A zoning board hearing Monday night that could have determined the fate of a proposed data center in south Allentown has been postponed.
The hearing concerned a legal zoning appeal from Camelot for Children, a nonprofit organization that helps chronically and terminally ill children, which is located near the proposed data center on Emmaus Avenue.
According to an email from Allentown zoning supervisor Michael Handzo, the city received a “late breaking request” from both parties to postpone it to a later date, which has not been determined.
Anthony Maras, a spokesperson for the developer, Quantm LLC, confirmed that attorneys for both Camelot and Quantm mutually agreed to postpone the hearing, but declined to comment further.
Quantm LLC, a Philadelphia data center development company, has submitted plans to convert a 224,000-square-foot warehouse building at 2401 W. Emmaus Ave. into a data center.
The proposed data center is still awaiting a vote from the city’s planning commission that would allow developers to begin construction, but the city late last year determined that a data center may be treated as a “permitted-by-right” use in the I-3 zoning district, where the building is located, saying it is “closely allied” to manufacturing usage, which was permitted under the zoning rules in effect at the time.
However, in a formal legal appeal dated July 6, Kevin Fogerty, an attorney representing Camelot, argues that there is a “gross disparity” between data center and manufacturing uses, so the city’s determination that a data center is allowed by right at 2401 W. Emmaus Ave. is inappropriate and incorrect.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.