ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission reviewed a revised data center project considered one of region’s more significant projects Thursday night.
Known under the moniker “Project Atlas,” the revised proposal calls for the development of a 410-acre site with three data center buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet located at 2493 N. Cedar Crest Blvd. in South Whitehall Township. This location is south of Orefield Road between Mauch Chunk Road and North Cedar Crest Boulevard.
In addition to those facilities, the plan includes a 40,680-square-foot administration building; a 39,167-square-foot warehouse; and an electric substation.
A new road is proposed connecting Cedar Crest Boulevard to Mauch Chunk Road, and the project includes a 10-foot-wide shared-use path available for public use through the site.
In January, the LVPC reviewed another project version. The proposal reviewed during Thursday night’s full commission meeting reduced the development’s scale. LVPC added that the applicant’s second try “addressed numerous LVPC comments.” This improves Project Atlas’ alignment with the organization’s regional plan, which the group has anointed “FutureLV,” although “several outstanding issues remain that must be addressed.”
Project Atlas has “the potential to align with FutureLV” if it would minimize impacts to sensitive “receptors in the vicinity,” and if site configuration avoids disturbing existing natural site resources, the LVPC said. Further, the LVPC would like the utility infrastructure to show that it is “adequate to meet the facility’s needs without adversely affecting service to existing users.”
The organization cited common data center issues that if not adequately mitigated, pose health and life quality concerns. Noise, lighting, air quality and visual were issues cited as specific potential concerns. Other topics noted by the LVPC urged “continued coordination” between developers and South Whitehall Township on emergency services, environment and utility infrastructure, and transportation.
To that end, the LVPC said the project is expected to generate 1,154 weekday trips. These average weekday trips include 142 new trips during morning peak and 126 new trips during evening peak times. A new township road is proposed to be constructed in concurrence with the proposed data center. The roadway would connect Cedar Crest Boulevard at Suncrest Drive to Mauch Chunk Road at Mechanicsville Road.
The LVPC suggested in its report that signalization of the new roadway at the intersections with the existing roadways may be needed for the trips generated by the development, and to manage conflict between traffic associated with the development and adjacent land uses including Parkland High School.
During the meeting, LVPC officials noted that 49 of the Lehigh Valley’s 62 municipalities have either adopted or are working on adopting regulations involving data centers. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, municipalities regulate data centers primarily through zoning and SALDO ordinances. Municipal regulations must comply with the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code and constitutional limits on land use controls.
For example, municipal ordinances can define data centers as a distinct land use category, regulate location by zoning district, establish performance standards and require zoning approval by conditional use or special exception public hearings, among others.
Local governments — such as townships, boroughs and cities — are prohibited from excluding data centers entirely from the municipality. Exclusion would violate the Fair Share Doctrine. A municipality is prohibited also from imposing unreasonable, arbitrary or confiscatory restrictions that make development infeasible, nor are they permitted to enforce standards devoid of technical evidence or expert basis.