Everyone, if I could have your attention, please.

We're going to call this uh meeting of the Allentown Planning Commission to order.

Tonight is a special meeting uh called in uh particular to 2401 Emma's Avenue, the proposed data center.

This meeting has been arranged for the convenience of the public to uh to attend.

Um we expect to hear from uh all of the staff tonight.

We expect to hear from the developer.

There'll be numerous presentations, and there will be an opportunity for public comment after all the presentations are made.

Um hopefully everybody's at an opportunity to fill out a comment card if you plan to be a public commenter tonight.

Um, we're gonna follow the same rules as the city council.

There'll be three minutes provided to each city resident or taxpayer to comment on the agenda item tonight.

Um, I guess I'll turn it over to staff.

So um thank you for that introduction.

My name is Jennifer Gomez.

I'm the planning director here in the city of Allentown.

So, as uh described today as uh a forum to discuss specifically 2401 West Domaius Avenue and the data center that's been proposed at this property.

So the point of this meeting is to provide uh a time for continued dialogue to better understand the project and to better understand the community feedback related to 2401.

So, since the forum is for discussion, there will be no decision this evening made on this project.

This is just to have the communication regarding the project and uh best inform future decision making.

So, before getting started, I will note that over the last several weeks, we have received an unprecedented level of public interest and concern on both this application and data centers in general.

So I do feel compelled to start with that the city and the staff has taken this feedback very seriously.

The city has worked tirelessly to both address the broader issue of data center legislation and to thoroughly review this project and its potential impacts.

And as many of us are aware, the C recently adopted a zoning amendment, Bill 20, which established regulations, safeguards, and review requirements for data center, a use that previously was not defined in our zoning code.

And so, with the understanding that that was the beginning of the legislation, the city council immediately introduced Bill 52 to address their highest priority revisions, including further limiting zoning districts where data centers can be located, increasing setbacks from sensitive uses, adding decommissioning requirements, adding additional noise protections, and additional public notification requirements.

So that bill was sent through the zoning amendment process and is scheduled for city council decision on August 5th.

Additionally, last night the city introduced changes to the noise ordinance to require all continuously operating noises to address both DBC and DBA based sound measurements, regardless of use if you're continuously operating.

Um, and to measure those uses and continuously operating uses that do not include uh to measure that they do not increase baseline ambient noise above existing conditions or create hums, tones, or low frequency sounds.

Uh the legislation also introduced third-party verification and enforcement tools that will ensure that the cost of monitoring noise impacts is not passed on to the city or taxpayers.

So this option will be for the future for all or will be for all noise sources, not just data centers.

So that bill will go before the community economic development committee, a subcommittee of council next week on July 22nd.

So we acknowledge that this is both an emerging and an evolving issue, and there's likely a need to continue working on it beyond these initial efforts.

So broader questions about data center legislation in general are best directed to the council as part of the legislative process.

But we are taking notes.

Um we're listening and we hear the concerns that are brought forward with recognition on how to manage that use.

So this isn't just a local issue, this is a state issue, it's a national issue.

Um we have um printouts of all of our um state senators and state representatives printed out here before you with all of their contact information.

So if um you feel that there's uh further concerns that need to be addressed at a statewide level in a more aggressive way than it is today.

There's a lot of bills on the table at the state.

I encourage you to reach out to the contact information on that piece of paper as well.

So those are located right there to continue the discussion of the broader concerns.

So now I'd like to turn my attention to this particular project.

Um this was submitted prior to the advertisement and adoption of any portion of the data center legislation.

When the project was submitted, in the absence of a listed use, the use was interpreted as a permitted industrial use.

An appeal of that decision has been filed with the zoning hearing board.

So the issue of use determination is currently being scheduled to be addressed by the zoning hearing board.

This review, therefore, focused on the overall land development beyond the issue of just use.

It includes the assessment of the project's conformance with a comprehensive plan, the subdivision and land development ordinance, we call it the saldo, we probably say that a lot here.

The various applicable city ordinances and regulations to the extent permitted by law.

In addition, we've taken a cautious approach with the reviews and used this process to thoroughly review the proposal, understand its impacts, including the impacts of this industrial use on nearby homes and sensitive uses, with the goal to support balanced decision regarding evolving industrial land uses and the impacts on surrounding areas.

So the decisions on land development are made by the planning commission.

And since we've got a new lot of new people in the audience tonight, the planning commissioners are those starting with Kate over here, Craig, Chris, Eric, Leslie, the decision will go to the planning commission for a final determination.

We've got a lot of staff support up here.

So if I can introduce some of our partners here that have worked together on this review, Melissa Velez, she's the chief planner for City of Allentown.

She's been the lead reviewer on this application and has prepared the staff report and coordinated the details.

Brian Heid to my right.

He is the assistant planner.

He takes notes on the meetings.

He's the one if you're if you've sent feedback on this and heard back from him, he watches the public comment and makes sure that every single comment that we receive makes it to the planning commission.

David Pet or Mike Hanso across the way, he's the city's zoning office or zoning supervisor.

His charge is for zoning compliance review.

David Petrick, he's our deputy public works director.

He works with Joseph Millick.

We didn't have enough chairs, who's their city engineer.

Their role is stormwater engineering, surveying water sewer infrastructure, traffic, and overall compliance with the subdivision and land development regulations.

They also frequently coordinate with our partners at LCA and PADEP.

We've got Darren Martocci here with us.

He is a planning consultant from Keystone Engineering.

We've used Darren as a third-party independent reviewer in order to provide staff with additional considerations, a thoughtful review, and a detailed analysis of any potential impacts from this particular project, and provide recommendations on how to manage those impacts.

We have John Steed here.

He's the assistant fire chief of assistant chief of fire prevention and chief fire marshal.

His role is to complete the review of the land development plans, building permits.

He also gets involved with the emergency management.

I think he's also got an eye on the crowd tonight to see how many we have in this room for occupancy.

Stevie Wolst is here from our health department.

Health department reviews noise complaints and enforcement and anything related to noise.

So she is here.

We have George Pereira, he's the assistant city solicitor, is I don't see him at the moment, but oh, there he is.

He's here.

He'll provide us with any procedural guidance and legal support if needed.

We have a special guest tonight, Jill Seitz.

Jill Sites is with the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, which is the Regional Planning Commission for the entire region.

They review all data centers, all land developments, all zoning, all saldo changes throughout the Lehigh Valley.

LVP has published the Lehigh County Land Use Guide to provide guidance on this use and other emerging uses.

And their role is additionally to provide technical planning guidance and support to cities and townships in the Lehigh Valley and have been extraordinarily helpful as we tackle this issue.

We do have a Spanish interpreter here tonight.

If there is anyone who needs assistance from our Spanish interpreter, she's actually outside in the lobby here.

So if you if you need support with Spanish translation, she can both simultaneously translate this meeting.

And if you need Spanish support in making comments, she will go with you to the podium and be able to make those comments for you.

So if you do need that assistance, please coordinate with her outside.

She's uh her name is Mudilin, we just met her, and uh hopefully uh she can make herself available to you and make sure that that comment and feedback can be uh placed.

We have the planning commission's public participation policy.

Um we have cards.

Um, where are the cards?

All right, so when you signed in, if everyone got a card, um, what we'll do if you can give back the cards, give them to Brian over here, and when we get to the public participation portion of the night, we'll make sure to turn it over here.

So we have all of our planning commissioners.

I will point out um our chair is on the shade tree, he's the chair of the Shade Tree Commission, and our vice chair of this commission is also on the environmental advisory committee.

So they're both um very aware of their feedback and comment as well and can speak and better clarify their roles.

Um and the public, um, as previously mentioned, all of the feedback that we've provided or that has been received, has been provided to the planning commissioners, so they're aware.

Um, one last note that I will say for clarification procedurally.

The applicant submitted revised drawings to us last week.

These drawings were not part of the original submission, and they have not been reviewed by the city.

And uh while the applicant may reference them and I haven't seen the presentation, they may even show them.

Please know that these are analysis is based on the submission that was made to us in May, and we have not seen these drawings.

So staff will um again the procedure for the night.

Staff will introduce the project, our staff report on the project, our outside consultant assessment of the project, and then we will uh turn it over to LVPC to provide us some overall guidance, and then finally to the developer so he can present his project and then to the community, and we'll continue this dialogue until the end of the meeting, which I think is set for 10 o'clock.

Concludes my comments.

Thank you for your patience.

Great introduction, Jennifer.

Thank you so much.

That was a lot.

And that you handled it well.

Um I think that uh no further intro necessary after that.

I think you really covered all of it.

So thank you so much for that.

So I guess Melissa, you're gonna take over um on the staff report and um turn it over to you.

All right, thank you.

Okay, so um this is for 241 O'Manus Avenue, of course.

So this project proposes to retrofit the existing warehouse into an 80 megawatt data center to construct a one-story 23,342 square foot enclosure of an on-site electrical substation, convert the truck loading dock area into an external generator yard, relocate stormwater facilities and other site improvements.

The property is located in the I-3 General Industrial Zone, now the IG industrial general zone.

A certificate of occupy occupancy was issued for the existing warehouse building on May 22nd of 2025.

The applicants provided additional information regarding the operations of the facilities, such as this facility will operate continuously, there will be four to eight employees, a closed loop cooling system would be used to reduce water and sewer usage.

Um, that's around uh 1,500 gallons of water use per day with no discharge or cooling water or sewer to the sewer or to the ground.

Uh 36 tier 4 backup generators would be installed outside the facility to provide power during outages.

Um 42 rooftop chillers would be installed.

Sound and vibrations are proposed to be mitigated on site, including the installation of sound attenuation walls.

Um overall assessment of the project.

The applicant has demonstrated an adaptive reuse approach, which reduces traffic impacts compared to the warehouse use, incorporates best practice water conservation with a closed loop system, includes initial mitigation measures such as sound walls and tier four generators.

However, it is important to recognize that data centers represent a different land use profile than traditional industrial uses historically contemplated within the I-3 zone.

Uh while the city's zoning interpretation with respect to this specific application is that it is an as of right use.

The type of use is characterized by extremely high energy demand with regional infrastructure implications, low employment density relative to building scale, continuous operational impacts such as noise emissions and visual presence.

As such, the proposed use may not represent the highest and best land use for this site when evaluated against long-term planning objectives, particularly those related to job creation, land efficiency, and compatibility with nearby residential uses.

Accordingly, a cautious and highly conditioned approach for reviews is warranted with emphasis on verifying impacts, preserving future flexibility, and protecting surrounding properties.

That was uh exhibit A of the staff report, and that includes a detailed planning and zoning review of the project completed by an independent third party, Keystone Consulting Engineers in order to provide city planning staff and the ACPC with guidance, technical observations, and recommended conditions.

So I'll pass it over to Darren from Keystone to discuss their review of the project, and then it'll come back to me to finish the staff report.

Thank you, Melissa.

Um you touched on the major concerns we had in this review.

Um again, Darren Martacci, Keystone Consulting Engineers.

Uh, we reviewed this application based on the current zoning ordinance in place at the time of the application as well as the Alltown uh comprehensive plan and our experience in site planning and working with this type of use.

Um as Melissa pointed out, these these uses are a significantly different type of industrial use, and they bring in different characteristics that the previously approved warehouse would have brought in.

Um major concerns are related to electrical infrastructure use and demand and how that's managed.

Um we understand the developer has um has signed signs off from PPL and they can provide the service.

We want to make sure that that's captured and it's it's in a situation where they're not going to be over taxing the system in those areas.

Umise is another significant um concern with this type of facility.

Um the city has updated the noise ordinance and has updated the actual data center ordinance, but back to the noise ordinance.

I think there's protections in place where baseline readings are taken.

We're filtering out the low volume, the low frequency hums, and coming up with a true volume.

Um again, I I think that needs to be done in perpetuity and continuously.

Testing to make sure that it's not exceeding the levels.

Water resources is also a big area of concern with this type of facility.

Um this is proposing a closed loop system so the water will be recirculated.

Um, however, I think any any consideration of action on this plan should have some type of caveat in to covenant that so they can't change that use in the future without some type of approval from the city.

One of the biggest concerns in this area, and I think we've heard about it in the past is its location to residential buildings and um different types of uses that may not be 100% compatible.

We recommend a stronger buffer buffer and screening area along a Maus Avenue.

Uh the plan the landscape plan currently shows removal of some street trees.

We'd like to beef that up a little bit, have some more buffer for not just visual appearance but also some sound attenuation if possible.

We did have other concerns related to emergency services response into these systems and handling the generators, the um any types of batteries and any type of um flammables in the building.

And I think that there is a review from your fire fire company talking about how that can be handled.

But in conclusion, I think any consideration needs to um memorialize these things, capture them by covenant so it is it runs with the land and with the use.

Thank you, Darren.

Um, before you continue, Melissa, I'd like to ask a question.

Um about the noise ordinance revisions that have just been proposed.

Unlike the zoning ordinances, which only apply to applications that are submitted after they change, the noise ordinance is more universal, correct?

So the changes to that noise ordinance would apply to this and any prior or later development or application.

Is that right?

That is my understanding, yes.

Um, I have an email out to the city solicitor's office to confirm that um until we have that confirmation.

Um, if approval is given, I suggest that we include any detailed descriptions of the noise and conditions to ensure that it's covered regardless of the interpretation.

But hopefully, before we get back here, both that sound ordinance will be adopted, and I'll have that legal answer, which I believe is yes.

And if I may, Mr.

Chair, a point of order.

I received a report from the lobby that some folks are having difficulty hearing.

So just a reminder to everyone to please speak closely into your microphone.

Please try to speak as loudly and clearly as you can just to make sure that the sound quality is good for everyone's benefit.

Right.

Thank you, Mike.

Um, yeah, and back to the covenant.

I think you know, one way to cover that would be to, you know, any current noise ordinance.

Um, you know, if we were to attach any sort of noise condition or covenant to the plan, that it would be, you know, any current or future noise ordinances, those evolve.

Perhaps.

I think and included within the recommendations, and I don't want to skip to the good parts, but it's just a further documentation of um acoustic modeling of the noise ordinance.

So I think that's an area that requires further explorer exploration um uh through RESAMETLES.

Thank you.

I I just wanted to I wanted to ask that question because I know for for many folks who've been following along and maybe frustrated a little bit with the the zoning changes uh regarding data centers are great, but they don't retroactively affect applications like the one tonight that has already been submitted.

But I wanted to make this point for everybody's benefit that the city is proactively making our noise ordinance more aggressive and complete so that it will address current, past, future any development.

So I just wanted to make that distinction because I know there's been a little bit of frustration about you know making these zoning changes, but them not really helping immediately.

So anyway, please carry on.

Okay, so I'll continue with the staff report and all the remaining recommends comments are in addition to the detailed review by Keystone.

Um for site design, staff strongly recommends that the proposed substation be moved or significantly set back from uh to be as far away from a Mayus Avenue as possible.

Um, since number of employees and therefore the number of required parking spaces has been reduced significantly.

Staff suggests excess pervious cover impervious cover be reduced and replaced with landscaping.

It appears the sidewall connecting the building to the street will be removed and replaced with an expanded driveway, and almost all the existing street trees and shade trees will be removed along the front of the property and replaced with shrubs, and that new trees are proposed at the rear and southern portion of the property.

The renderings show shrubs and tall evergreens along the front edge.

However, the plans only show the shrubs with an approximate mature height of three to five feet along the majority of the frontage with no tall evergreen trees being proposed.

The renderings do not show the proposed sound attenuation walls.

Uh, a bike rack is not shown on the plans.

Staff suggest the sidewalk, street trees, and shade trees be maintained and enhanced, and the renderings be updated to show the actual proposed landscaping and sound attenuation walls, and a bicycle rack be added to the plans.

The city's noise ordinance is enforced through the city's health bureau.

A preliminary noise study was previously provided to zoning and reviewed by Health.

Health provided recommended conditions, including sound mitigation for all air cooled chillers and sound attenuate attenuated enclosures for the generators, shall be implemented per the acoustic modeling supporting documentation.

Testing of generator generators shall occur on weekdays.

Testing shall not be performed on a weekend or a holiday.

Testing of generators shall not occur between 7 a.m.

or after 10 p.m.

Generation generators shall be tested only at the minimum cycle necessary.

Generator test time shall not exceed 60 seconds.

And the final certificate of occupancy shall be issued only when the sound pressure level testing of the operating chillers and generators is performed by the city, and the results conform to the acoustic modeling and are in compliance with the city's noise ordinance.

The AEAC added that increased amounts of noise, vibrations, hums, and consistent low frequency or ambient noise would negatively affect impact surrounding homes, businesses, and threaten nearby wildlife.

The city is currently in the process of amending the zoning uh city's noise ordinance.

We talked about that already.

Um the applicant should clarify whether the project can meet these proposed sound measurements.

Uh there were additional comments by LBPC, but we're gonna um have them discuss their comments after we conclude the review of the staff report.

Um, for electricity, staff would like to better understand how the data data center being a large load user would impact electricity costs for existing residents and businesses, including transmission costs and generation costs.

Staff has consulted with PPL on this project and has been verbally advised that the infrastructure costs will be paid for by the developer and that those infrastructure upgrades should be should improve reliability of service.

