ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The Allentown Planning Commission reviewed an amended preliminary/final land development plan for a data center Tuesday afternoon at city hall.
The application involves the conversion of a 224,000-square-foot warehouse into an 80-megawatt data center use, adding an electrical substation, sound attenuation walls and associated site improvements at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. The property rests in the city’s General Industrial (I-3) zoning district.
The planning commission rendered no verdict during Tuesday afternoon’s meeting. A legal zoning appeal regarding the project scheduled before the zoning hearing board on Aug. 31 was postponed. No date when the case will be heard was announced during the meeting.
Tuesday afternoon’s plan was revised following a July 16 meeting during which the planning commission offered feedback on the proposal. One change relocates a substation from the frontage along West Emaus Avenue to the property’s south side. This was implemented to reduce noise and improve safety.
Other revisions involve the addition of sound attenuation walls around mechanical equipment, the removal of excess pavement and impervious coverage which will be replaced with landscaping, and the retention of an existing sidewalk connection to Emaus Avenue.
The applicant’s revised plan also preserves existing street-front vegetation and adds shrubs and evergreens for screening. Finally, the proposal adds two bicycle racks and offers space for a potential bus shelter.
The revised plan notes the site will have 66 employees with 32 tier backup generators to provide power during outages.
Quantm Group LLC, the project’s applicant, said at the July 16 meeting the project would help meet the region’s growing infrastructure needs. Data centers provide the internet’s foundation and have been a staple in America for the last 30 years, the applicant said.
The demand for high-bandwidth memory hardware from cloud processing facilities requires increased capacity which the construction of new data centers can meet.
Officials with the project argued data centers provide computing power for energy-intensive activities that almost everyone on the planet uses. Examples include banking, communications, streaming and e-commerce.
“It’s not a question of whether they (data centers) are needed or not,” Anthony Maras, an attorney representing Quantm, said. “It’s a question of how you develop them responsibly.”
Allentown planning officials noted electrical infrastructure use, noise, water and the site’s location to residential buildings as concerns. The site will employ 42 rooftop chillers, a closed-loop cooling system, sound walls, and Tier 4 generators.
Maras said Tuesday afternoon the company was agreeing to the site using the closed-loop systems as a deed restriction. He added that PPL Corp. had indicated the project would not foster rate increases to other utility users.
Maras also said the facility would comply with the city’s noise ordinance. The noise ordinance would limit daytime sounds to 57 decibels and nighttime sounds to 52 decibels.
Maras added the company would perform a pollution study, even though one is not required. Further, the attorney told planners that Quantm has amended it landscaping plan, and the new plan would erect sound walls 35 feet in height to mitigate the noise.
Individuals who spoke during a public comment session noted various concerns about the project specifically and data centers conceptually. For some, the revisions did nothing to reassure them or to gain their approval. Some doubted the validity of statements and studies performed.
These concerns included, but were not limited to, power consumption, noise, water usage and a generalized anxiety about what artificial intelligence is doing to their lives. Person after person expressed their distaste for the project and the physical infrastructure of the AI boom in general.
Some individuals who spoke Tuesday afternoon predicted that AI would have a negative impact on employment opportunities and humanity in general. Approving the data center, they noted, would aid that negative impact.
The proposed data center application at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. is not impacted by recent changes adopted by the city, nor current proposed amendments or any future amendments. The application is being reviewed under Allentown’s zoning code at the time the application was submitted last year.
Preliminary/final land development approval for the warehouse was granted June 14, 2022. The facility does not have a tenant currently.
Former Ruby Tuesday site
Planners approved a land development plan for a two-story medical office building at the site of a former restaurant.
The proposal, offered by Jaindl Land Co., involves the former Ruby Tuesday restaurant at 3995 Tilghman St. The proposal calls for the construction of a 20,366-square-foot facility with associated site improvements. The facility will feature brick and stone veneer siding.