{"id":311849,"date":"2026-10-22T11:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/311849\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:58:09","slug":"bethlehem-council-approves-data-center-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/311849\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem Council approves data center limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bethlehem City Council on Tuesday approved changes to the city\u2019s zoning ordinance to cover data centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With little discussion, members OK\u2019d amendments in a 6-1 vote.<\/p>\n

Under the rules, data centers are now permitted only in the industrial zoning district, and require a special exception permit issued by the zoning hearing board. The previous ordinance allowed data centers by right in the industrial, light industrial and planned industrial districts.<\/p>\n

Other restrictions include requiring a 200-foot building setback from any property line and at least a 1,000-foot setback from the property line of any \u201csensitive\u201d use, which includes residential areas, schools, daycares, hospitals and community recreation centers.<\/p>\n

Data center developers also must submit a series of detailed studies on the center\u2019s impact on the electrical grid, waterways and wastewater disposal, environment, and noise and vibrations.<\/p>\n

Data center developers also need to submit an energy management plan that proves that the electrical grid has the capacity to handle the electric load; pay for any necessary upgrades to the grid; and submit electronic waste and decommissioning plans, emergency response plans and thermal impact mitigation plans.<\/p>\n

Those changes will apply to future data center proposals, but not to one application the city received in August<\/a>: Boyle Construction, an Upper Saucon Township construction company, wants to build a 65,000-square-foot, two-story data center in a vacant site in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park I, near Lehigh Valley International Airport and next to the Route 378 onramp to Route 22 westbound. That project is expected to go before city planners next month.<\/p>\n

Morning Call reporter Lindsay Weber contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Charles Malinchak is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethlehem City Council on Tuesday approved changes to the city\u2019s zoning ordinance to cover data centers. With little…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,153,182,139,434,28,432],"class_list":["post-311849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-bethlehem","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}