Staff requests to review the applicant's agreement with PPL to ensure that the applicant is responsible for the cost of any necessary infrastructure improvements and upgrades.

The application materials indicate the generators are to be for emergency or testing use only.

The applicant should clarify the conditions that would constitute emergency, including whether the generators will be used to offset regional emergency energy demand during periods considered peak load, and or to sell excess power back to the market or the grid.

Staff asked the applicant to comment on whether the project can support new generation facilities as part of the project that would help to mitigate the demand on existing generation facilities and the overall impact on generation costs.

It is recommended that the applicant prioritize procuring the generation of power through new facilities that generate electricity using renewable sources such as wind, solar, or geothermal that could be confirmed through power purchase agreements.

The fire prevention office has reviewed the project and recommended the applicants submit revised plans and provide and they provided several items that need to be addressed, including the requirement to provide hazard mitigation analysis and pre-incident plan.

The Allentown Environmental Advisory Council also provided detailed comments and recommendations for the proposed data center project.

The AEAC suggests careful evaluation of the project for potential mitigation, including energy demand, cooling, water usage, heat generation, noise, environmental factors, and community compatibility.

They also recommend that all the recommended information be developed by independent third parties and that have proven no conflict of interest or financial stake in the proposal.

It is suggested that the applicants provide an environmental impact assessment, evaluating impacts to wildlife, wildlife habitat, air pollutants, existing water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer systems, and potential fire suppression pollutants.

The AEAC also suggests applicants provide details on the recycling and disposal of discharge water from the closed loop cooling system and provide a water utilization report detailing at minimum, total daily intake volume and sources of water, discharge volumes and destinations, cooling system type and efficiency, and demonstrate the compliance with the city's stormwater ordinances and regulations.

They also suggest the applicants provide on-site renewable energy generation to lessen the potential impact to the electrical grid.

Provide information on the types of generators being used and their environmental impact, estimate annual usage and proposed mitigation efforts for greenhouse gas emissions, submit information related to fuel storage, spill prevention and countermeasures, and information about electrical generation sources for the substation.

It is recommended applicants, uh, yeah, applications, applicants.

Sorry, my word was wrong here.

Provide a thermal impact mitigation plan, including at a minimum strategies for waste heat reuse or dissipation, and that passive cooling strategies be implemented, such as cool roofs, green roofs, shade trees, and color light-colored exterior walls to mitigate urban heat islands and reduce energy consumption.

LCA has indicated indicated that they are in need of additional information regarding estimated water uses to determine if there are any additional capacity and effects on the system.

Staff recommends the applicant provide information requested by the planning consultants, city reviewers, LBPC, AEAC, and LCA to proceed with their reviews of the project.

And then I'm going to go over some of the city citywide plans.

This project is within South Allentown.

Allentown Vision 2030 recognizes South Allentown as a quilt of urban neighborhoods separated by industrial, commercial, and even ecological corridors with a strong industrial legacy.

South Allentown has pockets of stable, walkable housing oriented around local services and amenities like corridors, like Susquehanna Street, Jimaus Avenue, Lehigh Street, and interspersed with commercial and industrial development.

This is evident in this project with the residential neighborhood across the street and mix of commercial and industrial uses within the immediate area.

The South Side also serves as an important employment hub.

One of the economic development goals of Vision 2030 is to increase local employment and for new jobs to be accessible to Allentown residents.

The proposed project greatly reduces the potential number of employees from up to 238 employees on the largest shift per the recorded plans for the previously approved warehouse use to up to eight employees per the project narrative provided by the with the proposed data data center.

Vision 2030 also envisions a future for the city that is sustainable, vibrant, and resilient in order to determine the compatibility of the proposed project for vision with Vision 2030.

More information is needed, much of which is detailed throughout this report and with additional specific detailed recommendations to improve the sustainability and mitigate impacts detailed in the planning the planning report of this.

So as proposed, there are important questions regarding long-term land use efficiency, infrastructure capacity, and compatibility with nearby residential uses.

In addition, some ways this project can help to achieve these goals includes reducing any excess impervious surface, adding additional landscaping to absorb stormwater runoff and buffer residential properties, add a green roof, reduce impervious surface, use native plants and landscaping, and include energy saving strategies within the project, such as sustainable building materials and taking measures to maximize energy efficiency.

The AEAC also to suggest the use of bird-friendly glass and the installation of a landscape buffer with a minimum width of 25 feet around the perimeter of the site to mitigate negative impacts on adjacent uses.

Okay.

Okay, safe streets for all.

So safe streets for all the the goal is to have zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030 using the vision zero approach.

And Mayus AB was identified as a safety concern due to traffic volume speeding, wide gaps between traffic signals and intersections and challenging geometry.

So the guide of the city is to uh in this project selection and prioritization process for safety improvements.

I shouldn't try to summarize here.

Um Lanta is a key community mass transportation partner, and Lanta just noted that there is existing service and that they want it to remain as it is.

Okay, so for the bike plan, um, so the bike plan is to ensure that infrastructure investments promote safety, equity, multimodal transportation, and sustainable urban development for all members of the community.

The closest bicycle facilities are located at Mack Boulevard and South Mountain.

There are no proposed bike facilities in the media area.

Um still we want to make sure that bicycle racks are provided for for staff and okay for the parks plan.

So uh parks plan is a comprehensive strategy to conserve and improve the city's recreation, open space, and parks.

This project is in close proximity to South Mountain Reservoir.

The park includes a 30 million gallon reservoir, trails, mountain bike routes, pavilions, and a diamond field.

Um staff recommendations.

So the proposed MAS AB data center represents a technically feasible adaptive reuse of an existing industrial building and aligns with evolving industrial trends.

However, the use introduces a level of infrastructure demand and operational intensity that is atypical for traditional industrial development within this corridor.

In particular, high electrical demand with potential off-site consequences, continuous operational impacts such as noise and emissions, low employment yield relative to land consumption.

While the project may be interpreted as an as of right use, it raises important questions regarding long-term land use efficiency, infrastructure capacity, and compatibility with nearby residential uses.

Accordingly, it is noted that any approval be highly conditioned, ensuring that all impacts are fully quantified and mitigated.

Adjacent properties are adequately protected.

Future planning flexibility is preserved.

All comments in the city comment letter are appropriately addressed.

Absent these safeguards, the project could set a precedent for similarly intensive low employment uses that may not fully advance the city's broader planning and economic development objectives.

In addition to this topic's specific recommendations detailed within the third-party review, read into the record by the planning consultant.

There are many recommendations and questions listed throughout this staff report and accompanying letters that detail ways this project could be improved to better protect the community and the environment.

All these recommendations are hereby incorporated.

And I'll pass this on to Jill with LVPC to discuss their comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, and um good evening.

As um uh Director Gomez mentioned in the introduction, my name is Jill Seites.

I'm the chief community and regional planner at the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission or LBPC.

Uh we are the county planning agency for both Lehigh and Northampton counties, and our involvement in the local land development review process is required by Pennsylvania law.

Our role is to provide constructive input on all reviews based on factual information, and our comments reflect the goals and policies of future LV, the regional comprehensive plan.

Uh, to support that review process, LVPC also conducts research and develops guidance to help communities respond to changing land use conditions.

Most recently, as was mentioned, we prepared the Lehigh County Industrial Land Use Guide, which is available on our website at LVPC.org.

And I'm just going to expand a little bit on that context that was used to inform our review.

At a really high level looking across the region, every community's approach to managing land uses is really the same.

The first step is to understand the impacts of any given land use.

And then the second step is to address those impacts using local regulations and review.

So data centers falling in the industrial land use category do exhibit some similar impacts compared to other industrial land uses.

First, in terms of their building form and scale, which can range from small only a few thousand square feet, ranging up to a million square foot building or multimillion square foot industrial campuses.

We see that with other industrial land uses as well.

And similar in particular to manufacturing uses, data centers pose the possibility for vibration, process noise, and emissions.

And however, um, which is actually similar for manufacturing uses too, uh data center impacts depend entirely on their operational design, which can include the server density and computing workload and competing type included within the facility.

Their impacts also depend on the type of cooling system the facility uses and the type of backup energy uh generation that's used.

And so that difference is why local reviews really should focus not just on what the land use is, but on the documented operating characteristics of what is being proposed at any given time.

So once the possible impacts of a land use are understood, authority granted by the state enables the city to regulate those land use impacts and review proposals against their regulations.

Um we do note that municipal authority is not unlimited.

The city must review an application under its adopted ordinances, uh follow the procedures and timelines established by state law, and it must base its decisions on standards that it has the legal authority to administer.

So we're aware that some concerns associated with the project may fall under the jurisdiction of other entities.

Um for example, that is the case with electricity usage.

Uh but that does not mean that the city should avoid asking questions outside its direct regulatory authority.

And the LVPC actually commends the city's planning staff and its consultants for conducting a thorough review of the full range of potential impacts.

Even where the city may not be able to impose particular requirements, it can request information, discuss concerns with the applicant, uh, encourage commitments by the applicant, and coordinate its review uh with responsible agencies and establish a clear public record, which it is doing.

And so LVPC's review letter identifies several areas to ensure adequate information is provided to help the city in evaluating this proposal.

And I'm just going to summarize those briefly because I know that letter has been provided in your review packets.

Uh first, the applicant should provide a detailed sound study that includes low frequency sound, infrasound, and vibration, uh, not only sound levels most easily heard by the human ear.

The applicant should similarly explain its heat rejection system so the city can evaluate whether mechanical equipment could create localized temperature impacts.

Uh rooftop and ground mounted equipment should also be located and enclosed and screened to reduce any visual and neighborhood impacts.

The city should receive clear information about the utility demands, including peak electricity demand and anticipated water usage in coordination with the Lehigh County authority.

The city should have complete information on the emergency generators, including how many are proposed, uh, how often and how long they will be uh tested, and what sound levels would be a result of that.

And a testing schedule should be documented and reviewed to ensure that that usage uh limits any disruption to the community.

And um over the over these comments, our recommendation is really not only that this information be provided and accurate, but that they be recorded and documented through the review process to clearly establish what is being proposed, uh, what impacts the proposal will generate, what mitigation is enforceable, and what commitments the applicant is making to make long-term enforcement feasible.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Jill.

And thank you to everybody for your contributions to this preparatory review work that you've done.

Uh it certainly helps inform this commission and anyone who seeks to indulge in this information.

Um I guess are are we done with all the staff side presentations?

Okay, so I think at this time, umless the commission has any initial comments.

I think we're going to turn it over to the developer.

And just for everybody's information, so our meetings normally take place on the second Tuesday of every month at 1215.

This is the same procedure that we that we that we take with all projects.

It's a little bit more in depth background and support because it's a new and emerging use, but this is this is a process that we do for any project.

And you know, we're a volunteer board.

As it was mentioned earlier, we are the deciding body on all land developments that come through that are major land developments, they come to the planning commission.

Unlike other municipalities, planning commissions are often advisory.

We we actually have you know the authority to approve and deny and and place conditions on projects.

Um we also have the responsibility and the duty to enforce and and pretty much um you know stand behind our our subdivision and land development ordinances, our zoning office and and our zoning ordinances.

We don't have by state law, we don't have the flexibility to bend regulations other than as is stipulated in the in the ordinances themselves in the form of waivers and other uh very specific relief.

Um so we all have our jobs on this.

You guys have your job as citizens and and civilians and and concerned folks in the community.

We have our job to um to review these projects um faithfully and and truthfully by the ordinances that we're governed by.

So um, like we would normally do now, we're gonna turn it over to the developer.

We'd ask that you guys come up, introduce yourselves, and um you got the floor, okay.

Mr.

Chair, uh there it is.

There you go.

Thank you.

Do you want us to do it from here or from the podium?

Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening, members of the planning commission and residents and um property owners of the city of Allentown.

My name is Tony Maris.

Um, I'm an attorney, and I'm part of the quantum development group.

I have with me tonight um two engineers, well, one engineer and one EIT landscape architect from Langan Engineering, Keith Otis and Zach Jordan, and also Dave Grasso, who's a principal in quantum group as well.

At the outset, I'd like to note that what you're gonna see in this presentation will vary a little bit from the review that was just done very ablely by your staff and and by your consultants.

Since we filed this in April, um, under as an amendment to an existing land development plan, there's been a lot of feedback.

We've met with some community members, uh, we met with uh Camelot, had a a Zoom meeting with them.

There was other residents and people from outside the area who participated in that call.

Staff had given their review letters.

So we worked on a resubmission.

There was a resubmission smile filed on Friday of last week.

We are actually going to pull that back uh based on some other feedback we have and resubmit.

We are probably looking to come back to you in the September time frame to discuss um next steps, whether that be an approval or an additional meeting or whatever.

I'd also like to point out that my goal here tonight is not to sway anybody's opinion, but to give you information about what this project means in relation to what's currently allowed there, and also about data centers in general.

Anybody and everybody can get on the internet um, do a chat GPT search, ironically, using data center technology to gain the information and form an opinion.

I would ask this commission to consider the fact that there is a lot of good information on the internet and a lot of bad information.

The New York Times this past weekend just ran an article finding that a number of anti-data center sites are being promoted by countries like originating in places like China, Iran, and the Soviet, the former Soviet Union, Russia.

I'm not saying all the information out there is wrong, but if that's if that's the New York Times finding that article.

Then I would ask that this planning commission and members of the public, if you're open to reading that information, that you remain open to hearing what we have to say tonight.

We are here, and I will say at the start of this, we have are going to propose a number of restrictive covenants as part of our plan, the next plan submission.

They were in as notes.

This time we're gonna put them on the plan set, so there'll be some other things.

So beyond your zoning ordinances, we are going to propose some additional conditions that we think are relevant and important to this use.

So with that, I'm gonna go through this as we're now contemplating the proposal for this.

What you see up top looks very different from the outside than the plan staff just reviewed.

The in the old um I3 zoning district, the substation could have been out front without any enclosure.

Under your IG zoning district, the enclosure was necessary.

One of the biggest comments we got initially was can we move that?

We worked with PPL to change the location of that substation.

I will note if you look on this plan that's sitting there to the far plan right, there is an existing substation.

That is an existing PPL substation.

That we are paying for the improvements that are necessary to that substation and to the line circuitry.

That document will be provided.

I think we provided the PFR, the project feasibility report in our prior submission, but that will require us to pay about 2.1 to 2.5 million dollars for system upgrades and improvements.

And as noted by PPL, those upgrades, while to the transmission system will actually help improve local reliability.

This data center will not be connected to the local distribution network.

And just by again, an analogy, if you think of a 30-inch water main running down the middle of a street, and you think of uh the eight-inch main that runs down to your down your street where you live, the 30-inch main is a distribution main.

The eight-inch main is a trans is a transmission main.

The eight-inch main is a distribution main.

So as I talk about some things, I'll try to use some analogies so people have perspective.

But we are connected to the bigger part of the system.

So the fact that someone's house loses power doesn't mean that the whole region loses power.

If the transmission system goes out, there's redundancies to that, and we're paying to help improve those redundancies.

So, again, as PPL noted, that may help regional distribution reliability.

Next slide, please.

So we have a short agenda.

What is a data center?

Um, current site conditions and permitted uses, proposed development plans, community impacts, and things that we are committing to.

Next slide, please.

So what is a data center?

Next slide.

So if you look at this, I want to get some comparisons for you.

Um, next slide, or tap it.

So noise.

Right now, we did a background noise study.

So we have sound levels existing on our property.

And I want the commission and the public to note that when you see the sound study, there's nothing happening in this building.

So all the noise studies are based on things that are happening on our adjacent, bless you, adjoining properties.

And you'll see that there's an exceedance of current noise standards without us ever having built anything.

So while I recognize there's a concern that we're gonna raise that level, in many instances, the averages and the peak numbers are above what would be permitted anyway if someone had complained.

Um cursory check.

I was not able to locate anyone having filed the noise complaint along the Emmaus Avenue corridor regarding any of these adjoining uses to us, but we can verify that further.

Next slide.

The next so noise, you know, we're gonna be limited, at least under the ordinance that was in effect as of before tomorrow, um, 57 uh decibels during the day, 52 at night.

Um, that complies with the current ordinance standards.

The distribution facility, which is what this building was designed for, was a 24-hour last mile distribution facility.

Um, would have 24-7 truck dock noise, trucks backing up, hooking up their, you know, their two trailers pulling out, and then as those cars and trucks go out, they're gonna be, especially the trucks, gearing up through their first 10 gears as they come out of the parking lot up onto Emmaus Avenue.

Truck traffic, uh, we're reducing um from I think it's 46 truck bays to one truck bay.

Those 46 truck spays in an Amazon or similar type of last mile distribution facility would be used continuously.

And those are for routine supplies.

Next tap.

Water use.

The building as it currently sits is permitted for 4,500 gallons per day.

That is approved by the Lancaster County authority by by the Allentown water system by the authority.

Our use would be approximately 1,250 to 1,750, so about 1,500 gallons a day for potable use only.

We are not proposing a connection of any kind to the Allentown domestic water system for cooling purposes.

The water that is used will be used to flush toilets, run sinks, water fountains, and something called humidification.

If you've ever had the privilege of getting up out of your sheets at night in the winter and you touch your sheet again and you get that spark, that's because there's you're dry, right?

That's one of the static electricity forms in dry locations.

