Truck and heavy equipment activity at the former Publicker Distillery site in the Linfield section of Limerick Township is part of a permitted cleanup of old demolition debris and is not connected to a proposed data center, Township Manager Dan Kerr told the board of supervisors Tuesday.
Kerr said the township has received a number of inquiries from residents about the activity and has been sharing the same message for several months.
"It is in no way associated with the construction of a data center down there," Kerr said. "It is just a cleanup of the demolition stuff."
While a data center project has been proposed for the property, it cannot move forward without conditional use approval from the township. That process has not yet begun.
According to Kerr, the property owner finished demolishing the large buildings at the site roughly two years ago, but not all of the debris was removed at the time. Large piles of crushed brick and concrete were left behind, and the owner is now hauling the remaining material off the property.
Kerr said the work is permitted and township staff has been monitoring the site to ensure crews are wetting the debris to control dust.
The activity is also unrelated to MCD 7, LLC’s potential data center project on 191 acres near the Limerick Generating Station and Philadelphia Premium Outlets. The conditional use hearing for that proposal, also known as Project Laurel, is scheduled to continue Thursday, October 1, at 6:30 p.m.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Board Chair Connie Lawson said a separate data center hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, at 6:30 p.m. The application for that hearing is still to be determined, and officials did not confirm whether it will involve the proposal for the former Publicker Distillery site.
