BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Residents can comment on the data center proposed at 2184 Industrial Drive, along Route 22, when it goes before the Bethlehem Planning Commission at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in the Town Hall Rotunda, 10 E. Church St.
The commission, not City Council, rules on the plan, and it is not deciding whether a data center may go there. The zoning the project was filed under allows data centers on the site without special permission. The commission reviews how the site would be built: driveways, stormwater, utilities, street lighting, landscaping and any exceptions to the city’s site rules the developers request.
Under the city’s land development rules, it must approve a plan that meets the city’s requirements, though it can attach conditions. If it rejects a plan, state law requires it to cite the rules the plan fails.
State law also sets a 90-day deadline for a decision. If the commission misses it, the plan is approved automatically, though the developers can agree in writing to give it more time.
The data center rules council passed 6-1 on Oct. 20 ban data centers in the Planned Industrial district, where the site sits. They also require data centers to be 1,000 feet from residentially zoned land, and every part of the 6.75-acre lot is closer than that, we reported Oct. 4.
But those rules don’t apply. Under the state’s Municipalities Planning Code, a plan is judged by the rules in place when it was filed, and this one was filed first.
Public comment will be taken at the meeting, Council President Rachel Leon said Oct. 6. The city has not said whether the commission will vote that night.
The meeting is listed on the city’s calendar, but no agenda has been posted. Meeting materials typically go online the Friday before, Planning and Zoning Director Cathy Fletcher said in October, which would be Friday, Nov. 6.
Boyle Construction, Paxos and Tensor IQ announced the project in August.
Plans call for a two-story, 131,380-square-foot building about 60 feet tall, twice the height of the building there now, according to a September review by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, the planning agency for Lehigh and Northampton counties and their 62 municipalities. Its review advises the city; it does not decide the plan. The height is allowed under the zoning that applies, the regional planners said.
The developers told the regional planners the data center would draw up to about 120 megawatts at peak. About 80% of its normal power would come from the grid and about 20% from natural gas generators on site, with diesel generators for emergencies.
The building’s immersion cooling, which moves heat from the computers straight into a fluid, would run on a closed loop the developers estimate takes about 3 million gallons of water and 1 million gallons of glycol to fill. After that, they estimate ordinary use at about 20,000 gallons of water a year, or about 55 gallons a day, plus an amount not yet set for the generators. The EPA says an average American family uses more than 300 gallons a day at home, and the regional planners said the developers should clarify whether the figure includes employees’ daily use.
The regional planners said the developers should provide:
- how many gas and diesel generators there would be, where, how often they would run and what noise and emissions they would make
- a noise study of sound at the property lines and nearby properties, including during generator testing, and a check after the center opens
- where the fill water would come from, how much the center would use each year and whether the public water system can reliably supply it in dry periods
- where the heat would be released, and how leaks of cooling fluid would be kept out of stormwater
The regional planners called the industrial site generally appropriate for a data center and said Route 22 separates it from the nearest homes. Those homes are still close enough that noise, emissions, lighting and heat should be weighed, they said.
Lehigh Valley Stands Up, an advocacy group, has urged city residents on Instagram to “PACK THE ROOM” on Nov. 12 and prepare comments opposing the project.
A second data center, filed Oct. 5 for 3200 and 3700 Commerce Center Boulevard, also came in before the new rules. Fletcher said she does not expect it before the Planning Commission until December or later.
We asked the city for both projects’ applications under the state’s Right-to-Know Law on Oct. 20. On Oct. 28, the city told us it was taking a 30-day extension to respond.
