BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to give final approval to the city’s first zoning standards for data centers, but a city official revealed at the meeting that a second proposal, filed before the vote, will be reviewed under the old code along with the project on Industrial Drive.
Laura Collins, the city’s director of community and economic development, told council that the city reviews any land development submission filed before the ordinance passed under current zoning. Besides the Industrial Drive project, which she called publicized, she told council that “another proposal” in the city’s industrial zone had come in and has just begun internal review.
The Industrial Drive project could not be built under the new rules. Its site at 2184 Industrial Drive is in the Planned Industrial district, where the ordinance bans data centers, and every part of it is within 1,000 feet of residentially zoned land, we reported Oct. 4.
Collins said the city is seeking voluntary compliance from both developers with the studies the new rules require. She said the second project still goes to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and the Bethlehem Planning Commission.
We asked the city Tuesday for the second project’s location, developer, size and power demand, which it has not made public, and filed a Right-to-Know request for both projects’ applications.
Mayor J. William Reynolds told council before the vote that he had worried developers might rush proposals in under the old zoning code before the new rules passed. He said another proposal coming forward was not good news in itself, but two, one smaller than the other, is better than what is happening in other communities, and that the cutoff was 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Council members Colleen Laird, Justin Amann, Bryan Callahan, Michael Colón, Hillary Kwiatek and Council President Rachel Leon voted for the ordinance. Leon and Amann sponsored it.
Council member Jo Daniels voted no. She had voted for the rules when they passed on Oct. 6 with a 7-0 vote.
At that meeting, Daniels said the ordinance’s standards didn’t address the crucial areas the community needs to protect. “And for that alone, I definitely can’t vote to move this forward,” she said about two hours before the first vote.
The ordinance keeps data centers at least 1,000 feet from residential zones and from homes, schools, day cares, parks, hospitals and recreation centers. Developers must file studies including on the environment, water, energy, noise and heat.
A data center that plugs into the grid needs the electric utility to certify it can serve the site and must note any known effect on electric rates.
Boyle Construction, Paxos and Tensor IQ announced the two-story Industrial Drive project in August with a projected peak demand of about 120 megawatts.
No one spoke on the ordinance during Tuesday’s public comment.
