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Cities Tighten Data Center Siting
Coverage from The Morning Call, Americus Times-Recorder, and others
Cities and townships are replacing or supplementing by-right industrial zoning with special-exception, conditional-use, and public-review requirements for data centers.
In the Lehigh Valley, proposed warehouse conversions in Allentown and Allen Township, along with a new Bethlehem facility, have focused attention on electricity demand, cooling water, noise, setbacks, and infrastructure capacity. The changes could lengthen project timelines and require developers to provide technical studies or fund related utility work, while some projects filed before new rules may remain under older standards.
The story now includes a new Bethlehem data-center proposal, making Lehigh Valley infrastructure capacity—especially a reported 120-megawatt demand—a more prominent issue. Allentown’s withdrawn project may be refiled, while municipalities are more explicitly moving from by-right zoning toward discretionary review.
The biggest change is that Akron’s data-center proposal has moved from planning-stage support to an approved conditional-use framework, while Allentown’s project has become more defined as a refiled edge data center after a withdrawn application. The story also sharpens around tighter siting and disclosure rules, with Americus and Reading still actively drafting restrictions.
The story has broadened from Allentown-area warehouse conversions to a wider multi-city push in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia to tighten data center zoning and approval rules. The new emphasis is on specific regulatory mechanisms—special approvals, hearings, disclosures, and moratoriums—that could slow or reshape projects already in the pipeline.
- Municipalities in Ohio and Georgia are now part of the story.
- Akron is advancing disclosure requirements for future data center developers.
- Reading is considering a six-month data center moratorium.
- Americus is weighing special approvals and cooling-water limits.
- Prologis’s approved project includes a closed-loop cooling system.
The story now includes a concrete regulatory setback in Allentown: City Council tabled the proposed data center zoning amendment for legal review, while a separate Allen Township conversion has already won approval under existing zoning. That makes the local debate less theoretical and more about how quickly jurisdictions will tighten standards as projects keep advancing.
Allentown is moving to create zoning rules for data centers while also handling a separate warehouse conversion proposal that predates the new rules. The debate centers on whether current ordinances adequately address data center impacts, including energy demand, water use, noise, setbacks, and infrastructure capacity. Local officials, planning bodies, residents, and developers are all engaged, but the legal effect of any new ordinance on pending applications remains unsettled.