Do that on your computer system, and you're gonna be buying a new computer.

So the purpose of humidification is to take bring that humidity level up and reduce the risk of static electricity.

Next slide.

So emissions of particulates.

We are, even though the ordinances in effect at the time of our application did not require pollution studies, we are doing those and we will be doing the dispersion models and all the air quality modeling that would be required under the newer versions of the ordinance.

Um we do know we have truck count traffics, we know what those trucks would be, and we believe that we will be able to demonstrate that in many categories we will be meet or exceed, when I say exceed meet or be better than the existing warehouse last mile use, or at least be close to that in some proximity because of how that how those models work.

We will be submitting that additional information, which is why we're gonna be actually tabling the application we just put in to add that information.

Next jobs.

I regret to say that there was a typo in the let in the initial submission we submitted.

It's not 428, it was supposed to be 48.

Um, so that changes people's perspective a little bit.

Actually, we've now confirmed with our user that we will be roughly 64 to 66 full-time jobs, about 22 per shift.

Um full time, the prior employment count was about 336 total employees.

I think it was 240 at the at the peak of shift changes.

So yeah, those would have been last mile type of warehouse rolls.

Um just I can't see the sorry categories.

Sorry, we're getting complaints that they can't read the slides.

So we're trying to zoom in so you can see the numbers as best as we can.

So I think we gotta choose we want to see the whole slide or just a piece of the slide.

So, as a suggestion, perhaps if you could go over the numbers one more time before we conclude from this slide as soon as you're done, and we can zoom in and look at the actual numbers so people know um exactly what you're talking about.

I also want to point out this is a we're proposing a closed loop system.

So the best analogy I've come up with is this past winter, if you drove anywhere and you had a car, you probably filled your windshield wiper reservoir a whole bunch of times, right?

Spray it on your windshield, sprays around, evaporates off, blows off, whatever.

That's an open system.

We're not proposing that.

So as you consider this, during that same period of time over the winter, how many times did you put any sort of coolant or water in your radiator in your car?

Probably none unless you had a leak.

That's because that's a closed loop system.

Closed systems are filled differently than open systems.

Open systems can connect to domestic water systems, wells.

We're not doing that.

The water would be trucked in no different than if your neighbor was filling their pool or there was another large-scale use.

That water can be taken from a number of sources.

We would agree that as a condition that if the city of Allentown wanted to sell us that water to truck in, we would buy it from you.

If you said on the other hand, that we prefer that you use other gray water sources, so there are gray water opportunities available.

Wastewater treatment plants is a great example of a gray water facility.

We can purchase water from those types of providers as well.

We would commit to not using wells, any sort of residential well or any sort of commercial well in the city of Allentown unless it was owned by the water authority.

So I know there's always questions about if you take that water away, who else is not getting water.

Um the great part about this type of uh covenant is we can manage and the city will know where that water is coming from so that we don't have any adverse impact on water resources for any part of the community at all, right?

Um I already talked about jobs.

Next tap.

So salary ranges, uh, we total benefits package, the average salary in our building would be about 140,000 a year for our 66 employees.

Um the range would be roughly 95 to 150.

There are a few jobs over 150, but that's the predominant range as opposed to a typical last mile warehouse facility where the salaries are probably more in the 45 to 67,000 range.

Next slide.

Next tap.

Community benefits.

The warehouse as it sits, and we had a fiscal benefit.

Um, Eric Hetzel, uh licensed Pennsylvania planner, um, conduct a study.

The warehouse use would produce about $300,000.

I think it's like $380, $388,000 in net fiscal benefit annually.

Net fiscal benefit is the sum of taxes, real estate taxes, employment taxes, meaning any sort of tax that's levied.

It does not include gross receipts tax at this point.

The data center use because the value of the building goes up significantly, and the the the investment and infrastructure goes up substantially, the net fiscal benefit is over four million dollars a year, exclusive of your gross receipts tax or your or or your business privilege tax, which could add several hundred thousand dollars more on top of it.

Every city and every school district that I have ever appeared before in my career as a developer has always said that they are the biggest struggle is finding new sources of revenue, whether it be a new source or a new type of category.

This isn't a new source, it's real estate development, but it's a new, it's a newer category.

And the investment that is made into these projects gives this places like the city of Alloton and other communities not only these community, these community benefits, but also give the opportunity now with the governor's proposed grid standards to negotiate what's called community benefit agreements.

So beyond the taxes that would be generated, which is what you're seeing here.

There are other revenues, and by the way, a community benefits and fiscal benefit analysis takes into account expenses associated with that use.

So that's a net fiscal benefit, it's not a gross fiscal benefit.

It's not just property taxes as a whole, it already deducts off if you need more fire, if you need more police, um, any of those other types of municipal services that would come along with it.

Next sound attenuation.

So in the new rendering I showed you, we do have sound screens up.

We took that addition out in the front of the building.

Um we are going to amend the landscape plan to show what our enhanced plan would be.

Before we had a minimally compliant plan, we will show that as well.

But as I stand here, we can say that from the street, and we will, especially for the houses across the street, we will be putting up screen walls for both sound and visual screening to the project.

Um what was the trailer court of the former industrial use, uh warehouse use.

So I is there one more after this?

Yep.

And commitments.

As I said, at the end of this presentation, there are a number of commitments we're gonna talk about.

We're gonna formalize those in writing.

We would submit them to the city and to you, we would ask your solicitor to review those.

Those would be what's called covenants running with the land.

They would be put on the face of the plan.

Uh there could be a separate document recorded if your solicitor wanted it, and those would bind us beyond the requirements of your ordinance, which you there would be things in there that you may not be able to impose that we are voluntarily going to offer so that there are restrictions to protect the citizens and so that there's knowledge about what's happening on this site.

And I would note that a data center use right now is probably the only use being contemplated anywhere and that I know of in Pennsylvania or maybe even the country, but those types of standards are being requested and granted.

Because despite what you read on the internet, no one's who's here before you tonight and will be here before you at a later meeting has anything to hide.

You know, the the what we're gonna say is we will be transparent.

On that note, my user, my user will be here at the next meeting before we're before you.

And I'm committing to you tonight that I will not ask this commission for a vote up or down, unless and until you know who that user is, and they stand here before you.

So there's no hiding behind an NDA.

Right now I can't say who it is because all of our paperwork isn't finished.

There are SE it's a publicly traded company, there are SEC filing rules.

So if I say something improper, that could get me and other people in trouble.

It's not to hide anything from you, it's just we have to have our ducks in a row, and I know that's a hot button with the public, but I'm committing to you.

You'll know who that is, and they'll be standing here alongside me when we're at your next meeting.

So, do you want to go back through the numbers?

Yeah, you want to try and blow that up there, Brian?

Yeah, that's good.

So just I'm gonna do something, sorry.

I'm just gonna get my version of this so that I can see the column that we're hiding off, and I can that way I can talk about it intelligently or semi-intelligently.

That is one other thing that I'm gonna do.

We're gonna make this presentation available as a PDF.

And after the meeting, if someone directs to uh the planning commission or to me, we will have uh at what we'll have an email address set up on the next couple days that someone can email us and request us, and we'll send this out as a PDF.

Um so beyond a right to right to know request or an RTK, we're gonna make that information available as well.

But is there any does the commission have any questions on these numbers or anything you want me to review?

Just as a clarification, um the study that was put together by Eric, the AI CP, yes, um, that was covering both the salary or the tax implications as well as the other line items here.

Yeah, so it's a fiscal, it's a full fiscal benefit analysis, so it takes all revenue sources and all expense sources and it nets it out.

Um so that that will re be resubmitting up with the new application again, just to tweak this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Harris, I have a question about the uh the noise.

Um just generally speaking, if the current noise limits at the property line do not comply with the city ordinance, how do you expect the finished project to comply when it's all said and done?

Well, I'm not an acoustical engineer, so I gotta I'm gonna defer that to him.

I will have them at the next meeting.

But the point I'm making folks.

The point I'm making is that for the people who live nearby and are concerned about the noise of this being a nuisance, the noise levels are already above what's permitted.

And the fact that the city is not receiving complaints, I mean 60 decibels is lower than if you were to put a decibel monitor in here, it's probably about the sound level of this room.

We're committing to 57 during the day and 52, at least under the current ordinance as written.

There was no DBC standard.

We will work to meet and get the information for that DBC standard when that's published and it's available to us.

Folks, please, please, please, please.

We can demonstrate that our our our machinery, our equipment will be have the appropriate sound attenuation so that if you took away the ambient noise, we we would be able to meet those standards.

And I'm confident based on our acquisition's uh analysis that we can demonstrate that.

I'm not here to file a complaint about any adjoining property.

I understand everyone to be aware.

Yeah, I'm just curious about that.

Um the other thing that I'm I'm kind of curious about, just in general, if you could help us under uh ex understand how data centers work.

You know, when you talked about gross receipts, um, do each data center work.

I mean, they they seem to me like they're a network of uh, you know, or a subsidiary of some sort of data business.

Um I don't know anything about the operations of a data center.

I'm learning the development end of things, but I'm curious as it relates to when we talk about benefits.

Um is there actual any gross receipts locally?

So under your ordinance, and part of that's the reason it's not included in here, leases are subject to any sort of property lease or any type of lease of any kind is subject to your gross receipts tax, arguably.

Right.

Because data centers, when built, essentially either sell or lease space to occupants, if that was a leasing effect to be occurred, and that's why it's bless you, is not included in this.

There could that would be subject to potentially the gross receipts tax.

Right.

So the reason we didn't put it in here is because until I know exactly how that model is gonna work, we don't do it.

But do you bring up a different point?

And this is what would typically be called, and it wasn't on the slide before from the county planning commission, uh, an edge data center.

So if you think of a hyperscale data center, which there was a report in the newspaper that said this was a hyperscale data center, it is not right.

Um hyperscale data centers today are hundreds of acres, if not thousands of acres.

They're 500 wet megawatts or more, a gigawatt or more.

This is 75 megawatts, not even 80 now, uh, based on our conversation with PPL.

Um, this would qualify as a large co-location or an edge type of facility.

Unlike so if by analogy, if you thought of a hyperscale data center as a car manufacturer, a GM plant or a Ford plant or an oil refinery, you as the consumer don't drive up to the Ford plant to buy your new car or GM or whatever.

You go to a local dealership.

Gas, you don't pull up to the refinery at Exxon and get your gas filled tank filled up, you go to a gas station.

Edge data centers are at the edge.

They're at the edge of the cloud.

It's where we are, it's where you interact with the cloud and and data centers and the information that's at that's out there.

So as an edge data center, the electric demand is you is lower.

The employee count is lower than you would see in a hyperscale data center.

They are networked together, but not in the way you may think.

So edge data centers power everything, and we'll get I'm still able to my own thunder, everything from Netflix to your ability to transmit this on Teams or Zoom, this type of meeting, your banking, CVS, homeschooling, instead of having one of the joys when I grew up was a snow day.

Now kids have to get remote learning activities, they don't have to get snow days anymore.

That's all complements of data centers and data center technology.

Every hospital uses AI, and this doesn't necessarily mean not everything's an AI data center.

That's another myth.

There's record storage and retention that is part of this.

So when you go and your son or daughter or you fall and break your leg, that odds are today that image is first read by some AI application or an application running inside of a data center to assist the physician in that mode.

Your CVS that's giving you inf that's reminding you that your prescription is due, um, are all powered by data centers.

And every community I appear in, the answer is the same.

There's a room full of people, you know, Allentown's about 120,000 people.

There might be a petition I saw online about four or five thousand signatures.

We don't want data centers.

Just like every other use, a Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania law requires that you provide for all legal uses, and this is a legal use.

But more importantly, we all use them.

And the stark reality is no one ever stands up and says, Well, I'm willing to do without all these things, right?

I'm I'm willing to give all that up.

Everybody wants that service and convenience, and the reason you're seeing edge data centers now move in is because public demand for them has increased.

Fifteen years ago, no one talked about a last mile warehouse.

Five years ago, they were prevalent.

It's an evolution of consumer demand.

Our use of iPads, iPhones, and wanting to search the internet, whether it be ChatGPT or Claude or you know, having Claude write your Excel program for you that you need for work, is all driven by data centers.

So it's always a little surprising and jolting to hear people say we hate data centers, we don't want data centers, we don't need data centers when we're using them every single day.

The question isn't whether they are or should be built, the question is can you build them responsibly?

And that's my obligation to stand here and explain to you why we are responsible developers and our users are responsible user.

So we'll get back on the slides.

Okay.

Next slide.

So what is a data center?

It's a secure climate control building, housing computer servers.

Um, processes and stores in digital information that, as I said, we use every day.

Next.

Next.

Next.

These are not open to the public.

You, you know, so we we don't have to count for public traffic coming in, access is restricted.

There is a gate system, there's a security system at these buildings because they house sensitive information.

Next.

Minimal daily traffic, if you compare this to a last mile facility, 66 employees, roughly even shifts.

You're talking about 22 cars per shift.

If you know the lat the the as staff noted, the prior use, I think it was 234 max employees, that's 400 plus trips alone for just that one shift.

Next, this is not a manufacturing use.

Um, there's no industrial processing of any kind, um, there's no chemicals, there's no pollutions.

There is stories out there that data centers take water and inject them with ethylet glycol in the cooling system and discharge that into the sanitary system or back into the public drinking system.

That is simply untrue.

Not even close to being accurate.

If there was a leak of the coolant system, which is not connected to your sanitary system, that water would have to be cleaned up internally, internal to the building, and then either pre-treated under an approved plan by the wastewater treatment facility or disposed of at a licensed facility.

Just like your mechanic has to do one of those two things for the the water, the coolant out of your radiator, we would have to, we would be bound to that.

That's the law.

But if this can if this commission wants that as a condition, we're happy to put that in because we're gonna do it anyway.

Next.

Again, these are secure climate control facilities.

Um so this is just click through all these, get them all up in one shot.

These are all things that data centers do every day.

If there was a call to 911 right now, that is routed through a data center.

It aids everything.

As I said, remote learning, your hospital and health records.

So if you are treated at Lehigh Valley Medical Center, Lehigh Valley Hospital for a reason, and you're on vacation and you're in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas, Texas can access your records because of a data center.

So weather forecasting and models to allow storm prediction are all run through data centers.

When you drive somewhere and you use Google Maps, that's all routed through a data center.

It's important that people know how much this is into their lives already.

And again, as I said, it's not a question of whether these are needed or not, it's a question of how you develop them responsibly.

Next current site conditions and permitted uses.

Two ways as I said, two ways to use the same building.

This is the current land development plan that was approved for the last mile facility.

46 truck docks, an entrance at the top, an entrance at the bottom, a stormwater facility outside, and the new plan is a one-story data center using the exact same footprint of the building, no addition, no modifications to this existing stormwater facility.

I note that the uh both your staff and plant county planning commission suggested a reduction in impervious.

Um, in this case, all the employees parked at the top, just to account for anything extra.

We could look at ripping out.

Um, but you know, the drive aisle around the building and things like that are still remain in large part for emergency services access, fire trucks, police fire, first responders to access the building as well.

It's not really meant for employee circulation, but it can be.

And in this case, there is a change.

We were at 36 generators before, we're down to 32 now.

We are working to try to further reduce that number.

Um, we've moved, as you can see in the plan on the right, the current plan from exist it we'll show it later, but took that big building that was on the front of the building and moved it down to the bottom.

We worked with PPL to find what's called a new vector, which is where we connect to their lines.

The lot the dark black lines that you see to the plan on the right to the left-hand side are existing facilities already in place by PPL that we would be connecting to.

Next slide.

So in the I-3 and next slide two, and in the IG zoning districts, these are examples of uses permitted by Red at that building.

I mean, other than coming in and putting in any modifications, these are already approved as uses.

We might have to do a traffic study differently.

But there are things like moving and storage companies, industrial scale laundries, pharmaceutical and transportation equipment.

By special exception, junkyard previously, junkyards, scrapyards, slaughterhouses, bulk inflammable liquid storage.

We're not proposing any of that.

Industrial services, manufacturing facilities under the under the IG ordinance, outdoor warehousing and distribution, major utilities and infrastructure, transportation and freight facilities, all more intensive uses than what we are proposing.

Next slide.

So this is the plan we put in.

This was the original industrial plan.

43 loading docks.

Those tracks, those trucks and cars would produce about, we know about 1.5 to 1.6 tons of nitrate stock NOx, as it's called, which are admissions from diesel emissions and generators.

Next.

That plan has no sound attenuation to mitigate any of that truck beeping we talked about, anybody backing up.

Next.

That was a 24-7 operation, 336 total employees, and again, salary ranges 45, 46 to about 68,000.

Municipal water use, um, again was about 4,500 gallons a day, and three 388,000 dollars in rut, rough net fiscal benefit.

Next sound.

These are all the readings are they were taken at four locations, three of which are closest to Emmaus Avenue, um, and the one uh at the rear.

So right now, the averages are 53 to 59 daytime and 52 to 58 at night.

And we did that for a 24 hour period, uh, I think two or three Thursdays ago, so it was recent.

And there's no sound attenuation, and as I said, there's no activity in the building presently.

Next.

So, as approved, the warehouse would generate over 400 trips a day, about 128 daily truck trips, roughly 32% of all traffic.

Our use reduces that traffic load by about 67%.

That's less cars idling on Emmaus Avenue, less cars queuing at the traffic lights, less trucks up shifting, less trucks idling along Emmaus Avenue.

And we're talking one to two truck trips per week, probably on average.

Next.

So our proposed development.

As I said, this is where we started in April.

Your staff had a lot of questions.

And we worked through May and June and into July to try to address as many of those as we could before we made our submission, which we're going to further update as I said.

Next.

So we're proposing now relocating the substation.

We have approval from that from PPL.

We are going to put sound attenuating walls up to 35 feet high out along a Mayus Avenue with acoustical screening on top to another 40 feet.

We really relocated the transmission lines servicing us.

The generators will now be will put a covenant, that restrictive covenant that they have to be tier, they have to be tier four compliant.

Those are standards that are published by the industry to lower Knox emissions.

And again, the new the new sound attenuation wall in front of the generator set.

All of that equipment was moved to the southern side where the truck docks would have been in the old use.

And again, we're reduced from 36 to 32, uh, what's called gen sets and and coolers.

Next air quality is a big issue.

Um it gets a little bit funny on warehouses because essentially by law, um, no one measures a truck idling or pulling out or idling on the street in front of you or backing up.

None of that is has ever been required of anything.

Data centers have a fixed source.

Um diesel generators are the standard for backup for now.

Um, because if you think about natural gas or propane, you have a single source feed.

So if that compression station goes down or that gas, that gas line is interrupted for some reason, you have no backup.

The advantage to a diesel generator, much like everybody, people who have diesel generators at their or backup generators at their home, those are natural gas, is that each one is individual and they can they can run on their own.

The tanks that are associated with these are have leak detection equipment on them, they're double walled, the needle fire safety ratings, they're called day tanks.

They're meant to run for a day.

Um, and they have spill prevention and spill detection measures as part of them.

And again, we would agree to that as a condition in any approval if there was ever one granted that that has to be maintained and demonstrated to the satisfaction of your fire marshal and and the city of Allentown and its inspectors.

Again, there's no reason to hide from that.

Um if there was a spill, it's no different than uh if a if the diesel, if the home heating oil truck that was bringing fuel to your house was in a car accident and had a leak.

There's a spill response measure that you follow, you clean it up, it's your duty to mitigate it.

Those same standards apply to us, there's no exemption for that.

One thing that's a little bit different because this is an adaptive reuse.

We are taking the area that was concreted and putting our gen sets there.

In most cases, those are set on gravel.

So much like being at a gas station, if you went to Wawa, you pull in on asphalt, but when you get to where the gas pump is, it's concrete because again, if there's a spill, it sits on concrete, which is less pervious than asphalt.

Same concept.

So we're not proposing to rip any of that out because it adds a different layer of environmental protection anyway.

Um we will agree to air dispersion modeling.

Um we're gonna have that into you.

Um we are getting the uh information from the generator manufacturer for that, so that will be added.

Um also our emissions will not be at ground level, like a tractor trailer would be or a car would be.

Um our stacks are on top of the units which sit behind our building at 45 feet high, and then the stack extends up five feet above that.

So from an air modeling standpoint, any emissions when those diesel generators run, and again, those are only in emergency situations, which means that the transmission grid is offline, right?

So that could be for a bunch of reasons.

PPL can take the line down, there could be an accident that takes the line down, um, there could be a FERC or PJM mandated order to take a line out of service for repairs.

We've also worked with PPL to bring redundant lines in.

So if one line does go down, there's still be other reliability.

It's called an M N minus one condition.

So we'll we'll be building into that reliability.

And again, we'll submit those air quality emission standards.

Next slide.

Community impacts, as I noted, we're about 10 times the net fiscal benefit.

Um City of Allentown would receive with that again without getting into gross receipts, about a million dollars, school district 2.5 million, and the county about 49,000 of net fiscal benefit as opposed to losing money on on the data center.

So while I understand the impacts on jobs, I think that typo from four four to eight and being that being 48, I think would change maybe that perspective, especially in light of what we're talking about here.

Next.

So 66 employees, average salary ranges 100 to 150, 160, 5 to 10 times more business taxes and revenue and local construction workers, in addition to the permanent jobs, would add about for be there for about six to 12 months.

Next.

I noted that the blue corner was missing from the actual building that's there, so we're gonna get that added on.

But as you can see, if you were out on a mayus avenue, there will be more landscaping at it.

You will not see the generators if you were standing at this position.

If you stood just right, you can look down the whole the drive aisle.

I have to have a drive aisle and a gate, I can't make a 45 foot high gate.

But screening there takes that, takes that away.

And all the generators and all the air, all the air ACC's air cooled chillers, sit behind that wall and behind the building, not on the residential side.

And again, you can see the perspective to the right of the PPL substation.

Next.

This is an aerial view from a bird's eye standpoint.

As you can see, we moved our substation to the lower left hand side of this plan.

Um we screened it both from the uh property behind us and from the street.

There are still shown some equipment on the roof at the back half of the property.

We're working to remove that.

Um we took it all off the front for sure.

These essentially are like air air conditioning units for lack of a better word that you would see on top of any office building or hospital or anything else like that.

Next.

One of the questions we get a lot is impact on property values.

Um, everybody's first question was would you live in a community that has a neighborhood that has a data center?

And the answer to that, and I know I'm gonna get a roar over this, is yes, because what the research shows, say, it's predictable.

What the research shows is that in communities, especially in Virginia, where there's a lot of these that have data centers, the school districts get more revenue and funding, so therefore they paid their teachers better.

There's just a story that in Louisiana, every school district, every teacher in the school district received a $50,000 bonus because of all the data centers that were that were there.

But beyond that, the fact is you have better municipal services because the cities are better, the towns and cities are better funded.

Um, home values go up because the people who work here need to live close to these facilities, so that creates demand.

Um, and the the reality is is that because property taxes are benefited by the additional revenue.

I mean, Loudoun County, like over like 92% of their revenue for the county, all their taxes comes in from data centers.

Think about the impact of that on residents and seniors and people who are living at what we call all the margins.

If if this if the city and the school district can use this to hold taxes, I'm gonna say anybody's on lower taxes, and I can't stand here as a developer and say you have to spend your money a certain way, even with a community benefits agreement.

That's an elected official's responsibility to manage that money fit responsibly.

But there are not many sources that are gonna come into Allentown or any town and be ten times the revenue of a baseline use.

And I'm not saying that you vote on the basis that of that, but you also can't ignore it.

And the question again is if that is can be a community benefit, and I know there's people out here that are gonna be upset about this, but if that can be a benefit, then fiscal responsibility says how do we how do we use take that use and and manage it responsibly?

Next.

Oh, and by the way, these three sides are all things that you links that someone can link to and say they're the three most relevant studies, one out of Virginia, um, one was done by uh let's see, Integra did one, Trent did one, uh Track rather did one, and and then the other one's done by George Mason University.

Hardly a group that would necessarily have a stake in the data center game.

Um shows that there's no impact to home values, and in fact, in most cases, home values are up a little bit.

If you have nothing to do on a Saturday, drive down to Manassas, Virginia.

Um, if you go to Loudoun County, you will see a lot of older data centers, and they look different.

Go to Manassas, where the newest latest generation of data centers are being built, and you'll find you know, million dollar homes plus right across the street from data centers.

And they're being built, they're new homes, they're not existing homes, they're new homes, they're being built there, and people are moving in.

Again, it's anecdotal evidence of it, but the fears about what's this gonna do are generally, at least according to these studies, not accurate.

Um I talked about at the start that we're gonna commit to things, we're gonna commit to noise.

Um I talked about at the start that we're gonna commit to things, we're gonna commit to noise, we're gonna we'll put that well, whatever covenants we agree to, and once we get the sound studies, we'll put them as an additional covenant.

We are also willing to agree if this commission asks that we do self-monitoring on the site 24 hours a day, seven days a week at designated locations.

If there is a complaint, and that val that complaint is validated by the monitoring that's on site, then we will do an additional sound study to address that.

I don't think there's any other developer of any other use outside the data center world that would stand here in front of you and say they're willing to do that on a go forward basis.

Generators, we will commit in writing that they must be tier four compliant.

That's the latest standard.

I don't think I think this the technology might change in those, but the standard, I think the naming is gonna stay the same.

There was a recommendation from um count from staff that they only exercise for one minute.

For those of you who have a house generator, a whole house generator home, they all exercise about 20 to 30 minutes.

That is the industry standard because you have to get it up and running, it has to reach full load, and then it downgrades and comes out.

We will commit that the testing on these will be if 30 the in they will be in groups.

We'll talk about how many exercise at a time, so all 32 will not run at once.

And we will also commit that they be exercised for no more than 30 minutes each for exercising, and that if there are days where there is poor air quality, like a day like today, so you've got something else going on, or the wind is of a direction and we can monitor the wind that is blowing towards residential neighborhoods that they don't exercise that day.

That's an operational decision.

Um we will commit to those types of things.

Border usage, we will commit to a closed loop system.

We will have that the next meeting, Bala engineering, who is our um engineer who does a lot of data centers talk about water usage.

And we'll talk about water usage in terms of domestic and potable and also for fire safety, so that your fire marshal and your fire department are comfortable with what happens on this site.

So we're meeting those standards.

Fuel safety.

We'll talk about how there will there'll be double wall tanks with leak detection, spill detection, and containment vessels.

So that if there is, unfortunately, a spill at one of these, it doesn't affect the region or the community, and we'll have a spill per spill remediation plan, just like every other diesel generator.

And if you went to Lehigh Valley Hospital, they have diesel generators backing them up too, and they have the exact same features and structures.

And I guarantee you, there's not one person here who would complain about Lehigh Valley Hospital having a backup generator.

But there's concern here because this is all unknown to people.

Electricity network, we are committing to pay for our cost of improvements, over two million dollars.

That is on us.

In terms of rate, which is always a discussion point and a period of concern, most people don't understand that the rate that is paid, and I didn't know this until I started doing this, the rate you pay today was actually purchased in an auction held by something called the PJM, which is a regional grid operator about two and a half or three years ago.

So when your rate went up in June, that had nothing to do with the data centers that were built somewhere.

It was part of an auction that happened a long time ago.

And nobody predicted this demand.

And the thing that people also don't realize is that PJM network is a 13-state network.

So if a data center gets built in West Virginia and takes 75 megawatts or 200 megawatts or 500 megawatts, and there are generation improvement costs that are necessary for that, that's passed along to every ratepayer through those 13 states.

The questions municipalities have to ask themselves is is it better to have that data center built in another community?

One of the questions you have to ask.

And they get that tax benefit.

And they do they get the investment in schools and do they get the local jobs that come through that?

And do they create opportunities for young people to have careers and jobs in the technology field that is emerging?

Or do you want them to go to places like West Virginia?

And that's sometimes a local choice, uh, depending on how your ordinances are written.

Lighting.

We will agree to add no more exterior lighting than is presently there.

The building gets lit at night now.

Um, so we're not looking to enhance that lighting in any way.

Um, and if they're and on a foot candle basis, so if we have to make adjustments, we will.

We're not looking to be a bad neighbor.

And I recognize that there was questions about future land use applications.

I would submit to you that a use which reduces traffic, produces more net fiscal benefit, produces less makes makes less noise than the neighbors that are around it as a standalone use, and it provides better high-paying jobs, even though there's less of them, is a very good future land use because you're tapping into one of the most growing industries that exist in this country is the data center.

And when I made the comment before about you know China, Russia and the New York Times article.

If you believe the experts, we are roughly 20 to 24 months ahead of China in the development of AI technology and data center technology.

If you believe that question why people are asking for 18 month moratorium.

If you were a coach of a team and you were up by 24 points, if you were an athlete running a marathon and you were 24 minutes ahead of your competitor, would you stop and let that competitor continue to develop run against you and narrow that lead to 18 from eight from 24 minutes down to six minutes or four minutes or two minutes?

And I'm not saying that in any way that every website is bad or everything else.

There's a lot of information out there about old data centers.

There's a lot of information out there about old uses.

There's a lot of information out there, old technology because it's there and it's known.

If I would have told you what your iPhone would look like today five years ago, you wouldn't have believed it.

And for those of you old enough to have a motorolder razor when cell phones came out and think about today where you are, it's dramatically different.

Technology is change.

This is a change.

But at the end of the day, if we meet your laws, and we are complying with things that aren't even, we're not even bound to, and we can demonstrate that we're gonna be a good neighbor, and we're gonna engage in community participation, and we're willing to enter into community benefits agreements now that they're not pay for contract zoning, which was prohibited previously under the law.

You could not come in and say, hey, I'll give you a dollar if you give me this zoning now allowed under the government's the governor's new squid standards.

Then I I would submit that it's this council, this commission's obligation to uphold the law.

Take community feedback, give it to us, let us do what we committed to do, which is be a responsible developer.

And if we can demonstrate we've met those standards, then when I'm here before you next time, I'm going to ask you for an approval and to move forward.

And if we need more information, we'll come back again.

This isn't uh a shove it down your throat.

This is a a lot of information.

It's new for a lot of you.

I talk about this all the time, so I'm lucky that way.

You're gonna have questions.

I would ask that the questions you have be directed to staff.

We will respond to them.

Um, you know, based on the little bit of feedback.

Like I said, we pulled it, we're gonna pull the application we put in last Friday.

We're gonna give an extension to the plan to this commission to under the law to review, even though the new submission technically resets the clock.

We're not taking any chances.

I'm not looking for a deemed approval, I'm not looking for a snap approval of any kind.

This is a public participation process.

We believe in that, and we're committed to showing you that w we're gonna meet the commitments we made too.

Um so with that, that concludes my presentation.

I'm happy to take any questions from the from the uh planning commission.

Um these commitments have teeth because there'll be deed restrictions and more restrictions, so but Mr.

Mayors, thank you.

That was a very thorough presentation.

Um we had a little chat at the beginning of the at the meeting, and I think a lot of us feel compelled to um better analyze your next submission and and and with the benefit of additional review from our staff and consultants, but um but I will gladly open it up to my commissioners for any general comments.

Um before we proceed with do you have any others that wish to make it?

You just have me tonight.

All right.

Um you're open to it.

I'm curious about that Louisiana um story that you were talking about.

If you could add that to the clickable links, um I think that would be helpful in your presentation as well.

Yes.

Thank you.

Question on your comments.

You had mentioned about self-monitoring on the site.

Would you be open to an outside uh monitoring source?

I mean, unbiased one.

Well, what I would say is you know, we would contract for the company to put the monitoring up, the data would be reported.

If you ask us to submit those reports to you, um, I'm sure we can figure out a way to do that.

Um the uh the obvious problem with the you contract on an outside company, then the company goes out of business and you're replacing them, you're annually contracting.

I would rather we're used to doing this.

We would put the monitoring locations up, we would work with staff on where those would be, especially knowing there are sensitive receptors across the street.

Um, so that we again, and I think the we would self-report that monthly.

Certainly, I know if there was an exceedance of some kind of a noise event, there would be a call, and we could go back and pull that data and see whether it was generated by us or something in the area.

Um, but we we it wouldn't just be the equipment, just wouldn't be ours.

I mean, there would be some level of third-party responsibility for what we're doing.

Um, I just don't know the mechanism for how we would do that, but we've done it in other sites where we have our own monitoring equipment for noise.

So um a couple of my my thoughts on general presentation and as you're preparing this next submission, which I appreciate, you know, taking the initiative to withdraw Friday's submission and and tune it up some more.

Um definitely I think it's important that the plans and the renderings match, you know, it's not just you, but it's other applicants that have come before us, and it really makes our job more difficult, you know, when when contemplating whether something is complete and compliant or acceptable.

Um, you talked about not being able to make a 40-foot-tall gate.

Um, but the tractor trailers that go in and out of there are probably about 16 feet tall, correct?

So could that wall be continuous with a roll up solid gate that you could actually make that sound attenuation continuous?

I don't know if that the upper part of that could be have a sound attenuation, but it could at least be a visual screen, and then we'll investigate whether we could put a roll-up gate above that of some kind.

That would be a request.

That's a great idea.

I hadn't thought of that.

So yeah, I think you know out of all the staff reports, the Shay Tree Commission report was not reiterated, although it was renumerated in this in the staff comments.

But uh I'm happy to see that the you know the frontage configuration looks like it's changing, and I would expect that um with that changes, some of those utilities that we're making some of the street trees and other things prohibitive can be reversed uh back to maintaining you know a proper streetscape.

Our plan is to leave what's there in place and then supplement it further.

So that would be the plan.

Perfect.

Okay.

Um again, any other comments?

Okay.

All right, very good.

Well, uh, we appreciate the presentation.

Um, hope you're gonna stick around.

We're gonna open it up.

All right.

Um anybody want to take a quick break?

Yeah, we're gonna take a quick five-minute break, everybody.

Um just hang tight.

We'll come back at about uh what is it about 720.

Okay, thank you.

Go off the record for a moment.

We're gonna go ahead and uh we're gonna get started again.

For the record, we'll call the meeting back to order.

And we're gonna proceed with public comment on this agenda item.

If you have comments about anything other than this agenda item, you can save those to the end of the meeting.

Time permitted, we'll have general comment session.

