The Northampton County township already facing a zoning challenge related to a proposed hyperscale data center campus received a second zoning challenge Thursday that includes a plan to expand the project to the site of a former coal-fired power plant along the Delaware River.
Developer Lou Pektor filed an additional zoning challenge and attached data center proposal in which RPL East LLC seeks the right to develop four data center buildings, battery storage and a power plant on approximately 152 acres east of River Road in Upper Mount Bethel Township, at the site of the former Portland Generating Station coal-fired plant.
Pektor’s River Pointe Logistics LLC is also partnered with Talen Energy to form Slate Belt Holdings, which is seeking to build 23 data center buildings and two substations on 754 acres of industrially zoned land west of River Road. Slate Belt Holdings filed a challenge to township zoning laws in July; a hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19.
A spokesperson for the development team said the partners envision the project as having multiple phases and added that the latest legal challenge is an attempt to clarify how zoning regulations would apply to the total proposed buildout.
“This filing was made to ensure that the zoning guidelines are clear for the entire industrial property being considered for a potential data center campus of up to 2GW next to the site of the former Portland coal plant,” the spokesperson said in an email.
“Developers have consistently communicated to Upper Mount Bethel Township officials that the full campus would be developed in phases and would include property on both the east and west sides of River Road,” they said. “All project partners want to work collaboratively with Upper Mount Bethel Township leadership when officials are ready to engage in order to ensure the development is done responsibly and delivers significant revenue and benefits while protecting the character of the community, and we hope for continued dialogue with all stakeholders.”
Both zoning challenges have two parts: a validity challenge, which argues that the municipality’s zoning ordinance unlawfully excludes data centers and therefore developers should be granted “site specific relief” to advance their plans at their proposed location; and a use class determination request that would designate the proposed development as a permitted-by-right use in the township’s industrial zone.
Township Manager Nick Graziano said in a Friday email that the Upper Mount Bethel zoning officer has not yet reviewed the latest validity challenge, “so at this time there is no further information we can share until she makes her determination.”
See the Oct. 8 zoning challenge below: