A fight over a hyperscale data center proposal in South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania has escalated, with residents demanding a public hearing before local officials sign off on a project that has drawn hundreds to community meetings. The dispute pits promises of jobs and tax revenue against fears about traffic, noise and strain on nearby roads in a rapidly growing corner of Lehigh County.
The clash centers on a proposal near Parkland High School, though even the basic scope of the project is described differently depending on the source. According to Lehigh Valley Public Media, developer Edged US is seeking approval for a complex with three data center facilities, each covering about 500,000 square feet, on a parcel of more than 400 acres. But WFMZ describes the same 400-acre South Whitehall site as home to a five-building Atlas Data Center proposed by Scannell Properties. Whichever configuration is accurate, the site sits between Mauch Chunk Road and North Cedar Crest, directly across the street from Parkland High School, per WFMZ's reporting.
As CBS News Philadelphia correspondent Dan Snyder reported, the data center fight is intensifying as communities across the country push back against mega facilities, and the South Whitehall proposal has rallied local residents in a similar way. South Whitehall Township sits in Lehigh County, and the current plan already represents a significant scale-back from what developers first floated. The version submitted in December called for six data centers spanning more than 5 million square feet, a plan that has since been reduced, according to Lehigh Valley Public Media's reporting.
Residents Push for Their Day at the Podium
The scaled-down proposal has not quieted the opposition. A group calling itself the South Whitehall Civic Alliance is demanding an opportunity to question Edged US representatives directly and to present testimony from its own witnesses, the outlet reports. That demand followed a South Whitehall Township Planning Commission meeting on July 9, when several hundred residents filled the Springhouse Middle School auditorium and many made clear they remained opposed to the revised plan.
Developer Points to Jobs, Tax Revenue and Water Savings
Backers of the project are leaning on economic projections to make their case. Project Atlas is expected to support approximately 250 permanent jobs with average annual wages between $65,000 and $75,000, according to the project's own website, projectatlaspa.com. The same source projects $16.2 million in recurring annual tax revenue, including $2.3 million for South Whitehall Township and $11.5 million for the Parkland School District.
On water use, developers point to a closed-loop cooling system that would draw no water from South Whitehall Township's municipal system, a claim reported by Lehigh Valley Public Media. Edged US has said Project Atlas could save more than 2.8 billion gallons of water at the facility each year, per the same outlet. The complex would be powered by a new PPL substation, with Edged US saying it would cover the cost of required infrastructure upgrades.
Next-Door Whitehall Township Wants a Voice Too
The fallout isn't confined to South Whitehall. Officials in neighboring Whitehall Township have said the project could affect traffic and living conditions on their side of the border, according to a report from The Morning Call. Their chief concern is a proposed access road that would connect North Cedar Crest Boulevard with Mauch Chunk and Mechanicsville roads. As of early August, no developer had submitted formal plans for a data center within Whitehall Township itself, the paper noted, even as officials there began drafting their own data-center rules in response to the neighboring proposal.
Part of a Wider Pennsylvania Reckoning
South Whitehall's fight is unfolding against a statewide backdrop of rapid data-center expansion. Twenty-one data centers are now planned in Pennsylvania, with many concentrated in the northeastern part of the state, according to Inside Climate News. Critics elsewhere have cited concerns ranging from constant low-frequency noise to spiking electric bills, major water usage and air-quality effects from diesel generators, the outlet reports.
Those water concerns aren't hypothetical elsewhere in the country. Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, as cited by Stateline. That reporting also notes that municipalities across the country are increasingly turning to ordinances, ballot measures or lawsuits to shape where and how data centers get built, including in Loudoun County, Virginia, which earlier this year amended its zoning code to require a public hearing process for data center proposals.
Pennsylvania communities closer to South Whitehall have already tested that approach. Hampden Township commissioners voted 5-0 to reject a draft ordinance that would have allowed data centers in Industrial and Office Park zoning districts, according to GovTech, after roughly 300 residents there signed a petition opposing the change. The same reporting notes that Middlesex Township has been weighing Project Bolt, which would become south central Pennsylvania's first hyperscale data center if it is approved and built. In Lancaster, city council has considered a zoning ordinance that would require future data center projects to undergo a special-exception hearing and disclose planned electricity and water use, per Stateline's reporting.
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development has published a data-center planning toolkit meant to guide municipalities through the process, covering everything from initial inquiry to zoning, permitting and long-term planning. For South Whitehall Township residents watching the fight over Project Atlas unfold, the outcome may hinge on whether they get the public hearing they're asking for before any final decisions are made.