But the comments should be geared towards this application that's before us today, not any of the zoning bills, not any of the amendments, not anything other than 2401 Mayus Avenue.

This planning commission has adopted a policy for public comment that mimics city councils.

Uh, it specifically states that public comment is reserved for Allentown residents and city taxpayers.

The reason we use the calling cards is so that we can control and call in order the number of commenters in any given evening, but it also gives us an opportunity to examine whether or not an individual is a city resident.

So I think I'm gonna turn it over to our assistant planner, Mr.

Height.

He's gonna help us um call the order for tonight.

Again, for everybody, we're we're gonna stop the meeting at 10 o'clock.

Uh sounds like there's gonna be other meetings in the future.

So if you don't make it up tonight, there will be other opportunities.

If I could just add a quick housekeeping issue, one of the complaints that we've received in the hallway is that it's hard to hear in the hallway due to a number of issues.

One thing they said that is any of us that has a microphone near you, make sure it's off if you're not talking, because they said any paper shuffling or rustling noise is being picked up and drowning out the sound in the hallway.

Um I walked out to check it out, and it also sounds like there's a lot of noise and talking in the hallway.

So um the point of this is to hear to hear the the meeting and each other, so just please just be mindful of the sounds that we're all making in this uh with a lot of people in a small space so we can um make sure everyone can can hear to the greatest extent possible.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Uh one one more minute, Brian.

Um, I do want to also say that public comment is it's just that public comment.

Uh you may all have questions, but this is not a question and answer period.

Um you can direct comments that you want to the planning commission to consider in current and future deliberations on this project.

You can you can direct comments to the developer in terms of what you personally would like them to consider.

But if you come up and ask questions, you're not gonna get answers.

This is not a question and answer period.

Um we're probably you know, most of you or many of you probably have similar comments that you want to make.

And I would suggest if you're here in a group, um the quality of the comments, I think are more important than the quantity of comments.

And I'm not gonna take away anybody's right to publicly speak on this matter.

But if you're in a group, I would suggest if you all agree on the same comments, you know, that you ratify that and send the spokesperson up just so we can get through more and more comments tonight.

Um if you are an out-of-towner, but you're here with a resident, you know, give your comments to that resident and have him bring forward to the planning commission.

Um we hope this to be an orderly uh process.

You know, I've been to some of these council meetings, and I think we can do that, guys.

Um, but again, this is for 2401 Mayas Avenue and only this application, and um, we're very receptive to your comments.

So we want to hear it, but we want to get through this peacefully.

We would like to get everybody up here and have everybody be heard, and um my fellow colleagues and staff and the developer, I believe, is gonna you know be listening closely.

So um with that, let's kick it off, Brian.

Thank you.

First speaker is gonna be Priscilla and Angela Decklit of 2406 West Amayas Avenue.

Good evening.

My name is Priscilla Declare, and my husband, Angel Declare.

We live in 2406 West email, just cross up front of the proposal warehouse.

So I'm not gonna talk.

I'm not gonna talk.

My husband is gonna read something because I want you guys to understand sometime my English have a strong accent, and you maybe they'll be able to say Angela Clare Priscilla Declare.

We live on 24 of Wesie Mayors, is like directly across the street, like we could open up our bedroom window and stare at it.

Um read these words on behalf of my wife and my family.

We have a son named Liam.

We're not gonna show his face tonight because he deserves his privacy, and because a room full of people and noise is exactly the place that would overwhelm him.

Bringing him here would have just hurt him, so he's home safe.

But we're asking you to picture him anyway.

Liam has a deeply sensitive to loud sound, is deeply sensitive to loud sounds.

When he hears them, he runs without thinking about where he's going or whether it's safe.

And then he cries.

Not a normal cry, a cry that sounds like his soul is being torn into.

As his parents, we already, as his parents, we already lived with the fear of watching him lie awake at night covering his ears with nowhere to go.

This house was supposed to be the place where we watch our children grow up when we bought it.

We felt like we have finally found a place.

We would never have to leave.

Our kids were growing um until our kids grow up and live on their own.

Our big our yard is big and it's the playground for our home.

So before you decide, we're asking you to remember these are not just rules or regulations.

Behind every decision, there is a family who will live with it.

The studies do not account for the children with special needs.

Children who feel noise, uh feel noise and vibration far more deeply than most.

Approving sign like the data center directly affects children who has no voice of their own.

But their parents are here tonight, and we are their voice.

Our constitution speaks for the happy pursuit of happiness.

There are laws meant to protect people with disability.

We are asking you to weigh those protections and this and this child before you decide.

Um I also wanted to add my thing as Liam's father.

Father's job is to protect his children, so stand between them and protect them from anything that could harm them.

This was the one we could shield them.

I could show my son, but I cannot build a wall against the noise of the generators and vibration of the data sensor running day and night fell from feet away from where he sleeps.

So tonight protecting him means standing here in front of you and asking you to see him.

I can't carry him away from every loud sound in the world, but I can't use my voice.

So that people making this decision know he exists.

I'm asking you.

As a father speaking from my son, please don't let's let this be something my child has to suffer through every day.

In that one place, he was supposed to feel safe.

Please remember Liam when you make your choice.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker, Serenity Pauly of Weiss Court, apartment one.

Hello and good evening.

My name is Serenity Pauly.

I live at 2403 Weiss Court.

That is directly across from this presented data center.

Um I personally feel like having a data center in this type of environment, which is homes and woods and a lot of natural ecosystems, like there are so many animals back there, you have no clue.

You have no idea how many animals live back there.

This would be detrimental to them, not only to them, but to us.

I'm sorry, but dumber.

We rely on apps instead of using our brains, and that's not okay.

I don't want my kids to grow up like that.

I'm only 18, and I'm thinking this way and thinking about the future in that type of way.

Um sorry, I get really nervous talking in front of people, and I'm trying my best right now.

Um I really do not want that to be our future.

We are way smarter than that.

We are way more capable, and this is dragging us down like in so many different ways.

Like nobody is like really taking into comprehension, like this is going to be so detrimental, not only environmentally, with all like regardless of how many restrictions you have, there's going to be pollution.

It's going to be detrimental.

Again, detrimental.

We barely have it as it is.

Everything that we have is going extinct.

Like we're there's not enough protections.

No matter how many restrictions there are, there's not enough protections.

There's not.

And I wish there was more that I could do, but I'm only one person.

We all need to have a voice.

And I think it's very important that everybody did show up today, and that there are so many people, and it makes me very proud.

Allentown can come together, and I know it's a nation problem, but we can stop it from being here.

You know what I mean?

In that type of way.

Um, I just hope we take into accountability not only Liam as he was mentioned, but there is um an autistic center right across the street.

There are so many kids that love to play there, and I see it all the time.

That would wreak havoc to them, you know.

And I just want everybody to take that into consideration.

And yeah, that's all I have to say.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Councilwoman Cynthia Mota.

I think she might be.

Okay.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh members of the board, citizens of Lehigh Valley, I am Alejandro Figueroa.

Uh, we stand tonight at a defining crossroads.

The air in this room is heavy with a justified anger, built from years of watching outside forces treat our communities as territory to be mined, resources to be drained, and infrastructure to be exhausted.

For too long, the digital age has come at a staggering cost.

The traditional data center is an engine of extraction.

Some say plunders millions of gallons of water and suffocates the power grid.

But hear me clearly.

If that dead extractive past is what was being forced upon you tonight by quantum groups amendment, I would not be behind this microphone.

I would be outside leading a blockade.

But the old paradigm of corporate extraction is finished.

The applicant should not be here to beg for resources.

They must be required to fundamentally rewrite the laws of municipal coexistence.

Look at the blueprint I've placed before you.

I'm submitting an engineered closed loop thermal network plan.

That was also added by Quantum today from their latest application.

This renders old arguments obsolete.

Under this framework, our new let draw for Allentown's water table will be absolutely zero.

Eliminating municipal water grid reliance via automated seasonal valves, which I have patent pending.

This blueprint enables any megawatt facility to run with the zero water draw while dynamically routing server waste heat as a public utility directly to local hospitals and the Klein's Island wastewater facility.

We are converting a sterile concrete monolith into a multi-million dollar public heating asset.

This system that I'm introducing will pump zero carbon thermal energy directly into the city, slashing utility bills across the board of Lehigh Valley's public institutions by an estimated 5.2 to 6.8 million dollars that can be pumped right back into our municipality and other programs.

On top of this engine of progress, the blueprint integrates an industrial on-site rooftop greenhouse.

This is a breathing testament to localized food security and year-round green jobs for the citizens, turning the valley into a major producer of hyperlocal produce.

The demands of computing are unstoppable, but the preservation of our communities is non-negotiable.

The planning commission must not reject progress tonight, but you must not accept extraction only.

I urge you to condition any approval of this and Mayus Avenue amendment on the strict implementation of a closed loop energy network.

Do not allow grandfather clause to extract resources, but force them to give back to the community.

This closed loop network is not merely an alternative, but it's a singular inevitable route by which digital infrastructure and human civilization can productively survive together.

Zoning boards routinely conditioned approvals on environmental impact mitigations, buffer zones, and utility capacity.

If a developer wants a special amendment, the city has a legal right to demand a public benefit covenant and return.

Thank you very much for your time and your attention.

Thank you, Mr.

Figueroa.

The next speaker is Bill Lee of 2605 26th Street Southwest.

No, no.

The next speaker is Brett Bogart of 2703 Barnes Court, Allentown.

Thank you.

As a gentleman chair, my name is Brett Burkhardt at 2703 Barnes Court.

Um and the reason I'm here today is because I made an investment in Allentown in a new home built community for 41 homes in the Barnes Lane community.

And City Council were there at the ribbon cutting ceremony to indicate, hey, this is a great investment for you and your future as a first-time home buyer.

Now we have a proposed data center a mile away from the home that I must protect, which is my biggest investment.

So that's one of the reasons why I'm here tonight because I know there was obviously some talks about how home values were increasing next to data centers, and they're talking about a study that was happening in Virginia, but that study doesn't indicate anything here in Pennsylvania.

Um also would consider that as well in terms of the energy costs that were discussed.

Um, the gentleman here also didn't appear that there was knowledge of like how those energy costs could be um passed along to residents in the area as well.

So what I would suggest and consider is is there any PPL representative that could speak to what energy costs could impact for those that are people in the community?

I understand that they are proposing that the infrastructure would be paid for with their own dollars.

But again, is there any mainstream impact that's happening to those that are utilizing the energy costs here in the area?

I also saw that there were impacts in terms of tax dollars for this the uh the city of Allentown.

But again, what studies will that show how that's gonna pass through?

I know that's additional things that they don't have anything tied to, uh, but it's things that I'm concerned about about protecting my asset.

And lastly, yes, there was a study about um the home values, but if it were me and I'm a first-time home buyer again, I'm not gonna purchase a home a mile away from a data center.

So for a brand new community to come in here, it's definitely not what I experienced.

I didn't think that a warehouse is gonna be there either, but now that a data center is proposed, you know, they talked about uh an individual earlier, talked about wildlife that I have in my backyard.

I'll get to listen to that to the hum of the data center as well.

So um that's all my time.

The next speaker is uh they just put Drita of 734 North 29th Street.

Hello.

Thank you.

So yes, my name is Drita Taherivik.

I'm at 734 North 29th Street, and I'm about five miles away from the proposed center.

So, you know, initially I was hearing the buzz about the data centers, and when I sat down and really looked at the data, I started um, you know, researching, and I found like through CleanView.com that you know PA already has 15 data centers with 68, 68 planned, right?

And they're being run by 40 different developers, right?

So I get it, no big deal, right?

But um, you know, quantum group, I was trying to look it up.

You know, are there any ties to the community?

You know, what's their skin in the game?

Because I know what my skin in the game is.

The home that I bought, you know, in the community that I met.

So five miles away.

I know this is supposed to be towards you know, this particular one in mine, but when I sat down and I looked at the planned facilities, I realized that I'm literally in the middle of four, four of them just around me.

And this is one of them.

So this one's 249,000 square feet.

Uh the next one's five million in South Whitehall, you know, and I sat there and I I kind of like I measured them out.

I said, wow, five miles.

Okay, for this one, maybe not a big deal, but then I looked at South Whitehall.

It's about five miles, four miles the other way, right?

And then I'm looking at Upper McConji.

Well, you know, they kind of put that on hold, but for how long?

And then there's one in Northampton planned, another big gigantic one, about nine miles away from me.

So, you know, why is that a big deal?

Um, it's a big deal because I would be surrounded.

So when you start talking about decibels, when you start talking about, you know, taxes, when you start talking about the infrastructure, you know, it I'm in the middle of that.

There's nobody really watching that.

It it became um kind of like I'm hearing the buzz about what's going on.

But then as I really started looking at it, I'm like, wow, there's a lot of effects here, and who is actually watching what's happening in other communities?

Because you don't have any, you know, I I don't have any say in South Whitehall because I'm not a resident of South White Hall, but it's gonna affect me.

Right?

The East Maconji one's gonna affect me, whether I wanted to or not.

And while I have faith in the city of Allentown doing the right thing, I don't know that that's gonna happen anywhere else.

You know, so I'm gonna say my piece and I want to be heard because I think everybody deserves that.

Um, you know, what I'm what I'm also worried about is you know, the different data centers in each township again doing their own thing.

This this affects like you know, pretty good radius.

And when you start talking about like some of the specifics like taxes and and jobs that it's gonna bring in, they're only temporary.

They're only temporary jobs that are gonna come in for construction.

And you talk about like tax deals that are made at the state level.

I know you guys don't have any control over that, but the effect it's gonna have on us is we're gonna be the ones paying for it.

Ultimately, and that is all my time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jeremiah, and I apologize if I say this wrong.

Uh Smills of 2517 Allen Brook Drive.

Good evening, council.

Apologies for my spelling, it's Jeremiah Smith.

Um handwriting, I guess.

Uh, but uh good to see you all this evening.

Um thank you for your time.

Uh I live at 2517 Allen Brook Drive, which is basically across the street, a little bit removed, but basically across the street as well.

Um you know, I've heard a lot of things this evening, and I'm I'm definitely my opinion hasn't particularly changed.

I'm still in opposition to this data center going in.

I um I have concerns about you know, we should allow to talk about decibel readings.

Um, but you know, as the L VPC members stated, um we need to also consider the low frequency hums and vibrations.

I'd like that implemented if this were to go forward.

Definitely need to make sure we're keeping an eye on that.

Um as well, I think that the comparison between the the job prospects um being the high-paying jobs versus these medium paying jobs.

There is a significant lack of medium paying jobs in the area, and the idea of putting exclusively high-paying jobs in this business in this area, um, I think is a concern on my front.

On, you know, it's uh it's already becoming more and more expensive to make a direction towards home ownership, and as we bring in more and more hiring people, it then becomes more and more expensive to purchase a home.

And as we bring in more and more higher earning people, it then becomes more and more expensive to purchase a home.

And uh as someone who's renting and interested in eventually owning a home, you know, property value increasing as he's saying is a potential with this is a concern for me as well.

Whether it's decreasing or decreasing, it's a concern.

Um you know, my rent going up or you know, becoming more difficult to own a home.

Um I moved up here about four years ago from Virginia, which is one of the highest uh density locations in the US for uh data centers.

And I mean, speaking, I know that you know, so it's sort of all just based on people's individual experiences, but I have friends that live in the Henreco area, which is one of the most dense areas in the country.

Um, and I've only heard negative things uh and their experience of these data centers going in, these new data centers, uh, and just uh their desire to no longer live in those areas.

Um and I don't want to have to move.

I love my space that I've built.

I've been here for four years and I love it, and I don't have a desire to uproot any of that.

Um so thank you.

That's my time.

The next speaker is Joseph Zaker of 2020 2281 South 12th Street.

You're close on my name, Zachary.

That's close enough though.

I was under the impression that the um data center was already approved, so I had some notes planned, and I find out that this is still in the approval phase.

So I can have to kind of wing it here.

Um legislation's uh currently being uh uh addressed at the state, local, and federal levels to protect the citizens.

Um you guys probably know that uh this week uh Kathy Hope will have an executive order in New York holding all hyperscale data centers for a year.

This is um I think this center is considered hyperscale.

It's uh 80 megawatts, I believe.

Was that the number I got?

Greater than 50s, considered hyper, not this is by drag volume.

That that draws the electricity of about 200,000 households when it was too.

So that's a lot of homes that are gonna be drawn.

Infrastructure is gonna be paid by the developer, that's pretty uniform every place you go.

But we're gonna it's gonna be increased uh uh trend uh what do you call them generation costs?

That's gonna be worn by everybody.

PPL raises their rates every time they were legally allowed to do so.

Uh LCA does the same thing.

Um continuing on here on my winked notes here.

Uh noise frequencies, low frequency.

I don't know if the studies done by the by the uh the uh the developer addresses these types of noise.

They tend to go further, be lower frequency.

I'm far from an expert on those things, but I would request that the board look into that type of noise and see if it's specifically addressed.

Um, I haven't heard anybody mention the heat from the coolers.

Coolers are gonna generate heat.

We got a lot of coolers.

What's gonna be those heat effects on the local areas?

Um the um uh generators, what if they run all the same time?

How much noise is gonna be there?

Plus the um uh fuel's gonna have to be stored on site.

