ALLENTOWN, Pa. — City Council members are poised Wednesday to adopt new zoning regulations for data centers, less than a week before planning officials review the first proposal for a “hyperscale” data center.
But new regulations won’t slow down that proposal, even if they take effect ahead of the planning commission’s June 9 meeting.
The agenda for that meeting shows a quarter-million-square-foot data center is being planned at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. in South Allentown.
A short description of the project indicates Jordan is seeking permission to convert a recently built warehouse at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. into a data center — and tack on an addition.Allentown City Council agenda
It lists the applicant as Zach Jordan, a project engineer at Langan Engineering, which has 56 locations across the world, including one in Bethlehem.
A short description of the project indicates Jordan is seeking permission to convert a recently built warehouse at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. into a data center — and tack on an addition.
Few other details were available Tuesday.
Allentown’s Zoning Hearing Board in June 2022 signed off on Emmaus Avenue QOZ B’s plans to build a 224,000-square-foot warehouse on the property.
Crews demolished a small manufacturing facility as part of that project.
The new warehouse takes up much of the 13.7-acre lot. The facility would be expanded by more than 23,000 square feet under the proposal to be considered next week.
New regulations wouldn't apply
Lehigh Valley officials have worked this spring to pass new regulations for data centers ahead of an expected boom of proposals for facilities in the region.
Without regulations specifically for data centers, a municipality could be forced to let those facilities open and operate under looser rules designed for other uses — a scenario that could play out in South Allentown.
City Council is set to vote Wednesday, June 7, on legislation that would give officials authority to better regulate — and potentially block — data centers.
Bill 20 would require developers to complete extensive studies of any proposed facility’s water and electricity usage and analyze potential environmental impacts and issues caused by noise and vibrations from the facility.Proposed Allentown City Council ordinance
The zoning amendment would define data centers to close a gap in the city’s zoning ordinance and limit where they could open.
Bill 20 would require developers to complete extensive studies of any proposed facility’s water and electricity usage and analyze potential environmental impacts and issues caused by noise and vibrations from the facility.
It would restrict data centers to the city’s “most intense” industrial zones, according to city Planning Director Jennifer Gomez.
The current 5-acre provision for large warehouses also would apply to data centers.
Thirty-six industrial properties in Allentown are big enough to hold “hyperscale” data centers — facilities with more than 50,000 square feet — according to an analysis by the city’s Environmental Advisory Council.
The property at 2401 W. Emaus Avenue is among them.
The proposed ordinance’s requirement for significant setbacks from public roads and other properties — including child care facilities such as Camelot for Children on the other side of the street — likely would sink the project at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.
But it would not need to abide by those new regulations, as Jordan submitted his application for a data center before the city published advertisements about the proposed ordinance, Gomez told LehighValleyNews.com.
By law, the application is grandfathered into the old rules and “will be reviewed against the prior zoning ordinance,” Gomez said.
The city recently overhauled its zoning code. Council last year approved a 270-page zoning ordinance and a 66-page subdivision and land development ordinance; those changes took effect Jan. 1.
The new code does not define data centers, so Allentown zoning officials could opt to evaluate the Emaus Avenue proposal as a warehouse or another industrial or manufacturing use.
Zoning officials could find themselves with little authority to reject the data center proposal if it meets the city’s current requirements.
Public hearing
Council looks poised to pass those regulations this week, after its Community and Economic Development Committee recommending the full body approve them.
A public hearing on the zoning amendment is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, with council expected to vote on the proposal during its meeting just after.
Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach — who could be in her final year in the job after winning last month’s Democratic primary for a state house seat — last month said she wants to strengthen the ordinance’s provisions on noise and water usage ordinance before its passage or soon after.
The Emaus Avenue data center, if approved, could be among the first “hyperscale” facilities in the Lehigh Valley.
The Emaus Avenue data center, if approved, could be among the first “hyperscale” facilities in the Lehigh Valley.
Prologis is seeking approval to turn a million-square-foot warehouse in Allen Township into a data center; township supervisors unanimously approved those plans in March.
Projects to convert warehouses into data centers likely would have shorter timelines than those that include major construction.
CDE Acquisitions was planning a massive campus with six data center facilities spanning 5.1 square feet — equivalent to more than 90 football fields — across the street from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township.
But the developer has significantly scaled back those plans, according to documents it submitted last month to the township.
The project now calls for three data center buildings totaling less than 1.5 million square feet.
Those plans are set to be reviewed June 11 by South Whitehall Township Planning Commission.
Upper Macungie Township Zoning Hearing Board last month shot down Air Products’ proposal to build a data center complex that would have covered 2.6 million square feet at its former headquarters.
