HARRINGTON — Harrington officials have closed the door on data centers as a conditional use in manufacturing zones and are now considering going a step further by banning data centers within city limits.
The decision came Monday night during a packed Harrington city council meeting.
Harrington City Manager Norman Barlow told the Delaware Business Times that the denial means a change of course for Maguire Hayden Real Estate Company, which currently owns 111 Reese Ave. The site is the former home of Burris Logistics and, more recently, Harrington Logistics, a cold-storage and transportation operation affiliated with C&S Wholesale Grocers which closed its doors last year.
During the council meeting, the real estate company expressed hopes of bringing a 125,000-square-foot, 24-megawatt data center to the site, according to Barlow.
“They don’t have any other potential buyers. It could be turned back to the bank. We don’t know any of that to be true. We just know that it’s about 20 acres of a vacant property there now,” Barlow told DBT. He added that the owners left the meeting before anyone could ask further questions.
Maguire Hayden currently lists the existing building at 111 Reese Ave. at 220,973 square feet on approximately 24.6 acres with public water and sewer, rail access and substantial existing electrical infrastructure.
While the denial affects every property in Harrington’s manufacturing zone, Harrington Mayor Frank Tolson said in a public statement via social media on Tuesday that the process began after a commercial property owner approached city officials about whether the city would be receptive to a potential data center.
“At the time, the city had a very large vacant commercial building, and we were not fully familiar with what a data center would entail or what impacts it could have on our community,” Tolson stated.
Rather than considering a specific conditional-use application immediately, the city drafted an ordinance that would have added data centers as a conditional use, opening the door for an applicant to formally seek approval.
Council later tabled the ordinance at its original second reading.
“At the second reading, the Council made the decision to table the ordinance because we did not feel that we had enough information to make a well-informed decision,” Tolson said.
In the months that followed, city officials began researching the industry more closely. Tolson said council members and staff attended meetings about data centers, reviewed information about the industry, asked questions, sought additional information from the property owners and heard from community members.
“We have received phone calls, heard concerns directly from residents, and read comments on social media,” Tolson said. “We recognize that people have questions and concerns and we respect every resident’s right to voice their opinion.”
The mayor cautioned, however, that city officials believed some information circulating about the proposal and data centers generally was inaccurate or misleading.
Barlow similarly told DBT that city officials found it difficult to separate concerns surrounding older data center technology from claims about newer facilities which have been described as using less water and producing less noise.
Still, he said council members ultimately had to weigh the information they could obtain against what residents wanted for Harrington.
“I think the council did their homework,” Barlow said. “They researched, did the best they can with the facts that are out there and they listened to their citizens, they listened to the people and they made a decision that they thought was the right one to make.”
Nearby, Kent County Levy Court recently established rules allowing data centers in certain industrial zoning districts, while other Delaware jurisdictions have considered additional restrictions or moratoriums to address growing concerns over electricity demand, water use, noise and the potential effects of large-scale facilities on neighboring properties.
In Harrington, city officials had an additional deadline hanging over their deliberations. Tolson said the Reese Avenue property owner requested that council reach a decision by September.
“Rather than rush the process, we took the time to educate ourselves,” Tolson said. “We conducted our due diligence so that, when the matter returned to council, we could make the most informed decision possible. . . Taking that time was not a lack of action — it was our effort to make a responsible and informed decision.”
The decision leaves the future of 111 Reese Ave. uncertain, but Barlow said the city continues to put the work in to improve the area in hopes of support residents and new businesses alike.
“It’s a nice piece of property,” he told DBT. “The plan does change and, things that used to be farmland, we understand it does change. But you’ve got a council that really cares and a mayor. You’ve got employees that care. And I’ll defend this city to no end. I know we’re doing good stuff. We make community a first.”