A proposed data center in Allentown received unanimous approval from the Allentown Planning Commission on Tuesday following months of hearings, deliberation and widespread public opposition to the project.
The proposed 75-megawatt data center is across the street from homes, local businesses and Camelot for Children, a nonprofit that serves children with disabilities.
Planners learned minutes before Tuesday’s meeting that a zoning challenge that sought to halt the project was withdrawn. Approval of the project would have rested on the outcome of that zoning challenge, in which Camelot’s attorney, Kevin Fogerty, had argued that the city erred in determining that a data center is a “by-right” permitted use on the site.
It is unclear why the zoning challenge was withdrawn. Fogerty and Camelot for Children did not return calls for comment from The Morning Call.
Two neighbors who joined the zoning challenge as “co-appellants” alongside Camelot for Children said they were offered the opportunity to continue the challenge after Camelot withdrew, but that they would be responsible for the legal costs. Neither could afford to do so, they told The Morning Call.
In a statement before a final vote, Allentown Planning Commission Chair Christian Brown told an audience of data center opponents that the commission is tasked with approving land development projects based on an objective set of criteria, which the applicant met, and not necessarily based on public opposition.
“The objective criteria is pretty well spelled out in our ordinances, and we’ve had a reputation of deliberating, I think, fairly and consistently on our ordinances,” Brown said. “Planning boards can deny things for the sake of denying things, but then it exposes municipalities to legal challenges.”
The planning commission in 2022 approved a 224,000-square-foot warehouse on the Emmaus Avenue site. Developers broke ground in 2024, but the building has been vacant since then. Quantm Group LLC applied for a 23,342-square-foot addition to the building in order to convert it into a 75-megawatt data center.
The data center will have 32 diesel generators on-site in the event of power outages, although developers have said that these generators will not be a primary source of power for the data center. Rather, developers will build a 23,000-square-foot PPL substation on the site to accommodate the spike in energy demand.
Quantm LLC will pay for the PPL substation upgrade, which will cost around $2.5 million, developer Tony Maras said, and would help prevent electric rate increases for local residents.
Maras has argued that the data center would be preferable for residents versus the warehouse already approved by the city. The data center would result in less truck traffic, less water use and more tax revenue for the city, bringing in around $4 million annually in revenue if approved, he said.
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission member Leslie Hartzell listens Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown resident Julie Vitale speaks against data center plans Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during an Allentown Planning Commission meeting at Allentown City Hall. The commission granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown Planning Commission member Erich Hornung listens and asks questions to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown residents Julie Vitale and Spencer Snygg react after Allentown Planning Commission members approve plans for a data center Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall. The data center is planned for 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown Planning Commission member Craig S. Beavers listens to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission members Kate Hartney, Craig S. Beavers, Christian Brown, Erich Hornung and Leslie Hartzell listen and ask questions to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission members Kate Hartney, Craig S. Beavers, Christian Brown, Erich Hornung and Leslie Hartzell speak Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, listens Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission members Kate Hartney, Craig S. Beavers, Christian Brown, Erich Hornung and Leslie Hartzell listen and ask questions to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, speaks Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during an Allentown Planning Commission meeting at Allentown City Hall. The commission granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown resident Spencer Snygg speaks against data center plans Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during an Allentown Planning Commission meeting at Allentown City Hall. The commission granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission members Kate Hartney, Craig S. Beavers, Christian Brown, Erich Hornung and Leslie Hartzell listen and ask questions to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of Allentown listens to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown Planning Commission member Christian Brown listens to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission members Kate Hartney, Craig S. Beavers, Christian Brown, Erich Hornung and Leslie Hartzell listen and ask questions to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Allentown Planning Commission member Kate Hartney listens to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave.(April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission members Kate Hartney, Craig S. Beavers, Christian Brown, Erich Hornung and Leslie Hartzell listen and ask questions to Anthony Maras, real estate developer and attorney who represents Quantm Group LLC, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
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Jennifer Gomez, Allentown director of planning and zoning, and Allentown Planning Commission member Leslie Hartzell listens Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, during a planning commission meeting at Allentown City Hall in which the board granted an amended approval for a data center at 2401 W. Emaus Ave. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call)
Developers first presented their plans to the Allentown Planning Commission in June; at the time, the city’s planning department declined to recommend approving the project due to its concerns about “job creation, land efficiency and compatibility with nearby residential uses.”
