Data centers are emerging as a major land use topic in the Lehigh Valley and Easton’s Planning Commission is considering how the city should regulate them.
At a recent meeting in Easton City Hall, the planning commission examined whether existing zoning rules are adequate as larger and more energy-intensive facilities are proposed across the region.
They noted that Easton’s zoning ordinance currently treats data centers as a broadly defined industrial use.
That approach raised concerns that modern facilities could be approved without standards tailored to their unique infrastructure, environmental, and utility demands.
Data centers are warehouse-style facilities that house high-speed servers, computers, storage, and other equipment to power phones and computers. These centers also play a crucial role in supporting artificial intelligence tools.
Large-scale or hyperscale facilities require significant electricity and can place heavy demands on water systems.
“We’ve got all these beautiful rivers,” Commissioner Hubert Etchison said. “If we’re trying to make the outdoors nice, we certainly need to make sure we’ve got some provisions to protect that. When we’re talking about a data center with so many impacts that are known, I think some serious thought needs to go into that.”
Across the Lehigh Valley, municipalities are already moving to address those concerns through data center-specific ordinances.
Communities including Palmer, Upper Macungie, South Whitehall, Hanover, Moore and Forks townships have adopted or are drafting regulations aimed at managing the scale and impacts of these facilities.
Those ordinances typically include dimensional limits, landscaping and buffering requirements, and controls on noise and vibration. They also address water and sewer usage, power supply, emergency management and site aesthetics.
“My concern is that our current state is not prepared to deal with the discussion of modern data centers as they’re being developed today,” Etchison said. “From what I saw, the way that we would have to interpret an application for a data center folds into such a loosely defined use pattern that there are very little protections for our community on that development. It would be too easy to get one through because it’s not regulated.”
Easton planners suggested a regulatory approach, where approvals would be limited to special exceptions or conditional uses to ensure public review and case-by-case oversight.
They discussed a tiered framework, with different requirements based on a facility’s size, power demand, and operational type. Palmer Township’s ordinance was cited as an example of breaking data center uses into categories and attaching specific standards to each.
The conversation comes as the Lehigh Valley sees its first proposals for hyperscale data centers, which can exceed one million square feet and house multiple companies.
In December, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission reviewed a proposal for three data center buildings totaling 2.6 million square feet on the former Air Products headquarters site in Upper Macungie Township.
Another hyperscale project is proposed in South Whitehall, with plans calling for six buildings totaling 5.1 million square feet near Parkland High School.
Planning officials have indicated that more proposals are likely as developers seek large tracts of land with access to power infrastructure.
While hyperscale facilities are new to the region, smaller data centers already operate throughout the Lehigh Valley. These range from single-room server installations to campuses spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet, including an existing facility at Tek Park in Upper Macungie.
The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission is in the process of developing a model data center ordinance to guide municipalities. LVPC staff indicated that draft materials and examples from partner communities are expected to be shared in the coming weeks.
Pennsylvania law requires municipalities to plan for all types of land use, even as new development trends emerge, according to LVPC.
“Unless we have an ordinance in place, we are bound by an applicant utilizing the current standards,” Commission Chair Ken Greene said, explaining city council would have to pass an ordinance specific to data centers.
Councilwoman Crystal Rose told the commission she has been working on a draft ordinance since December, and hopes to have more information in the coming weeks.