempfield Township — submitted a $6.35 million bid as the property’s only bidder. News that the deal involved a data center drew hundreds of residents to a four-and-a-half-hour meeting at the Columbia Borough Fire Hall, where residents voiced concerns about noise, water and power demand, and impacts on property values.

Council ultimately rejected the bid 7-0 on procedural grounds: Saadia’s offer didn’t guarantee full payment within the 60-day window required by state law for sealed-bid sales, since the company wanted to wait for borough approval of its site plans first.