Easton wants to join the growing list of Lehigh Valley communities aiming to be proactive when it comes to possible data-center development.<\/p>\n
The city planning commission discussed the topic during its Wednesday night meeting. No action was taken.<\/p>\n
Dwayne Tillman, Easton\u2019s codes and planning director, said before the meeting that the city\u2019s ordinance currently lists \u201cdata processing industries\u201d as a use without specific requirements for such companies considering a site in the city.<\/p>\n
While the city is mostly limited in space, there are various pockets near major highways available for developers to consider such facilities, according to officials.<\/p>\n
Tillman said data processing facilities come in various sizes, from offices containing space for data processing to massive, warehouse-size buildings. Data centers are designed to house servers and network equipment for storing, processing and distributing large amounts of digital data, from artificial intelligence to consumer items like streaming services.<\/p>\n
Communities can\u2019t prohibit data centers, but the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code provides tools to regulate them through zoning laws and through subdivision and land use ordinances, known as SALDOs.<\/p>\n
Still, approvals come from local municipalities, and that is why several communities, including Upper Macungie, South Whitehall, Palmer and Forks townships, have either drafted or are working on crafting ordinances that would regulate data centers.<\/p>\n
Data centers are coming, hungry for space and resources. Is the Lehigh Valley ready?<\/a><\/p>\n Easton plans to enter the mix.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat concerns me is yes, it\u2019s too easy,\u201d said commission member Hubert Etchison. \u201cIt would be too easy to get one through because it\u2019s not regulated. And it needs to be right.\u201d<\/p>\n Etchison said Easton\u2019s current description for data center development provides the city with \u201cvery little protections.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo often, when we look at any of these projects, there\u2019s sort of a blanket statement of minimal impact on the infrastructure,\u201d Etchison said. \u201cWell, this isn\u2019t it. We\u2019re talking about massive amounts of power. We\u2019re talking about, frankly, some things that probably need to be thought about in terms of the possibility of water pollution.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have to protect ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Easton\u2019s planning commission last month voted down plans for a 1-million-square-foot warehouse<\/a> at the former Pfizer Pigments plant off Route 22 along the Easton-Wilson border. The developer, Scannell Properties, plans to appeal the vote either to Easton City Council or in court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just went through this with the warehouse where, at the end of the day, the reality was they really never put together an environmental impact statement, not a real one,\u201d Etchison said, shortly before the commission entered an \u201cexecutive session\u201d to discuss the developer\u2019s court appeal of the commission\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n Commission Chair Ken Greene said ordinances from other Valley communities give Easton officials a start on what items need to be considered when reviewing data facilities, including water and sewer use, power supply, emergency management procedures and parking. He said planning members should work soon on crafting more comprehensive language.<\/p>\n \u201cDeliberation and discussion on this is fine, he said, \u201cbut unless we have an ordinance in place, we are bound by an applicant utilizing current standards.\u201d<\/p>\n Other parts of the Lehigh Valley that sit near highways and have sufficient or abundant energy and water supplies, and areas of open spaces, could be prime locations for data centers.<\/p>\n St. Louis-based data-center company TierPoint last fall completed acquisition of a nine-building industrial park in western Upper Macungie Township<\/a> that was once the world headquarters for AT&T Optoelectonics. TierPoint was already leasing a building at Tek Park for a data center, which the company said is its largest.<\/p>\n The eastern end of the Valley came close to having one at the proposed River Pointe Logistics Center development in Upper Mount Bethel Township,<\/a> but negotiations with Amazon Web Services, Amazon\u2019s cloud computing wing, fell through last year for the site near Route 611 and Interstate 80.<\/p>\n A data center also is proposed at the former Air Products headquarters<\/a> in Upper Macungie Township. The proposal would turn the former Air Products campus into a 2.6 million-square-foot data center. Plans were scheduled for township review in December but that has been delayed, and the project is expected to face stiff opposition from residents.<\/p>\n