Uh I wonder how much I think there's a large uh quantities of fuel that have to be stored on site, as a lot of guys know a lot of people know.

Um diesel fuel doesn't last forever, it has to be, I guess you can't have it there for a year without being used, so probably has to be recirculated now and then replenished, so there will be traffic from people uh coming in.

Jobs were discussed.

How many are gonna go to Allentown residents?

Are these gonna be jobs where they're stay-at-home people with high salaries living out of state?

Uh property values.

I haven't seen any studies that show property values increased or were not affected in a negative way by these um by these uh uh centers.

Um across the street from my property, there's a an old uh uh uh uh apartment uh sorry, office building that was approved to be converted into 40 apartment units.

Next to that, the developer proposed an extra 50 apartment units.

That's 90 households right across the street from my property, closer to the uh proposed uh data center.

And the the height requirement I have here is 61 feet, five stories was approved.

Um, I think I might as well continue about this when this was approved that with some type of uh developer asked, developer asked for everything and got it because the city didn't respond to his appeal.

But uh that's gonna draw so basically in a small area.

If this development goes through this uh data center, you're gonna be drawing enough electricity for uh 200,000 homes, and this is 90,000.

All right, so I'm gonna have to continue.

That's it.

Thank you.

All right, uh, I just want to point out the uh I'm just gonna interject here just because I think it's important, you know, that we that we clear the record.

All right, uh, I just want to point out the uh I'm just gonna interject here just because I think it's important, you know, that we that we clear the the record um and directing this to the applicant, the the the wattage that's proposed um relative to hyperscale, local scale, whatever scale edge, you know, data center you talked about.

What what is the proposal at the moment?

75 megawatts.

It is 75 megawatts.

And is that considered a hyper data center?

It is not under current standards.

Okay.

Just curious.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jonathan Worsley of 1819 Piccadilly Circle.

All right.

My name is Jonathan Worsley.

I live at 1819 Piccadilly Circle.

And um I just took down a few notes.

One thing I've noticed is that um they said that um we need data centers because we use jet chat GPT or whatever.

I don't use chat GPT.

I am deadly against it.

And I don't think we need more of it.

And I'd also like to point, I also have to point out that a TV I bought recently has a feature where it uses AI to insert frames in between frames of animation, and it looks so disgusting that the moment that I looked at it, I thought the team was effective.

And also they made a lot of promises.

A lot of data centers make these exact same promises, and then after the after the data center gets built, those promises get broken.

And also I'm worried about air quality because they say they're gonna be using diesel power generators, and even though they said they're only gonna use those when uh if there's a power outage, I've seen videos where they where they look at the the the um they look at the um generators during uh with a um camera, and you can tell that they're they're still on even though even though there's no power outage.

And I'm also I'm also concerned about the cooling units that I saw on the top of the the structure because I know cooling units can generate heat.

And also they they mentioned that there are other uh facilities in the area that are already not compliant with noise ordinances, and but like if you add another loud structure there, all you're doing is adding to the noise that's already there, and that's only gonna make it worse.

I'm also concerned about water usage, especially since we've been having like less rain than usual.

Like the last thing we need is more structures using up more of our precious drinking water.

I'm also worried about the cost of electricity going up because I've seen a lot of videos where where people say that their electricity went up after a data center got built near near them.

They also said that um they also said that um they're gonna soundproof the the data center.

I've seen videos where people measured the sound near their home, and even though there's a wall around the data center, you can still clearly hear the data center from inside their house.

And that's all I have.

The next speaker is Aloma Zampell of 2648 Appel Street.

No.

No.

No thank you.

All right, thank you.

The next speaker is Faye Paulis of 2618 Ferner Street.

No comments tonight.

All right, thank you.

The next is Megan Keida of 18 or 1013 North 29th Street.

Hi everyone.

Uh like another speaker, I live on North 29th Street in the West End.

This data center is about five miles from my house.

Uh, but I am here on behalf of the people who live closer to it.

And I am here on behalf of everyone in Allentown and the entire state of Pennsylvania and the world.

Uh anyone who has been outside today cannot deny that the climate is changing and it is having real impacts on our day-to-day life.

We can we cannot be investing in technology and infrastructure that makes the problem worse.

These facilities require a massive amount of electricity.

I saw 150,000 homes for this particular proposal.

Another speaker saw 200,000 one way or the other.

That's a lot of electricity.

And more than half of the electricity in our power grid comes from fossil fuels.

An environmental impact assessment must be completed before this can move forward.

And in my opinion, in this day and age where solar is affordable, where batteries are affordable, there is no reason that any proposal of this scale should not be powered by 100% clean renewable energy.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Daniel P and I apologize.

Galvin of 1847 East Emmaus Avenue.

Hello.

Thank you for uh providing this forum.

My name is Dan Galvin.

I live at uh on East Emmaus, so this is gonna be just down the street from me.

Uh born in St.

Luke's, uh, grew up in Coopersburg and just moved to Allentown two years ago.

Uh when I uh move into a new neighborhood, one of the things that helps me to get to know the area is I knock a lot of doors.

Uh sometimes it's to knock doors for um Allentown City Council, just it's to find out what are the issues that are impacting the people in my community.

And over the past couple years, I've done a lot of door knocking, asking what is impacting the people who live in my community and the people they care about.

Number one issue, cost of living, right?

Affordability.

And when you drill down into specifics, what they note is housing and the cost of utilities.

Actually, the number one thing that I heard over the past uh year is that people are stunned by the amount that electricity costs.

Now, in terms of housing, I know that this has been talked about the fact that this is an industrial zone, we gotta use it for industrial purposes.

We live in the shadow of Bethlehem steel.

Like we know that as things change, things can be repurposed, right?

I went to a science camp at Lehigh University that was in an old Bethlehem steel building.

Like this can be used for public good.

We got enough people, I mean, uh you see the amount of people who are unhoused currently and instead we're gonna use this space for a data center.

It's wild.

I'm not an electrical engineer, I don't know how the price of electricity is is set.

Uh, but I can tell you one thing like in those doors that I knocked, no one said I'm really worried about data.

I want to make sure that my medical records can get to a hospital in Dallas or something like that.

And but I'll just echo something that was just mentioned.

Like so, what PPL is gonna upscale, they're gonna be creating new sources of energy, right?

So that's either gonna be fossil fuels, or even if it's solar, like what community is gonna be strip mined for that lithium?

Like we are should be trying to figure out ways to do more with less, not to do more by building more.

I mean, I there's a reason that I had to wear this today.

Yeah.

Forest burning down, people don't have enough to live.

I'm uh I'm I'm a guess, and that's why I had, you know, I didn't come here with an intention to speak, but when someone asked me um if I would, I I agreed to because I thought about all those people uh at the doors that I knocked, and I thought, you know, someone should share the things that they're telling me.

Because hopefully, you know, by me speaking, uh their concerns and the things that is impacting them.

Um I can speak it, and hopefully you can do something about it.

So I'm gonna be paying very close attention to this.

Um, and that's gonna impact you know the doors that I knock in the future.

So I I really hope to be, you know, knocking doors and hearing how people are appreciative that the public stewards of this place are are keeping their concerns in mind.

Thank you very much for this time.

The next uh speaker is Harshell Patel of the Corner Mart at 2441 West Emmaus Avenue.

Hello everyone.

My name is Herschel.

I need my MBA.

I'm also professional robotic process automation in the data.

Only in America, only 5,000 people are certified for that.

I know the data, how we impact the people.

This data center is not for the like this is not big company to like put here in the between the communities, especially lower income people.

If you have girls, open the remote area.

That will be good.

Not affecting human beings.

Like the returning mention it increased the property value.

But we have thousands of apartments in front of our business.

People not leaving because rent is very high.

So people moving continuously.

Now, before my electricity bill is, I did not change anything.

I get 900 electricity bills.

Right now I'm paying 1500 last five months.

So definitely it will increase.

That means 67 million kilowatt per day.

So it's like 60, 70,000, 60 to 70,000 homes electricity bill.

Just too much.

And definitely it is increased more in future.

Also, he talked about the good things about the Georgia and the Virginia.

Right now, Virginia State have 53 million to 99 million health damage.

Nobody talk about the health here.

Second thing, like Robert Value concern.

Definitely, like people not living is expensive.

People, too many people left the Virginia, some of the community, then you were mentions.

This is affecting quality of life of people.

Also affecting the businesses.

I'm concerned about here.

I work hard for the people.

I work hard for my family.

So I need the good quality of life.

Simple.

It's not like for here.

The data center is for the remote data, not for here.

If come open in this ocean, that will be based options, not for the human.

Next speaker is Donna Dockerty of 2456 South Lumber Street.

Thank you for listening and for having this meeting.

And we can see or that you really care.

What I'd like to add for us to really analyze is the impact on Lehigh Valley Humeine.

I'm not an employee there.

I just care about the work they're doing.

And all of us who have animals know that our animals can hear things that we don't hear.

They can hear vibrations and feel vibrations.

I have animals, I save animals, so a variety of different sensitivities, and they start shaking when there's a barometric change in the weather.

So I don't know how much thinking has been done to the impact it might have on that great resource that we've had for I think about a hundred years now.

But I'm wondering if they have to relocate, where would they relocate to?

Would the developer help them relocate?

They have a great facility there, and I really want us to consider the impact on our furry friends.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Joanna Heft of 946 West Wyoming Street.

So I would really like to believe all the things I heard from the developer because it sounded like they were trying hard to put a lot of um safeguards in place, but I think of the situation I know of with a developer.

Um they had a uh rock solid legal agreement of what they were gonna do as far as their development, and they did not live up to it, and so the entity had no choice but to sue them, and they were a small entity with limited resources, and the developer they were suing was a large entity with endless funds, and so it was just impossible to do.

So I would ask the city of Allentown what recourse do you have?

And I know you can't answer this question.

I'm just asking you to think about it, um, as the city planning.

What would you do if they do not meet the ordinances they say they or the safeguards they have in place and they don't meet the ordinances that you have placed?

What will you do then?

And will it require suing, and will the city of Allentown have the money to do that?

Um, so I just ask you to seriously think of that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Lisa Mertz of 628 North H Street.

Hi there.

So I haven't done this before, so I didn't realize that there weren't going to be questions.

So I'll try and reframe uh my questions into a statement.

I am concerned about the remedies of the new noise ordinance.

I realize that's not your bailiwick, but you did mention it.

So I will have to look up how I get a copy of that.

Um I would hope that there are remedies in there that are more than say a thousand dollar a day fine.

That might sound like a lot to the majority of us, but that's basically one good soup for some people.

So that's nothing.

So there's got to be a remedy where it gets shut down if it goes above whatever the limit is.

Um the tax portion totally did not understand how that number was uh being calculated, so I'd like information on that.

If you're gonna have things like the screens up, we should be able to see that.

Uh a lot of shock and awe, a lot of good numbers.

Uh, but I don't know how they're achieved.

As far as the gross receipts tax, I didn't understand any of that.

Are the data centers?

I I wonder, I guess I'll quit put it that way.

Are the data centers themselves that are making the money going to be paying gross receipts?

Or is that gross receipt going to be considered as being earned somewhere else?

If the property is leased, then they should have rental gross receipts.

But that's not the same as the business and their gross receipts and what they're producing at that location.

I'm guessing that this humongous four million dollar number of tax collection then is on the assessment of the property.

And I'd love to know how that's calculated, just for my own reasons.

I'm not really sure what else it would be since you ruled out gross receipts, the only thing left is the real estate tax.

As far as the earned income tax, um, I'm not sure.

I'm into this game a little late.

I'm not sure if this started as a warehouse and then oops, we meant a data center, because it sounds like you started with X amount of employees that everybody knew would not have been for a data center.

But if you take the number third 300 employees times 60,000, that's 18 million dollars in earned income.

If you take 66 employees by your high number of 140, 140,000, that's 9 million 240,000.

So actually the lower income is helping more people, and in this area.

I think they need it.

Oh, and thank you for the bike rack.

Glad we got the bike rack covered.

Thank you.

Uh the next speaker is Karen Lowry of 1492 Cedar Wood Road.

Hello, counsel.

My name is Karen Lowry.

I am a certified prevention and education specialist, and I work with students in schools throughout Lehigh County every day.

Recently, the Morning Call published my op-ed titled When We Talk About the Data Center, we shouldn't overlook this.

My message was simple.

While we spend countless hours discussing power, water, traffic, and economic development, we often overlook the people who will be most affected.

Tonight, those people are the children at Camelot for children.

These children's deserve the same thoughtful planning and protection that we would expect for our own families.

I understand this commission is reviewing an amended land development application.

I also understand this property previously received approval as a warehouse, but changing that approved use to a data center is not a minor change.

It introduces a fundamentally different operational profile that deserves careful scrutiny.

In my morning call article, I wrote that the student impact is the one consequence we haven't measured.

Tonight, I ask you not to make the same mistake with the children of CAMLAT.

As planning commissioners, your responsibility is to ensure that development is compatible with surrounding surrounding land uses and serves the public interest.

If there are still unanswered questions regarding operational noise, cooling equipment, backup power systems, lighting, utility infrastructure, and other long-term impacts on neighboring properties, then those questions deserve complete answers before this project moves forwards.

Thoughtful planning is not anti-development, it is responsible development.

The question before you isn't simply whether a data center can fit on this parcel of land.

It's whether this is the right place for this particular particular use.

If we are starting with an empty map today, knowing what Camelot is and who it serves, will we intentionally choose this location?

That is a question I hope each of you ask before casting your vote.

Communities are remembered not only for the projects they approve, but for the people they choose to protect.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jason Dan Webber of 3650 Schoenick Road.

Thank you for your time.

And so I just wanted to mention that we have a landlord tenant business, and so the highest expense is real estate taxes followed by insurance.

So you're constantly trying to keep your tenants happy and procure new tenants as you can just to be able to pay all the bills and you know try to run a struggling business.

And so uh I guess it's kind of overwhelming when we have a use like this.

In fact, unbeknownst to me, our tenant Harshall here in the front row came tonight.

Um I appreciate Mr.

Brown that you had what was my primary concern with regards to noise and how that could be addressed.

And I would hope that Tony, we had a previous conversation with our lawyer and him on the phone uh prior, uh maybe about a month ago, uh, discussing those matters, you know, and I would hope that his uh cooperation would continue to address our and your concerns as well as the rest of the rest of the residents if this uh uh use continues to uh move forward.

And so that's uh pretty much what I wanted to say.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Marissa Burns of 527 Mountain Top Lane.

Hi everyone.

Uh my name is Marissa, and I live up on the mountain.

Uh, we love living up on the mountain so much that we decided to build a house behind our current property up there.

So this data center topic hits close to home, like it does for everybody that took their precious time to be here tonight.

Um, this is the first time I've ever been at any meeting like this.

Um, so that's how serious I think myself and the entire community is taking this.

I want to be up front.

Obviously, I'm not a city planner and I don't pretend uh to know every detail of Allentown's municipal zoning code.

However, I do work in a highly regulated pharmaceutical industry which has its own problems.

But in my field, we understand regulations and protocols are put in place for a reason to protect the public, ensure safety, and prevent catastrophic catastrophic failures, which have happened in the past.

You adapt to the most current regulations to ensure community safety.

That is exactly why I'm here tonight.

This proposal to convert previously approved warehouse into a data center is not a simple amendment.

Even members of the board tonight have stated that this is a new industrial use.

In any other highly regulated field, this would be flagged immediately as a massive high-risk change in a scope.

A warehouse is the shell of a building that holds boxes and has truck traffic.

A data center is a totally different beast and requires heavy industrial infrastructure.

It requires massive substations, high voltage lines, cooling towers, uh drawing immense amounts of water and dozens of industrial diesel backup generators running right next to a sensitive mountain habitat and directly across from Camelot for children.

By calling this an amendment, the developer is trying to exploit a loophole that they are trying to bypass the city's new zoning laws, specifically Bill 20 and the even stronger protections under Bill 52.

They want to be grandfathered in under outdated laws that were never designed to handle the massive utility and environmental footprint of a data center.

In my industry, if you try to slip a high risk change through as a minor amendment to avoid modern uh regulations, it would be rejected.

The same standard should apply here.

If this project gets approved in this way, the city of Allentown is setting a precedent, and this needs to be seriously vetted.

Lastly, to address the argument of everybody uses these services every day.

We also use wastewater treatment plants, landfills, and high voltage power substations every day, too.

But we don't build them directly across the street from a children's medical nonprofit or on the top of a vital mountain watershed.

There is a massive difference between supporting technology and supporting bad land planning.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Laura Lee Hellman of 540 West Athel Street.

Hi, my name is Lori Lee Hellman, and I'm the founder of What's Going On Lehigh Valley.

And for more than 15 years, I've been very concerned about our community.

I've always tried to keep the community safe, help people, keep people, let them know what's going on in the community.

But this has been with the data centers very concerning to me.

I'm a T I've been a teacher, I'm journalist, reporter, a naturalist, and I'm a mom of four.

And I adore my children.

I live in South Allentown myself.

So I've worked with children, I've taught children, I've taught nature, wildlife, I've taught about the environment.

I've studied health and fitness and nutrition, and I believe in keeping people safe and healthy.

So I'm here tonight because I care very much about our community.

