Hanover Township continues Starpointe data center meeting
More than 200 residents attend to hear more about project
A crowd of more than 200 residents left the Hanover Township Fire Hall feeling unresolved after a scheduled Wednesday night hearing on the proposed Starpointe data center project was delayed following nearly three hours of preliminary procedure.
Residents had hoped to hear from representatives of Texas-based developer Prime Data Centers LLC, who submitted an application in May 2026 to construct a seven-building data center and attached power generation facility in Starpointe Business Park.
Instead, the Hanover Township Board of Supervisors opted to continue the hearing until Aug. 31 after more than 20 residents used an opportunity to petition for party status to the hearing to voice their displeasure with the project overall.
Solicitor Dennis Makel explained that to have party status in a hearing requires that the individual prove that they would be directly impacted by the project more than the average member of the public.
Three private attorneys representing residents who live near Starpointe requested party status, saying that their clients would be harmed by air, light, noise, water and vibratory pollution due to their proximity to the proposed data center campus.
An attorney from the nonprofit Center for Coalfield Justice also requested party status, alleging that because the organization has several members who live near the area, they would face distinct harms from the project.
One of the attorneys, Lisa Johnson, said the board should consider tabling consideration of the conditional use application until the developer could return with a complete application, since the version submitted does not include a decommissioning plan.
A team of attorneys representing Prime and Starpointe landowner ALTIAN Development LLC prepared a slideshow presentation to explain the project, but the extended party status application period did not allow them to begin.
Johnson said Hanover’s zoning ordinance on conditional use applications needed to go through the township zoning board, not the board of supervisors, so they should table the hearing until the appropriate authority could review the application.
The board of supervisors convened a brief executive session following Johnson’s request, and returned to announce that the hearing was continued until Aug. 31 at the Hanover VFD Firehall at 6 p.m.