After a three hour hearing drawing an audience of 700 people Newark’s Board of Adjustments effectively gave the okay for the zoning decision by the city council to allow the gas-fired power plant as part of the data center planned at the old Chrysler site to go forward.
On a 3-to-1 vote the panel found that the on-site generation would not impair the neighborhood.
And they split evenly on whether it was customary for a data-center to have on-site power generation and whether the plant would primarily serve the data center.
Jen Wallace, a member of a group that appealed the city decision, told the Wilmington News Journal that her group would be meeting over the weekend to figure out what the next step might be.
Data Centers LLC wants to build a 900-thousand square-foot facility on the campus of the University of Delaware at its Science Technology & Advanced Research site which includes the cogeneration plant.
The energy could be used for other purposes.
A number of organizations have come out against the facility including the grassroots group Newark Residents Against the Power Plant, the Delaware Audubon Society and five residents.
They argue that the plant with its 279 megawatts would not primarily serve the data center nor is it customary for data centers to have such a plant.
