S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa.- Plans for a massive data center campus across the street from Parkland High School will be in front of South Whitehall Township’s planning commission next month.
And those plans have changed since they first surfaced late last year.
A slew of documents posted to South Whitehall Township’s website in recent weeks provides insight into the most recent version of the proposal, as well as how the developer has responded to the township’s initial 101-page review, which cited a number of concerns and missing components.
Here are some of the highlights.
First, what hasn’t changed: Jeras Corporation is the owner of the land, and CDE Acquisitions, LLC is the applicant who wants to build the data center campus, known as Project Atlas. CDE Acquisitions has a mailing address in Atlanta, Georgia.
The overall size of the development is still 410 acres, a combination of three parcels: 2493 N. Cedar Crest Boulevard, 2807 N. Cedar Crest Boulevard, and 2747 N. Cedar Crest Boulevard. The land is currently undeveloped agricultural fields with Parkland High School to the west, a chemical manufacturing company to the south and homes to the north.
But, while the original plan called for six buildings totaling 5,038,100 square feet, the new submission shows three data center buildings, one administration building, and one warehouse building.
A rendering of the new proposal.
Kimley Horn
Each data center is 492,285 square feet in size. The administration building is about 40,680 square feet, and the warehouse building is about 39,167 square feet, for a total building square footage of 1,556,702.
Additional infrastructure will include an onsite electrical substation and emergency generators at each of the data centers. The site is not currently served by public water or sewer. To rectify this, the proposal includes a private septic field and asks that an existing watermain under the township’s control be extended east along Ritter Road.
Another change: while the original plan showed 966 parking spaces; the latest proposal has 399.
Also, a traffic impact study submitted with the initial plan showed the larger data center campus would have generated an average of 3,865 weekday trips; the newer model would generate a total of 1,154 trips on a typical weekday, according to a study submitted earlier this month.
The latest document batch also has a proposed construction timeline. Work is slated to begin on the first building in November and wrap in April of 2030.
The newest application also makes clear the plans for three historic properties on this site. The first property is comprised of three barns in the 2700 block of Mauch Chunk Road, the second property is a four-bay brick house at 2839 N. Cedar Crest Boulevard, and the third property is an existing farmstead located off of Peach Tree Lane.
According to the development plans, the house and farmstead will be removed, while the three barns will be restored and dedicated to the township for future use and historical conservation.
The overall property is in South Whitehall’s PIRT (Planned Innovation, Research, and Technology) District, which was established specifically to provide guidelines for research and technology-related businesses, like data centers.
Data centers are permitted by right in the PIRT, as long as they adhere to specific regulations that set standards for features that include the campus’ size, setbacks, and noise emissions.
The South Whitehall Township planning commission will meet on Thursday, June 11, at 7 p.m. to hold a public hearing on Project Atlas, as well as other proposals before the township.
The meeting will happen at the township municipal building at 4444 Walbert Ave.