Allentown residents push for 180-day pause as council hears testimony on data-center zoning change

Allentown City Council opened a public hearing on June 6 to take testimony on Bill 20, a proposed amendment to the city zoning code that would create a specific use category and review process for data centers.

The ordinance, as described by Planning Director Jennifer Gomez, would add a defined "data center" use to the zoning code, specify which industrial districts it may be allowed in by special exception rather than by-right, impose minimum lot-size thresholds for larger facilities and require studies on noise, vibration, water and sewage impacts. "For the first time, it says here's the data center use," Gomez said, noting the ordinance also requires landscaping, buffering and pre- and post-construction noise studies and that decommissioning and electronic-waste plans would be part of permit review.

Why it matters: Residents and neighborhood groups said the draft does not go far enough to protect public health and local infrastructure from the potential impacts of high-power AI and hyperscale data centers. Speakers repeatedly pointed to a 200-foot setback in the draft as insufficient, asked for enforceable noise and post-construction testing, sought explicit financial-security or remediation trusts for decommissioning, and urged stronger requirements on water use, generator emissions and independent, third-party studies.

"This ordinance that you have before you... is unfortunately one of the worst ones I've seen," said Ginny Marcel Kurzweg, senior organizer for Food and Water Watch Pennsylvania, who urged the council to deny the draft and instead adopt a municipal curative amendment pausing new applications for 180 days while a stronger ordinance is prepared. Kurzweg urged restricting data centers to a single industrial district rather than opening multiple industrial zones to the use and said the 200-foot setback cited in the draft is too small compared with guidance elsewhere.

Advocates for a pause were numerous. Residents, community organizers and local civic associations — including speakers from Lehigh Valley Stands Up and the West Park Civic Association — repeatedly asked council to enact a 180-day curative amendment to "hit pause" on new data-center submissions and buy time for independent studies and revisions.

"We need to spend 180 days revisiting this and making sure that it actually will be protecting our communities from data centers," said a Lehigh Valley Stands Up organizer, summarizing a long list of provisions she said the draft lacks.

Supporters of passing a baseline ordinance said leaving no law would be worse. Kyle Ropski, chair of the Allentown Environmental Advisory Council, said the EAC submitted recommendations and a letter of support and urged passage while continuing to refine the rules: "These studies help identify and address potential impacts early, protecting our residents, our environmental resources, and our taxpayer dollars," he told council.

Chris Brown, chair of the City Planning Commission, said an imperfect ordinance is preferable to having no ordinance at all: "If you kill the ordinance proposal tonight, I do believe that that does open the door for a lawful submission to come in under the current zoning ordinance, which has no regulation for the data center," he said, urging council to adopt protections now and keep improving them.

Points of dispute and clarifications included decommissioning and electronic-waste language. Tinku Kanwakker, cochair of the Environmental Advisory Council, told the hearing the draft includes an electronic-waste plan requirement and that those plans would be reviewed by the EAC and incorporated into permits, countering testimony that no decommissioning requirements exist.

Several speakers cited health and environmental studies. Nick Nikoloff, a member of the Allentown School District board speaking as an individual, cited research on particulate matter from large data centers and warned of long-term health costs, while other residents described water-supply concerns in parts of the city already experiencing shortages.

What happens next: The hearing was for public testimony only; no vote was taken. City staff and council members said the record will be compiled, the Planning Commission will receive project-level applications for a specific proposed site at 2401 West Emmaus Avenue, and further deliberation and potential amendments are expected. The chair invited residents to remain for the council meeting and for courtesy-of-the-floor comments after the hearing.

Reporting note: Quotations and attributions in this article come directly from the public hearing transcript and speakers' stated names and roles during the June 6 session.