Parkland News

A webinar Monday brought together regional planners, engineers and industry leaders to explain how data centers operate and what their growth could mean for local communities.

Democrat Geoffrey Whitcomb intends to campaign for the Lehigh County-based district that Republican Gary Day currently represents. The seat heavily favors Republicans.

The Lehigh County Coroner's Office said the 27-year-old died Saturday night at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest — hours after being shot during a standoff with Pennsylvania State Police in a North Whitehall Township driveway.

Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio announced that a 93-year-old Lower Macungie Township woman died outside her home of hypothermia. She is Lehigh County's first weather-related fatality of 2026.

Residents of South Whitehall Township voiced their opposition to a proposed 5-million-square-foot data center near Parkland High School.

A Lehigh County judge has denied an appeal that sought to clear the way for Nexus 78, a 501,000-square-foot warehouse proposed for North Whitehall Township. The ruling is unlikely to be the last word in the fight over the warehouse's fate.

In its review, the LVPC said the data center proposal lacks specificity needed to fully review the project in Upper Macungie Township.

Upper Macungie's planning commission voted Wednesday to recommend preliminary approval for a planned 203-home development connecting Schantz Road and Bastian Lane.

Parkland High School's planned $68 million, five-building expansion project is expected to begin early in 2026 and be completed by August 2028.

A new hyperscale data center could be on its way to South Whitehall Township, with the 5.1 million square foot Atlas Industrial project set to be constructed right across the street from Parkland High School.

The Parkland School Board has officially entered its post-election era, but the directors still have one more two-year seat left to fill.

The township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to approve the final 2024 budget, which keeps the property tax rate at 0.6 mils. The budget accounts for three new staff positions, large building projects and increased funds to the township’s volunteer fire companies.

The North Whitehall Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to table, or delay the vote on, the preliminary plan for 55-plus residential community Strawberry Acres.

South Whitehall Township will host its first Municipal Open House on Wednesday, Dec. 13 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event will have light refreshments, including coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. There will also be giveaways of informational packets and flyers.

A proposed business park in Schnecksville would have an AutoZone along with a Wawa and a medical office building, the developer confirmed Wednesday.

North Whitehall's Planning Commission on Tuesday reviewed a plan for the proposed Rising Sun Subdivision, which would have 116 single-family homes on about 100 Acres.

Upper Macungie Township has announced several new indoor programs for this winter, including Zumba, youth soccer, arts classes and a science camp. Several of these classes have been offered outdoors during other seasons, but have never been offered during the winter months.

The alleged double homicide of 16-year-old Rianna Glass and her mother Rosalyn Glass motivated Parkland School District resident Rachel Farrow to advocate for more education about teen dating violence and abuse.

The South Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners is looking to put an open space tax referendum on the November 2024 ballot. Lower Macungie Township recently passed a similar referendum.

Over 1,500 veterans are buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Upper Macungie Township. But last year, only about 1,032 wreaths were placed, leaving hundreds without one.

North Whitehall Township's zoning hearing board opted to continue a meeting until December before making a decision on whether to allow Foxy's Cradle, a neonatal kitten nursey, to operate in the owner's residence.

A decade or so after buying his South Whitehall Township home in the late 1960s, Fred Buse started recording the average temperature, precipitation type and amount, as well as any animal sightings in his backyard to study and track the health of the local environment.