The data center applicants updated the proposal to address the city’s concerns.
As part of the planning commission’s “conditional approval,” Quantm LLC agreed to a lengthy number of legally binding conditions for the project, including mandatory noise and air pollution testing, a sound attenuation wall and extensive landscaping surrounding the center, and a fund that would pay residents if they successfully allege that the center has violated any noise or pollution emission standards.
Allentown City Council approved a “data center ordinance” in August that allows data centers in only one of of the city’s three industrial zoning districts via a special exception zoning approval, and requires data centers to be set back at least 500 feet from “sensitive” uses like homes, schools and daycares.
However, the rules of the ordinance do not apply to the project at 2401 Emmaus Ave. because developers applied before the ordinance was passed. Developers voluntarily agreed to most of the ordinance’s requirements except the 500-foot setback, because the warehouse building was already constructed less than 500 feet away from homes and Camelot for Children.
The developers also are in talks with the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation to develop a community benefit agreement that would invest back into the neighborhoods they affect.
Anti-data center activists criticized the commission’s approval of the project following the meeting.
They argued that the data center would harm quality of life in the Allentown neighborhood, drive up electricity prices and worsen air quality in a city that has already been identified as having high levels of asthma and unhealthy air.
Priscilla Alvarez, who lives across the street from the proposed data center and joined the zoning challenge as one of six additional appellants, said she is trying to sell her home in part because of concerns about how the data center would affect her family.
She has three children, including an autistic son who is sensitive to noise, and has spoken out at previous planning commission meetings about her concerns.
She is heartbroken over the data center’s approval, she told The Morning Call in a phone interview.
“My heart is broken right now, and I’m just trying to not think about it because it’s nothing I can do,” Alvarez said. “I feel powerless.”
“I’m extremely disappointed, and just sad,” said Corinne Lalick, who also lives near the data center and joined the zoning challenge as a co-appellant.
Lalick started a petition against the data center when plans first became public in May; the petition gained over 5,000 signatures.
Turnout at the Tuesday planning commission meeting was light, with only around a dozen activists voicing their opposition to the project.
Activists attributed that light turnout to the timing of the meeting, which was at 12:15 p.m. The city has received hundreds of public comments and inquiries about the project via email and phone call, city Planning Director Jennifer Gomez has said.
Alex Beauchamp, regional director for Food and Water Watch, which opposes data center development, called on Allentown City Council to step in and try to prevent the data center from moving forward. City Council does not approve or deny land development applications, however; that responsibility rests solely with the planning commission.
“The vote is a gut punch to every impacted resident; the City Council must step in and right these wrongs,” Beauchamp said in a written statement. “Developers want us to believe data centers are inevitable. They are not. Communities don’t have to become testing labs for Big Tech’s AI experiment — and they don’t want to.”
Opponents of the project vowed to continue to fight data center development in the Lehigh Valley. The Emmaus Avenue project is one of two data centers proposed in Allentown; the other, still in the approvals process, would be built near Jefferson Park and Executive Education Academy.
“I think the public needs to know this is a cautionary tale,” Allentown resident and anti-data center activist Julie Vitali said. “You have got to get out. People need to express how they feel about things. … So many of us did all this research to try to be prepared and be able to make what we think are very reasonable requests, and we still have to be on top of these folks.”
Maras said that developers are targeting late spring or early summer of 2027 to begin construction on the data center, aiming for an operating facility by late 2027 or early 2028.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.