ALLENTOWN, Pa. – What’s next? Is the big question being asked after the Allentown Planning Commission took the next step on a data center plan Tuesday.
The center, slated to come to Emaus Avenue, is entering the next phase.
69 News spoke with Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk to ask him some of the community members’ questions.
Tuerk tells 69 News a community benefits agreement is the next step. The agreement is a directive in place from the governor following an executive order.
“So, the next step for this particular project is for the user, not the project, not the real estate developer, but for the user to negotiate a community benefits agreement with our community,” said Tuerk.
The user is the company leasing the space from the developer.
“They’ll lease the building to Keel, who will then distribute packets of information,” he said.
So, what does this mean for the community, and how do they ensure the community’s interests are a part of the agreement?
“We have to find some way for this user to make some commitments to our city. That can look like support for projects, for capital projects. It can look like an investment in nonprofit organizations,” Tuerk said.
Tuerk described the process as collaborative.
“The way that I would like to do that is to work through our; we have an established, Lehigh Valley Community Foundation,” he said.
The foundation, described by Tuerk, is an investment vehicle that allows for contributions to the community.
As for how your voice will be taken into account?
“I think continuing to show up at city council. This is our public hearing room. The way that residents communicate is directly to city council members. So, it’s right here at this podium. Continuing to speak respectfully to city administration through the city website,” he said.
“I’m happy to continue to engage our residents. I know that there’s a lot of concern and fear about this. I know that I’ve said before that we have a lot of unknown costs and we have some certain benefits. We do need to recognize that there are certain benefits as well associated with this, that it’s not benefit-free. It’s also not cost-free. So, we have to understand both things to come to better agreements,” he explained.
Tuerk additionally described the alternative.
“We’re all Lehigh Valley residents; we are familiar with the warehouse world, where you have a building with lots of packages being distributed. Those packages get distributed via truck. So, there is a huge amount of negative impact on our community as a result of truck traffic,” he said.
“There’s still an environmental impact associated with a data center. It’s different from an environmental impact associated with the distribution center, and that was the alternative use for this building on Emaus Avenue. The data center is not going to have the associated truck traffic that we might have expected from a distribution center,” the mayor added.