Bear Creek Twp. Supervisors listen to public comment at Thursday’s special meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Resident Patty Shuleski shares remarks during public comment on Thursday.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Residents attend Bear Creek Twp.’s special meeting Thursday at the Volunteer Hose Company.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Attendees at Thursday’s special meeting applaud a resident’s public comment.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Bear Creek Twp. Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Suchocki speaks during Thursday’s meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
BEAR CREEK TWP. — Bear Creek Township supervisors kept their word to residents during a special meeting Thursday and did not expand the industrial zone by more than 700%, although two other proposals with significantly smaller increases are still on the table.
No motion was made to move the proposal forward for a vote.
“We hear you; we are listening and we’ll do everything in our power for the community to make sure everything’s right for everybody,” Chairman Robert Suchocki said at the end of the meeting.
The ordinance would have expanded the industrial zone from 66 acres to 534 acres, rezoning over 101 individual parcels, many of them residential.
Each member of the board, which includes Suchocki, Mark Petlock, John Ondich, George Weitz, and Ryan O’Hara, stated their intention not to consider that version of the zoning map during a public hearing on Aug. 31 at the Bear Creek Community Charter School.
At least 200 people attended the hearing, with dozens of residents speaking out against the expansion, which is being considered because the township was told previously that the 66-acre size of the industrial district could be seen as exclusionary and potentially challenged by developers in court.
The rejection of the rezoning by the supervisors was met with applause from residents who attended Thursday’s special meeting at the Bear Creek Township Volunteer Hose Company.
Ordinance 2 of 2026, which would establish a Natural Resource Protection Overlay to identify and protect environmentally sensitive lands, will be voted on at the regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14 at Bear Creek Township Municipal Building.
Despite the board’s decision on Thursday, the industrial zone in the township may still see an increase in size.
Two alternative maps, which can be viewed on the Bear Creek Township website under Ordinance 3 and 4, will be discussed at a public hearing at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at the Hose Company, located at 3500 Bear Creek Blvd., Bear Creek Village.
A special meeting, also at the Hose Company, to consider those ordinances for a vote will take place, immediately following the hearing.
The 180-day window to adopt a curative amendment regulating data centers, which will accompany whatever version of the zoning map the board ultimately chooses, closes on Oct. 16, according to Bear Creek Township solicitor Michael B. Senape.
Many of the residents who spoke at Thursday’s special meeting were grateful to the board for not increasing the size of the Industrial District so significantly.
Michael Kronk, who lives on Bear Creek Boulevard and also spoke at the Aug. 31 hearing, said letting the ordinance die was “the right thing to do.”
However, he also cautioned the board against any type of industrial zone expansion.
“My feeling, really, on the matter, as far as our land here, 66 acres of industrial zoned land is sufficient,” he said.
Resident Patty Shuleski said she supported data centers regulations, but no industrial zone expansion. She urged the board to stand their ground.
“You represent Bear Creek Township residents, not the data centers,” Shuleski said.
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