Lowhill Township\u2019s data center ordinance has been cited by other Lehigh Valley communities as a model for how to protect rural communities from the environmental impacts of data center development. Now the township is working on an update officials say would better prepare the region for evolving technology.<\/p>\n
A draft revised ordinance classifies data centers into four tiers based on their electrical demand. While larger facilities require conditional use review and are allowed only in a specified area, smaller systems accessory to commercial or residential facilities would be permitted by right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that all the scales of uses fit exactly into the same box, so we thought it was important to differentiate,\u201d Supervisor Curtis Dietrich said.<\/p>\n
Performance standards and environmental protections exist for all tiers, but the simpler path to approval for smaller-scale digital infrastructure acknowledges that more businesses and households could seek to install their own data storage and processing as the use of artificial intelligence technology grows, township officials said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLowhill Township doesn\u2019t have its head in the sand like an ostrich,\u201d Supervisor Jack Iannantuono said, adding that the revised ordinance aims to accommodate a future in which businesses and homes might need more computing power on site.<\/p>\n
The revised ordinance, submitted to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission for review in September and expected to come before the supervisors in November, preserves and strengthens environmental protections set in place in a data center ordinance passed in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n Digital infrastructure that requires at least 50 megawatts of electricity would be under a higher level of regulation. Those standards are necessary to protect a township in which more than 60% of the land is in environmental protection zones that strictly regulate development, Iannantuono said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to promote residential and commercial development that fits the environment; we\u2019re not going to have development that changes the environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Lowhill hasn\u2019t faced a formal data center proposal yet, but it is part of a multimunicipal plan that seeks to proactively direct development in its largely rural sector of Lehigh County.<\/p>\n