SOUTH WHITEHALL TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Hotly contested plans for a hyperscale data center will be back in front of township planning officials – but not for another six weeks.
Project Atlas does not appear on the agenda for the South Whitehall Township Planning Commission’s Aug. 13 meeting.
Instead, the commission is set to meet at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at Parkland High School, according to the township.
There, members will review Edged Data Centers’ plans to build three facilities covering almost 1.5 million square feet on a plot of land across North Cedar Crest Boulevard from the school.
That’s less a third of the size of the company’s initial proposal, which called for six facilities with more than 5 million square feet.
Executives from the company and its partners presented their scaled-back plans July 9 at Springhouse Middle School, where hundreds of residents packed the auditorium.
Project director John Dolan said the new data center complex would use a “closed-loop” cooling system that would use no water from the township’s municipal system.
According to Dolan, that would save about more than 2.8 billion gallons of water at the facility each year, which is roughly two-thirds of the annual water supplied by the Lehigh County Authority's Central Lehigh Division that serves South Whitehall and six neighboring municipalities.
And John Callahan, chief investment officer for Edged US, pledged South Whitehall Township residents would incur “no project costs of Project Atlas” related to electricity. Edged US is pledging to pay for all required infrastructure upgrades to power the hyperscale data center, which is expected to use a nearby PPL substation.
But many residents who spoke at the planning commission's July 9 meeting weren't swayed by the downsized proposal.
And dozens who signed up to speak were left waiting to voice their concerns as the meeting ended at 10 p.m.
David Wilson, who chairs the commission, told residents they would have more chances to weigh in on Project Atlas. An opportunity will come in September, but the window is closing for further public meetings.
The planning commission must act on the proposal by the end of October.