ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A group of Allentown legislators are backing new regulations on data centers as officials throughout the region try to prepare their municipalities for an expected wave of proposals.
Allentown City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee on Thursday recommended the full body approve legislation that would significantly limit where the facilities could open.
If Bill 20 is passed as introduced, data centers would be restricted to the city’s “most intense” industrial zones, according city Planning Drector Jennifer Gomez.
And facilities over 50,000 square feet — referred to as “hyperscale” — would need to be on properties that cover at least 5 acres.
“Environmental protection is not separate from community. Wellbeing is a fundamental part of it.”Kyle Ropski, chairman of Allentown's Environmental Advisory Council
There are only 36 parcels throughout the city that meet those criteria, and many of those already are being used, according to Allentown’s Environmental Advisory Council.
The proposed ordinance looks to define data centers to close a gap in the city’s zoning ordinance. It also aims to establish a slew of details, including setbacks from other properties and maximum heights.
Without zoning regulations specifically for data centers, a municipality could be forced to let those facilities open and operate under looser rules designed for other uses.
Any data center would require approval by Allentown’s Zoning Hearing Board, a measure that would ensure each proposal is open to public review.
Each also would be reviewed by Allentown’s Environmental Advisory Council, which helped Gomez’s team craft parts of the ordinance.
It aims to require developers to complete “extensive studies” of any proposed facility’s water and electricity use, while also analyzing potential environmental impacts and issues caused by noise and vibrations the facilities generate, Gomez said Thursday.
Kyle Ropski, who chairs the EAC, credited Gomez and her team for including provisions calling for robust reviews to “ensure that impacts to residents, infrastructure and environmental resources are identified early and addressed appropriately.”
“Environmental protection is not separate from community,” he said. “Wellbeing is a fundamental part of it."
Room to improve: Councilwoman
Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach urged her colleagues to consider amending the ordinance before adopting it this month or soon after. She wants to strengthen the bill’s noise and water-use provisions.
Data centers use water to cool thousands of servers to prevent overheating. Large facilities can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day — as much as a city of about 50,000 people — according to a report by the Washington Post.
Bill 20 should make “water-efficient cooling mandatory, not just ‘strongly encouraged,’” as the legislation is currently written, she said.
“If something is ‘strongly encouraged,’ it won’t be done,” Gerlach said.
Allentown is among about a dozen Lehigh Valley municipalities that have approved data center regulations or are considering them.
Developers are proposing to build massive data centers in Upper Macungie and South Whitehall Township, but a warehouse in Allen Township could become the region’s first hyperscale facility.
Prologis wants to turn a million-square-foot warehouse into a data center, a plan that township supervisors unanimously approved in March.
The facility at 2500 Liberty Drive sits about a half mile east of Northampton’s border with the township.
CDE Acquisitions plans a massive campus with six data center facilities on space spanning 5.1 square feet — equivalent to more than 90 football fields — across the street from Parkland High School.
Its plans also feature an electrical substation with emergency generators and more than 3 miles of new roadway.
And Air Products is continuing its push to build a data center complex covering 2.6 million square feet at its former headquarters in Upper Macungie.
Township officials are set to review the proposal May 27 after agreeing to postpone a public hearing as it was set to start in February.
