ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A data center project in South Allentown will not be reviewed by city officials next week.
The planning commission was due to look at a proposal for a 247,000-square-foot facility at 2401 W. Emaus Ave., but the applicant — Zach Jordan of Langan Engineering — requested the meeting be postponed, according to the agenda for the body’s meeting Tuesday afternoon.
That request came after dozens at a public hearing Wednesday night in City Hall spoke out against the proposal and in support of stronger regulations for data centers.
'Disney villain-level' optics
Lester Wenger voiced concerns about residents being priced out by the proposed facility’s potential electricity consumption and said he believes it’s “no coincidence” that a power substation is located on an adjacent lot.
Wenger lives within a half-mile of the proposed data center, which he said would be “neither productive nor prudent.”
The Emaus Avenue data center proposal has “Disney villain-level” optics, Julie Vitale said, as the property sits across the street from an apartment complex and Camelot for Children, a nonprofit serving children with special needs and medical complexities.
A data center opening there would create an “impossibly miserable situation,” Vitale said.
Mark Miller, a board member at Camelot for Children, urged council to do "whatever you can to protect the children, the families [and] volunteers of a 40-year community institution."
The proposal is expected to be on the agenda for the planning commission’s July 14 meeting.
