The two men hoping to represent South Whitehall in the Pennsylvania state Senate next year stood in line with residents Wednesday night to sound off about the proposed Project Atlas hyperscale data center across from Parkland High School.
Incumbent Sen. Jarrett Coleman and his opponent in the race for the 16th Senate District, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, urged the South Whitehall Planning Commission to vote against the $8.9 million development that would be built on 410 acres of undeveloped land on North Cedar Crest Boulevard.
Coleman, a Republican who has introduced legislation that would give local municipalities the option to place an 18-month moratorium on new and unapproved data center development applications, raised concerns about the data center’s strain on the power grid, cost to local rate payers and damage to infrastructure.
“It poses risks to our utilities, environment and public safety. Risks more intensive than what this zoning was designed to allow, especially given the site’s proximity to Parkland High School,” Coleman said.
Coleman warned the panel that the lithium ion batteries that data centers typically rely on could lead to a fire that the township’s volunteer fire departments are not equipped to handle. Turning to the developers, who made a brief presentation at the start of the meeting, the senator said:
“No one wants you here, so I don’t know why you still want to be here,” prompting applause from the large crowd in the Parkland High School auditorium, where the meeting was held in anticipation of a large turnout.
Pinsley, a South Whitehall resident, listed financial reasons for the data center to be denied.
He noted that a study of electric costs in the county government administration building in Allentown showed that electric bills have increased 55% in four years, costing taxpayers approximately $1million.
Pinsley said he called PPL to find out why the price was rising so steeply, and was told that it was the distribution cost.
“They said it was in anticipation of the data centers. They are already hardening the grid for that,” he said.
Pinsley urged Edged U.S., the company that is seeking to build the data center, to forgo the sales tax break on computer equipment that Gov. Josh Shapiro put in place in 2022 to attract technology firms to the Commonwealth. Finally, Pinsley addressed the applicants as the father of children who attended Parkland.
“I don’t know whose bright idea it was to put a data center across the street from a high school, but you have never seen wrath like that of parents. I’m asking you kindly to leave,” he said.
The two men made similar comments at a news conference before the meeting organized by the South Whitehall Civic Alliance, a community group raising money to fight the data center in court.
Alliance member Greg Sussman raised concerns about how the project originated, pointing to records that showed that township officials were discussing a data center being built on the land back in 2025, shortly after the Planned Innovation, Research, and Technology (PIRT) Overlay District was created.
A PPL substation open house was also pushed back until after the legal window to challenge the PIRT ordinance expired, Sussman said.
“The practical effect is that residents learned the full infrastructure details only after our legal opportunity to challenge the ordinance had already closed,” Sussman said.
He called for an independent accounting of the timeline and coordination between the township and the developer.
The planning commission did not make a decision Wednesday. Edged officials said they have more information to present.
The deadline for the project to be approved is Dec. 31.