Starwood Digital Ventures is appealing DNREC’s denial of a permit allowing it to build a massive data center in New Castle County.
The appeal seeks to reverse DNREC Secretary Greg Patterson’s decision that its data center plans are not permitted under the Delaware Coastal Zone Act.
That ruling found Starwood’s proposal –spanning approximately 580 acres and around 6 million square feet of data center space–“is heavy industry use not compatible with Delaware's Coastal Zone.”
The Coastal Zone Act was passed in 1971 to prevent new heavy industry in Delaware’s coastal zones.
Starwood’s appeal to the DNREC Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board argues the denial fails to evaluate its potential to pollute “under realistic operating conditions.”
The appeal, filed Feb. 17, requests an in-person hearing with the DNREC Coastal Board. A date for the hearing has not been set.
New Castle County Councilman David Carter sponsored a local ordinance seeking to regulate data centers, and supports Patterson's reasoning that the development's influence on the surrounding environment would be similar to heavy industry uses.
"Word smithing aside in that appeal, I think the functional impact is that of a heavy industry," Carter said. " I think DNREC saw that and appropriately called it what it was."
He thinks it's likely the DNREC Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board will uphold the original decision. With appeals, Carter thinks the issue could potentially be escalated to the Supreme Court.
