Saadia is back and still wants the former McGinness property; Council mulls draft data center ordinance

JOE LINTNER | COLUMBIA SPY 

At the June 23 Columbia Borough Council meeting, President Eric Kauffman opened the discussion on the draft data center ordinance by stating that borough officials met with representatives of Saadia Holdings LLC recently. This is the first time residents heard that Saadia is still interested in purchasing the former McGinness tract. "They're still in," Kauffman said. 

Kauffman: "They're still in."

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Council Vice President Heather Zink said that Saadia's attorney, Claudia Shank, met with borough staff last week and submitted a redlined copy of the proposed ordinance. Zink was careful to frame the contact as informational rather than collaborative.

"The Saadia group met with staff this past week," Zink said, adding that the company was shown the borough's draft "not for them to look at us, but for them to see what we're considering."

A second look at the draft
Zink said she had little time to fully review Shank's proposed redline before the meeting, calling the weeks leading up to it "out of control," but she walked council through the changes she was prepared to accept, and several she wasn't.

Among the items Zink recommended striking was a "community noise equivalent level" standard that had been pulled from a York County model ordinance. She argued the metric would only confuse residents and developers trying to apply the borough's decibel limits, calling it "another level to read and keep track of" that doesn't add protection for nearby property owners. Council appeared to agree to remove that section.

Zink did back two changes favorable to clarifying enforcement: expanding the data center definition to explicitly include accessory uses and electric substations, which she said closes a potential loophole that could otherwise invite litigation, and including community parks — not just playgrounds and trails — in the ordinance's list of protected "sensitive receptors."

Setbacks debated, then scaled back
The most extended discussion centered on how far a data center would have to sit from neighboring property lines. An earlier draft had proposed 500 feet, a figure Zink said she'd found in another state's model ordinance, but she told council that requirement would effectively make the site unbuildable.

"It's one thing to have something allowed in your zoning ordinance, and it's another thing to put the restrictions so much that you can't do anything," Zink said, calling an effectively prohibitive setback "another form of exclusionary" zoning.

Council voted to table the remainder of the redline — covering parking and other site requirements — until members have had more time to review it.

Conditional use vs. special exception
Council also revisited a procedural question it believed had already been settled: whether a future data center proposal should require "conditional use" approval, heard by council itself after a public hearing, or a "special exception," heard by the borough's zoning hearing board.

Council members said they preferred conditional use regardless of the timing risk. Zink said she felt bound by what she'd heard from residents.

Zink: "We heard from the public that they wanted us to take our time with this."

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"We heard from the public that they wanted us to take our time with this," Zink said. "For me, that means I'm pretty married to conditional use."

Council also discussed retaining a community benefits agreement requirement, which Zink said was intentionally written in general terms, addressing things like clean energy commitments and penalties for non-compliance, with fire company donations, utility assistance funding and impact fees offered only as examples of what such an agreement might include, not an exhaustive list.

Background: a bid rejected, then a do-over
In May, Saadia Holdings LLC — a New York-based company that operates a distribution center in West Hempfield Township and was the property's sole bidder — submitted a $6.35 million offer. Word that the proposal involved a data center drew hundreds of residents to a four-and-a-half-hour council meeting at the Columbia Borough Fire Hall, where speakers raised concerns about noise, water and electricity demand, and effects on property values. Council voted 7-0 to reject the bid, but on a procedural technicality: Saadia's offer didn't guarantee full payment within the 60 days required by state law for a sealed-bid sale, since the company wanted to wait until its site plans won borough approval.