I believe that all of us here tonight care.

We're all citizens of Pennsylvania, and I believe that we have a right and a civic duty to participate in public process and decisions like this.

The Pennsylvania Constitution and Article 1, Section 27 states the people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment.

It also tells us that Pennsylvania's public natural resources belong to all the people, including generations yet to come, and the commonwealth has the responsibility to conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all people.

Those words are very powerful.

They remind us that protecting our natural resources isn't just good policy, it's our responsibility.

So they're about our children, the families, they're about senior citizens, people with disabilities, those with neurodigest neurodivergent children and adults.

They're about individuals and with compromised immune systems, they're about children, young adults, and CAMLAT for children sits right across the street.

This has really upsets me because these children, the children in our community need us.

They need our voice to look out for them.

We need clean air.

And even right now with the wildfires and things going on, a lot of the kids can't be outside playing.

A lot of things were shut down.

So what's going to happen when we have these?

We're gonna have to get you out of it.

We appreciate you, Kevin.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh next, we have a statement from Councilwoman Cynthia Mota.

Um Councilwoman Mota has asked me to read this in on her behalf.

I have a concern about the proposed data center application on 2401 Emmaus Avenue.

The project is in my neighborhood, my backyard.

I'm worried the center would put a strain on our neighborhood and our infrastructure, particularly water and electricity.

The potential exists to increase the residents' utility costs.

If you have been outside today, you are aware of the impact fires have on the general health of our community.

The centers will add to climate change, which will further act to degrade our general well-being.

There is a simple space in the state of Pennsylvania for data.

There's ample space in the state of Pennsylvania for data centers.

Clustered in an urban arterial zone is not optimal.

The fact that we have not thought through the locations of such centers from the beginning is no excuse for permitting one at this location.

For these reasons, I ask that you not support this application.

Thank you, Cynthia Mota.

The next speaker, and I apologize if I get the last name wrong.

Alicia Ruth Rough of 411 North Ninth Street.

You actually did great.

Thank you.

It's a really difficult last name.

I recognize that.

Hi, thank you so much.

My name is Alicia Ruth Roff.

I live at 411 North Ninth Street.

I'm an Allentown resident.

I just want to start by saying thank you to the Planning Commission for listening to our concerns and taking us seriously.

I know that we come in pretty hot sometimes, but we genuinely really appreciate it.

Like everyone here, I'm very concerned about the impact of this proposed data center on our community.

Everyone in this room is.

Arguable need of like 5300 jobs.

66 is like 1.21.3% of that.

So it's really nothing.

And most of the high impact jobs we know are based overseas and not even necessarily on site.

So something we also wanted to know is, and I'm assuming, like, just assume all questions are rhetorical at this point.

Um, who is Eric Hartzel with the economic impact study and how was that four million dollar figure come up with?

Um, in terms of the noise, um, the human voice is 64 decibels, what you're proposing is barely below that, and the noise doesn't stop.

It's just constant.

Um, I've watched interviews with people in Virginia who live near data centers, and even the ones who were pro-AI don't they don't like it.

Like, that's not that's not coming from someone's blue sky post, that's not coming from a sketchy website.

These are real people that are being interviewed in their homes that are across the street from a data center.

Um, we're also concerned about infrasound, and that should be accounted for in any sound study, and I am curious to know if it was included.

Um, the closed loop system is not draining our water, but it does drain our energy, they use more energy.

Um, our electric rates are already high.

I know I'm not the only one who drives their PPL bill coming in sometimes.

Um, and I also had heard that there was a data center, a metadata center, I believe, with a closed loop system that's still released a rare bacterium into the city's wastewater system.

Um, just to close out, I've been saying since I heard about this, um, this data center will only harm our community.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Corinne Lalick of 2447 South Fifth Street, Allenton.

Um, if I'm reading on behalf of an organization, do I get five minutes?

Sure.

Great.

Um, hi, my name is Coran Lalick.

I live at 2447 South Fifth Street.

Um, before I read this letter from Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, um, I want to introduce myself as the person who started the petition against 2401 MAS AV becoming a data center.

It's not against all data centers.

It's about this one specifically.

It's an old stone farmhouse, late 1700s.

I think a lot about what it means to be a steward of this home in this community, and I ask that you guys do the same.

Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania stands firmly against the construction and operation of hyperskill AI data centers in Allentown and across the Commonwealth due to the health harms, environmental impacts, and the burdens that they would bring on our communities.

In Pennsylvania, there are now 85 AI data centers proposed or under construction with an estimated burden on the electric grid of 28 gigawatts, more than five times the electricity needed to power the total number of households in our state.

Data centers have become a known culprit in rising energy usage and costs across the country, and it could have a severe impact on Pennsylvania's electricity bills, which is one of many concerns communities have about the direct and indirect harms caused by data centers.

Economic stress is a public health issue.

Every increase in electric bills has a measurable health consequence.

Pennsylvania families are already facing rising housing costs, higher grocery prices, increasing medical expenses, and extreme weather events that strain household budgets.

Higher utility costs disproportionately affect low-income households, older Pennsylvania residents, individuals with disabilities, families with children, and residents with chronic metal conditions.

Energy insecurity has been associated with increased stress, poor mental health, delayed medical care, and greater reliance on emergency assistance programs.

If ratepayers are expected to finance infrastructure whose primary beneficiaries are large commercial customers, the commission should require compelling evidence that residential customers will receive proportional and meaningful benefits.

Construction and community health impacts.

During data center construction, residents may experience uh increased diesel emissions, particulate pollution, construction noise, heavy truck traffic, vegetation clearing, disruption of nearby communities.

Air and noise pollution.

Once the center is operational, pollution from diesel and gas generators are known to have severe health impacts, and data centers employ the use of generators at an unprecedented scale.

A recent health study on data centers found that by 2028, data centers will contribute to roughly 600,000 asthma cases a year nationwide, and 1,300 premature deaths from the condition.

Noise pollution affects those who work at data centers with decibel levels that can damage hearing after only half an hour.

People who live nearby report headaches, stress, and sleep disturbance.

Wildlife can also be affected, and we live right near the South Mountain Nature Preserve.

Water usage and contamination risk.

Data centers need potable water to operate with less than 5% of data center total water supply from alternative sources.

The type of water can have impacts on the equipment's lifespan, which is why drinking water is a preferred sourced source.

And you say that you're not going to use our water, that you'll have it carted in, that water comes from somewhere.

And I think it's uh foolish to think that we're gonna be selfish enough to not protect the water that comes from our neighbors, not just our own community.

Um it is primarily used for equipment such as cooling towers, chillers, pumps, heat exchangers, condensers, air handling units, which cool the center's operations.

Uh data centers water systems often falsely touted as closed loop, expose the water to contamination from fluorinated gases, F-gases, ethylene glycol, unknown carcinogen, nitrates, molybdates, borates, PFAS, and phosphates.

Hyperskilled data centers bring massive amounts of water into closed loop systems, and there is a risk of bacterial contamination getting introduced back into the watershed.

Again, this is very close to the South Mountain watershed.

Umergy generation is a public health issue.

Um, this energy that they require has to come from somewhere.

Um basically, we know fracking harms human health with impacts that include prenatal harm, respiratory impacts, cancer, heart disease, mental health complications, and premature death.

Um to finalize the letter, um, given the risks of to public health in the community, physicians for social responsibility Pennsylvania respectfully urges the city to update local ordinances to protect residents and ensure the voices of concerned groups like Camelot for Children are heard.

Do not allow data centers into Allentown.

It is too significant of a risk to community health and well-being.

Thank you.

We've uh a translator here who's been here all night to provide translation services for anybody who needs it.

It has not been used so far.

Um she's considering leaving.

So if there is anyone here who needs translation services to either hear the content or make comments, can you please um just uh wave your arms or something?

Um and if not, then we're gonna say goodnight to our translator.

All right.

Um thank you.

The next speaker is William of 3124 Pearl Avenue.

I couldn't read the last name.

That's fine.

No one can see the secret.

No, I'm kidding.

My name is uh William Garecki of 3124 Pearl Avenue, uh lifelong Allentown resident, five minutes away from the proposed data center.

Um heard me speak here before.

Um actually one of my uh former, well, kind current kinda current co-workers is on the planning commission and is familiar with my background and my opinions on data centers in general.

Uh, for context, I am a full-time high school teacher at Bridgeville Academy in Allentown, formerly known as Building 21 Allentown.

Um they are a school of health innovation and technology.

Um I'm speaking on behalf of myself and not to school, but um I do want to mention that I teach uh every freshman that comes in, every 14, 15 year old, and man, none of them are a fan of you guys.

I'm sorry.

Like a lot of people talk about um how you know this is the future and this is the way, but all the people that tell me that are balding and gray, not to have rhyme.

Sorry, that was that was accidental.

But um that frustrates me because it's like what do you what do you know about what we want?

You know uh seriously.

You have it made out for you.

Okay, you can worry about these other countries like China.

I can give a rat about China because I'm never gonna go there because I can't afford to go anywhere but here.

All right.

As is mentioned, electricity's going up.

All right.

And uh's everything else.

Really feels like, and uh this just doesn't seem to be a great benefit to the area.

Uh I really like the comment someone else made about uh why don't why do we have to be warehouse or data center?

Um I've you know living in the same spot my whole life, and it feels like all we get is wallas and car places.

And uh that's not really fun for me or the kids in the area.

It'd be nice to have an entertainment space or community space there instead.

Um rather than just reconsidering more industrial use.

Um really trying to think if I have anything else here.

Uh yeah, I'm just overall not a fan here.

That's that's kind of like I think I got more, but I don't want to waste some more time.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Ryan Wexler of 1968 South Law Street.

Hello, my name is Ryan Wuxer of 1968 South Law Street, uh here my entire life, and I'm a seventh grade teacher.

Um as a teacher, I'm very concerned for my students that AI is ruining their schooling.

Um I recently saw a uh commercial yesterday when I was watching TV with my father for Claude.

Their slogan is keep thinking.

Which is ironic because AI encourages people to not think.

I I can't recall the person behind me, this gentleman's name.

Um with all due respects, um, he probably doesn't remember my name or anybody that spoke before me.

Likely won't remember any of your names either.

Um it will just be ones and zeros in his data center.

Um recently I broke my ankle, and he said something earlier about um using AI for medical purposes.

I don't know about you, but I would rather have a surgeon repair my broken leg than AI.

I would trust somebody with 10 plus years of medical experience rather than a robot.

Um he also said technology is change.

Fifteen years ago, I stood in front of the city in fifth grade for uh recycling reform.

And in that time, the city has uh adopted the motto keep Allentown beautiful.

I encourage you to not be in favor of this data center and keep Allentown beautiful.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

The next speaker, and I apologize if I get the last name wrong.

Kevin Contrell of 3042 Salisbury Drive.

It's my handwriting.

That's Kent Well, you're fine.

Thank you for your time.

My name is Kevin Cantwell, and I live at 3042 Salisbury Av.

I ask one big question.

What benefit does this data center actually bring to the local community?

I did hear the quote unquote points of the benefits from this gentleman behind me.

And personally, I am not sold.

Without this data center, this community will do just fine.

We do not need faster AI results AI results, excuse me.

We do not need more server space.

We do not need this data center in our community.

Short term or long term.

How can we determine the true impact to the environment and surrounding community without this actually being built?

The best we can do is speculate and theorize, and that sounds like a major problem to me.

Requiring environmental monitoring and impact studies provided by independent third party, reputable sources may be a useful tool in this process.

However, it is imperative for us to understand what these impacts are before we commit to its construction.

This full understanding of the impacts related to this data center is next to impossible without it being actually constructed.

With everything we do know, I do know one thing.

There is no way for this impact to be zero.

Every time we build something, we tear something else down.

There has never been a building erected without sacrificing the nature that once took its place.

If this product moves forward, strict monitoring controls and limits should be imposed so that the city and ultimately its people can protect itself from the consequences of corporate greed.

We absolutely must require independent monitoring for this facility hired by the city instead of those associated with the data center.

Without a well-rounded understanding of exactly what real world impacts to expect, those strict controls and established limits should be left open for the city to reassess on a regular basis.

Control is power, and if we do not establish it up front, we stand to lose that control.

Businesses work in ROI.

Nature does not.

Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Farid.

And I apologize if I get the last name wrong, Halid of 8235 Kirby Street.

Hi everyone, my name is Furiz Shahid.

Um I'm a community member here.

I came here because I actually received a text message a little while ago from a group called Critical Infrastructure of America, giving me a bunch of propaganda for AI data centers.

So I did a little digging to see who was funding it.

And actually it was a front group for a consulting firm called SL7 by a certain Patrick Slevin.

I went to his website, he calls himself the NIMBY War Room.

I think that was probably the most honest thing that he ever said because they're really at war with us.

So you know, I heard that the gentleman from the developers said that he has nothing to hide, but if you do, then why do you have a like frontal group trying to like deceive all of us?

But if you do, then why do you have a like frontal group trying to like deceive all of us?

Um in general, I was just kind of shocked at the level of paternalism here.

You know, like we're told that we're all just confused by um propaganda from the quote unquote internet run by China, Iran, and the former Soviet Union.

You know, that was like 1991, that which fell.

So, you know, the level of lies and deception that we're dealing with is kind of incredible.

Um, you know, I was always I was also shocked to hear uh him mention that they're going to give us some nice looking trees.

They're probably monocultures as well, but you know, like this like like are they like treating us like children?

It's like extreme paternalism.

He also mentions that there are going to be one million dollar homes just like in Virginia.

Like I hope he knows that the vast majority of people cannot afford to live in one million dollar homes.

So you know we're all going to subsidize this with increased rents, utilities, water, etc.

Um, and you know, it's just incredible that we're all going to like be subsidizing AI slop, um, like just like offloading our brain capacity to just destroy just like everything.

Like, I don't know, it's just incredible, really.

Like, and you know, all of these, and when we speak about AI and the quote unquote benefits, like how about what all the like missed opportunities?

You know, like whenever AI is used, like there's also negative uses of AI.

Like AI is used in war to kill other people across the world.

And you know, we are like we're not here to we're not here to like fight other countries and other people abroad.

Like we have enemies in this room itself just trying to destroy our communities with AI data centers just trying to destroy our lives.

So, yeah, that's all I have to say.

Thanks.

The next speaker is Travis Beller of 2908 West Turner Street.

Or not.

Uh the next speaker is uh Mois Miranda of 2639 College Lane.

The next speaker is Joey Miranda, with no address.

The next speaker is Jane Deckel of 115 East Emmaus Avenue.

The next speaker is Mark Antucci or Mulucci, Maluchi.

I apologize.

No worries.

It's a tough one.

What's your address, Mark?

3327 Hobson Street.

Uh, that's in Whitehall.

Okay.

I've been living in Allentown since 1991.

Uh, working all through Allentown.

I just moved out to Whitehall not long ago.

But started in South Whitehall Township, then hit Allentown, then Eastside and such.

So this is my my home.

Okay, I was at South Whitehall Township.

I heard the exact same spiel from these guys.

Everything they're saying is false.

Look at where all the other data centers are and what's going on.

Okay, look what New York City just did.

They're not letting these SOBs open up a data center in New York.

The state of New York.

That's the greatest city in the world besides Tokyo, Japan.

I mean, come on.

What it's doing, what they're lying about, like with the water.

I mean, it's phenomenal.

They're talking about the recycled water, okay.

Gonna be cooling down the machines and all this other rigamore.

And I'm telling you that this water is evaporating as it's cooling down all these machines.

How many millions upon millions of gallons of water they're gonna be using for a medium-sized facility?

They're gonna be using 100,000 gallons of water or better.

How many how many gallons of water does your community use?

That's gonna hit on top of it.

The people are gonna hurt.

They're gonna suffer even more.

We can't afford it.

The electricity, that's gonna skyrocket us.

It's already happening because of data centers.

Now, another thing, everybody, everybody in this world got to keep in mind.

Project 2025.

It's 922 pages.

Everything that's been happening in this country, okay, since Knucklehead got elected.

Is all a page, direct page at it?

Project 2025.

Download and read it.

Call my bluff, please.

Everybody call my bluff.

Because what's happening is critical to the United States of America, not only Pennsylvania, but all of us, everywhere.

Say no.

Please.

We can't have nature killed.

We can't have wildlife killed.

We can't have people killed.

Yes, thank you.

Next speaker, and I apologize about the last name if I get it wrong.

Aidan Lapenta of 806 North 28th Street.

Good evening, members of the commission.

I'm Aiden Le Penta.

Um, I'm at 806 North 28th Street.

I've been in Allentown my whole life.

So I attended a similar meeting uh at the Cedar Crest project that was last week.

Um edged the company behind that project project had the same uh sell selling points.

They said the same thing about increasing grid reliability, how this could be a major shipping warehouse instead of a data center as a scare tactic.

The same spiel of how much money could be brought in with taxes the same way the fracking industry did.

Same spiel about transparency.

They touted a demonstrably false narrative, including that the property across from Parkland uh could have been a major shipping warehouse under current uh planning ordinances, and that the property, existing property was at no point ever a farm.

Those are both lies, and that was under the guise of transparency and cooperation.

That is not to insult tonight's applicant or to insinuate any personal attack, just to stress the importance of verifying all the information presented.

The speaker tonight specifically called out Virginia as a nice place to live.

Um, Kathy Koelick of Virginia's Prince William County said in April of this year that her and her neighbors are, and I quote, inundated with noise and air pollution and are truly living in hell.

The National Institute of Health found that closed looped water systems are meant to be sealed, but they can still suffer significant and undesirable water loss, losing up to 25% of system volume per month.

That is not uncommon, end quote.

Um, the Department of Energy recently authorized data centers to run backup generators when the grid is under strain.

So my thought on that is are the generators running included any any sound studies and environmental impacts?

And uh to how much do they project the grid could be under strain in any case?

And how would they get fuel if these backup generators do run?

Data centers were created uh recently classified as critical infrastructure.

So what plans are there for security?

Does this incur any additional risk on our on our community?

And does the critical infrastructure classification exempt them from any other ordinances?

Uh additionally, how can enforcement be guaranteed in a time when historically fines have been regarded as cost of doing business?

Uh what are the plans to decommission any equipment?

Uh it is an industry standard for Meta, anyway, to decommission server racks the equipment that is in these data centers every three years, which is a tremendous strain of e-waste on our local community.

And the demand is not as concrete as it seems.

Um projects have been delayed and canceled, and they're looking to like rent server space elsewhere.

Um, I have my bachelor's and IT.

I know what computers can do, and I know that it likes to take up the tank that it's given.

Um, so it would amaze you that the data being used is also like on the websites, that's what's tracking the users and like taking advantage of advertising space, so it's filling the available bandwidth.

So the project does not outweigh the cost to our community, in my opinion.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Next speaker is Julie Vitawi of 721 West Green Street.

Seriously.

Good evening, thank you.

Um, I'm Julie Vitale, and I live in this amazing city of Allentown.

I want to thank the council and the applicant for their presentation tonight and for the stated commitment to transparency.

Because we are all on the same page about transparency.

I have a simple respectful request.

We ask that the full unredacted background noise studies, water utilization projections, utility data, and other assessments be immediately made fully accessible to the public.

We would love to have those assessments by the user too.

Having that data would go a long way to quell our very reasonable concerns.

We'd have even more confidence with third-party independent researchers hired by the city.

I wish that the developers would give us more respect.

We're not here to oppose progress.

We're logical, critical thinking neighbors doing our homework because our immediate surroundings have are uniquely vulnerable.

In addition to our neighbors living in the vicinity, we have children attending South Mountain Middle School, a delicate ecosystem at the nature reserve, and terminally ill and medically fragile children at Camilla for Children.

They all deserve our collective attention to ensure their education, safety, and health and well-being are never compromised.

To truly protect them, we need a complete information.

However, as much as this development developer is willing to be transparent, we are looking at an incomplete picture because the user, the actual operator of this facility is not in the room.

We are asked to accept a massive quarter million square foot physical shell today on the mere promise that a mystery tenant will fill in the details later.

But we don't have to guess how this plays out.

We only have to look a few hours north to Lackawanna County, where our applicant tonight, quantum group, is a partner on a massive 1.5 gigawatt data center proposal.

In Lackawanna, they went big.

They met massive community pushback, organizational opposition, organized, sorry, opposition, and intense zoning disputes.

It appears they have learned a lesson from Lackawanna, but the wrong one.

It looks like they're trying to avoid a community argument here by arguing semantics and keeping the initial power numbers looking small.

Call it edge use and co-location while building a massive quarter million square foot physical shell.

This is a classic trajan horse strategy.

They build a giant industrial shell under quiet guise of a small edge facility to get through planning and zoning.

But once the infrastructure is in place and the doors are closed, the future tenant can easily scale up power, upgrade the servers, and expand the noise and water footprint far beyond what we're discussing tonight.

So when we consider this to be comparable to a warehouse, don't consider what it looks like right now on paper.

Consider what it could become with so much room to grow when a quarter million square foot facility has more, um, is far more than necessary for a hyperscale data center.

But this Trojan horse strategy only works because of one convenient emission tonight.

The applicant didn't bring the user, even if the developer had the best intentions to address our concerns.

What ensures that the user doesn't make changes?

This applies to the financial promises as well.

Now I don't personally believe that we should ask any part of Allentown.

Okay.

Basically, I don't think that we should ask uh anyone to give up their well-being for the rest of the city.

I think that's ridiculous.

Um and I just, you know, keep keep Allentown beautiful.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Spencer of 721 West Green Street.

Hi.

Uh Spencer, SNIG 721 West Green Street.

All right, so uh talk a little bit about science.

Uh so um across America, the the uh noise level at the uh uh you know I think it's called uh L90 uh for at night times is between 40 and uh and 45 decibels.

So uh when you start going above anything that's that's uh the background noise, it starts affecting uh sleep.

You know, if you get really loud, it's very noticeable, but even just noticeable affects uh people's ability to sleep.

And um uh so I would highly recommend that that you figure out where people are sleeping around here and have the the regulation be uh below 40 decibels wherever the people are sleeping at night.

Okay, next thing is cooling towers.

Cooling towers are breeding grounds for legionary disease.

So we have, you know, I you know, right nearby there, there's a place where we're you know kids are dying of cancer, they're immunocompromised, not a good combination.

Um uh I was there for you know uh his previous speech at a uh online thing.

He was talking about um, you know, reading the the this this the sound levels.

Now it's important that it not just be done once, but it be done uh again on uh you know uh different conditions.

So the the the conditions where sound is gonna travel the most is uh high humidity, high temperatures, and high pressure of air pressure.

So those are when the uh uh sound reading should be made.

Okay.

Um you talked about uh going from uh desired uh 80 megawatts down to 75, which indicates to me that PPL was like, ah, we can't do that.

We don't have the capacity.

So if he's taking the capacity, where's the capacity for the rest of the development of Allentown?

Uh 15% of energy uh uh of uh data centers goes to Bitcoin mining.

Do we need more of that?

No.

Uh we're talking about the race towards uh, you know, uh better AI.

Well, at the current rate, uh, you know, within a year, we won't be able to tell whether or not our president is actually alive or was just uh you know uh a you know an AI puppet.

That is not something we should be racing towards.

That's something we should be slowing down on.

AI is not something that that it affects all of us.

If we were manufacturing poison, we would say this is not just an outline issue, this is a global issue, it's affecting everyone.

That's the this is the case with AI.

I work with AI 12 hours a day, seven days a week, unfortunately, and it is not good for America.

The manufacturers of AI are predicting that that most of us be losing our jobs with the next you know 15 years.

We do not want to rush that.

Uh they're talking about replacing that with uh uh what's called basic income.

But do you want to to be in a world where you're told that your life is not valuable, nothing you do is is of worth.

How are you gonna live with yourself with that?

We don't want to rush there.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Bernice Cruz of 2427 Charler Street.

Seeing none.

Uh the next speaker is Jason, and I apologize, Mance of 3727 Truxler Boulevard.

Next speaker is Jose of 222 South St.

Lucas Street.

And we have one last card.

Uh they didn't mark if they were a taxpayer or resident.

It's Linda Hannah of 226 West Mountain Road, Ms.

Hannah.

Are you Miss Hannah?

No, but she could put her name in.

Okay, we we've got time for others.

If we if they're if we're city residents and taxpayers, we we've got we're done with all of the cards.

We're done with all the taxpayers.

You are correct, sir.

You had put that you wanted to speak last.

So it's church auditor.

Absolutely.

Well, please come up.

So that's the name of my nonprofit organization that I just started.

And I will say I made though I built a whole website using AI technology, which looks beautiful, by the way, I would give up AI altogether if it's destroying this country in any way, shape, or form.

Okay.

So I'm gonna, so let me quote amendment number 14, section one.

People have the right to life, liberty, and their property.

And if this, and if this data center interferes with any of the three, if you if this goes on, then you all will be in violation of that amendment of the Constitution, U.S.

Constitution.

So you don't just have the Pennsylvania, the state uh constitution, you'd be violating, but the federal one as well.

Okay.

And also, uh, he talked about transparency.

You talked about transparency.

Um who's gonna be holding you accountable?

The government?

I don't trust the government, Democrat or Republican.

Okay.

Uh they both have failed me.

That's why I'm gonna be voting for a liberatorium for my governor this year.

And there's other candidates in the different parties.

But anyway, besides the point, it should be we the people holding you accountable.

Because if we the people that's affected, not the government, that's not even gonna be near US data center.

So just keep this in mind.

If this goes forward, and also I hear about a lot of you know, it being a little too noisy for the residents around the data center.

Who maybe if it goes further, maybe you would like to pay for the soundproofing in their homes.

So they then they don't have to suffer the noise.

Or maybe the government would like to give a tax decrease after increasing our taxes on the city level way too high recently this year.

But anyway, keep this in mind.

Thank you.

Any more cards, Brian?

So the rest are marked.

No, that they're not our taxpayer resident.

Okay.

But there was a uh our director of uh director of community necronomic development encouraged uh a resident who raised her hand to uh speak.

Okay.

I don't know the name.

We have I do believe the resident previously raised their hand when more comments were called for.

Young lady, come on up, please.

I'd like you to state your name and your address, please.

Um my name is Malin Rogers, and I live in 368 Minor Street, Emmaus, which is two miles away from where the data center data center is going to be built.

And I don't like AI because I've seen the damage it's done to artists, musicians, authors, and a ton of other um jobs that are in the arts.

And I want to be a digital artist when I'm older, and I want to make sure, like I want to know that I will be able to have like my dream job and will have a job and all of the like prices that have been raising.

I want to make sure that also when I'm older that I will be able to own a house and like be able to move out and live where I want to.

And um, me and my brother Nathan have been going to camp camelot for a while now, and it's filled with so many amazing people that will be affected from the data center.

And um you mentioned that we need it because of chat GPT.

I don't use Chat GPT, most of my friends don't use Chat GPT, and I think that AI in general is just unnecessary, and these data centers also will destroy the environment, and it has you talked about not having noise, but there's gonna be a constant humming and vibrations that animals will be able to feel and hear, and it's also going to affect people too.

And um, God gave us this beautiful environment to protect, not destroy, and I just think that we should stop AI data centers.

All right, who's next?

Anyone else?

Ma'am on the side there.

Yes.

We have I I believe 16 other cards that were completed that were the resident and taxpayer was checked.

No.

Well, do we have any more residents?

Ma'am, are you a resident?

I'm just a resident of Lehigh County.

All right, why don't you have a seat for a second?

We gotta figure out what we're gonna do here.

So is there any is there any other city resident or taxpayer that wants to address the commission?

All right, so I'm gonna direct this question to the commission.

We allocated 10 o'clock as our quitting time.

Do we want to uh continue to hear some some more comments that are maybe are unrelated or people that came out?

Excuse me?

No.

The support.

Folks, I just I I think it's important that um to to just mention that the the reason we the reason we do what we do is because it having to do with I guess what they consider standing in a in a in a proceeding of development or um oftentimes standing represents you know somebody that has a a financial or ownership interest in the community in which the um development is proposed.

So I that's why we do what we do when we want to make sure that we give residents the time um that they deserve to to address it.

So I guess if my colleagues want to go ahead with we'll we'll take some more comments, but you know I you know, and we'll obviously take them under consideration, but it it's important that you guys understand that why we do it and why it's important that we give the city residents and taxpayers first opportunity.

Um so I guess we'll proceed, Ryan, if you want to go with the cards.

Uh Zarrara Quinn of 1203 Eagle Drive Emmaus.

Taylor Laney of 924 Liberty Street in Emmaus.

Peggy Javarz.

I apologize if I got that wrong.

747 Friends Drive.

That's an Mayus.

Uh then we have Adriana of Drexler Drive in Northampton.

Valerie of 713 713 Delwood Street, Bethlehem.

Tracy Lasala of 770 38 Country Spring Road, New Tripoli.

Charles Gill of 1046 Broadway Fountain Hill.

Mark Luce, I apologize if I get that wrong.

3520 Carrara Road Easton.

Armand Alcalade, uh 212 St.

John Street, Catasaca.

Tammy Clemens, 6725 Blue Church Road, Coopersburg.

Sorry.

That's okay.

Thank you for taking me.

Um, as I said, I'm a Lehigh Valley resident.

Um, so this affects us too in other counties, um, because that is a lot of our resources for everybody that and also in Pennsylvania.

So that's a big deal to me.

And I know that even the county that I live in, Coopersburg, we were supposed to get three warehouses.

Now we're at a massive warehouse and also a trucking terminal.

Um, I went to talk a little bit about the trucks.

Um, I couldn't hear how many trucks this would be coming through on 309, 78.

Um, sorry, Pennsylvania Turnpike, which is also cut through for the um through Coopersburg from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Route 78, and to take 309.

These trucks are not staying on 309.

They are coming through the residential areas where we have no truck signs and only local deliveries, and they just keep on coming.

Our police departments, I know are small, they try to stay and try to hit these tractor trailers, um, but they do not stay on the these highways.

They stay in our residential areas.

That puts our children, our pets, and our lives in danger.

Every single time we try to pull out of our driveways, because I live on a book de-do, as I call it, um, because I can't see when I pull out of my driveway.

My husband has been hit pulling out of our driveway.

Luckily, it wasn't a tractor trailer.

Our neighbor's dog has been hit because yes, my neighbor was irresponsible, but luckily the dog didn't die because the person was going slow enough.

But if that was a tractor trailer, he would have died or she would have died too.

So, and our we uh we walk with our children and our pets on the road, and it's only a two-lane road.

So these trucks should not be on these roads.

The other thing I wanted to bring up is um the Pennsylvania drought.

Right now, I just looked it up because I have been following our drought.

4.4 million Pennsylvania residents in this area for Lehigh is what I looked up.

That we are currently in a drought.

So that's 4.1 million people in Lehigh County that is being affected by this drought.

This has been going on for over three plus years.

So if you look up drought.gov, you can see all these these facts and stuff, and also other drought information um through Pennsylvania.

So that is uh for Lehigh County, that's 2,390,931 people being affected as of today, which is 68.7%.

That is a lot.

That is a lot of water.

And if you're taking water from us, and that and then other data centers are taking water from us, this is gonna drive up our wells.

I mean, dry up our wells that anybody has personal wells.

Um some of the Allentown people I know have to use uh city wells, and that is recycled sewage water.

Does everybody want to drink sewage water?

I don't.

All right, we appreciate your comments.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate it.

I just want to say that please you know help us in Pennsylvania.

We want to keep it beautiful, and we want to use our natural resources.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next card is Julius Burns of Broadway and Bethlehem.

Next is Nancy Cuck of P.O.

Box 335.

Hello.

Thank you for hearing me, even though I'm not from Allentown.

Where are you from, ma'am?

Oh well, I live right now in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania.

Okay, and they're proposing a data center there also, which we've been working hard to fight because they want to put it on farmland, and it's terrible.

And um the first thing I'd like to say that is that this is not an Allen Town or Martins Creek problem.

This is the problem in our country and our world.

And if we don't put a stop to it, we are all gonna suffer, and our children are gonna suffer, and our grandchildren are gonna suffer.

And I'd like to know what's good about AI.

I mean, I think you said the question is not actually whether we need it or not, but the question actually is whether we need AI or not.

AI is a terrible thing.

You know, it turns what people say into what they didn't say.

It you know, takes pictures of children that are on the internet and turns them into pornography just with the flick of a switch or however they do it, I don't know, but it's terrible.

Um it's taking people's jobs away, and it's gonna continue to take people's jobs away.

I went, I was down at the shore in Cape May, and I went over to Rio Grande, and I went through the drive-thru to Taco Bell, and there was no person taking my order.

It was AI, an AI service representative, she said.

What can I help you with?

Taking low-income people's jobs away with an AI service representative.

Same thing with any phone call you make to any company today.

You know, you're not talking to people anymore.

Even when you go to the grocery store, they want you to do all the work.

There's no customer service anymore.

AI is a terrible thing, and I don't know of anything good about it.

And I'm not a public speaker, but I've lived a long life, and I know what I see, and I know the changes I've seen over my lifetime, and the technology, of course, things change, but technology doesn't seem to be good.

I went to the shore last week with my son and his wife and their children, and my grandson sat in the room on his phone.

I'd say 80% of the time we were there when he could have just walked right down the road to the bay and had a really good time, and that's all over the place.

And if I may, I just wanted to um tell everyone that you know this is not this is you know, our we we all need to write to our our governor and our state representatives.

Okay.

And um we appreciate your comments.

Okay, thank you so much.

The next speaker is Eric Steinbreck of 532 Sixth Avenue Bethlehem.

And then the next is Chris Alvarez of 1966 Collinswood Drive, Bethlehem.

And the last card is Christopher Huber of Steinsberg Road, Coopersburg.

Hi.

Hello.

Thank you all for taking the time.

I'm Christopher Huber.

I uh live in Coopersburg, but I work in Allentown.

I will be driving House's data center on my commute.

First, I want to thank everyone who has come out to speak tonight.

Democracy is sacred, and everyone has come out has fulfilled one of the most important duties any citizen can take.

I will also try to keep this as brief as possible.

As I know we've been here for about four hours, if not longer.

Hyper sterile data centers are a proven threat to local communities and the broader environment.

Study after study shows these large data centers raise electricity rates, contaminate and deplete local water stores and plummet the property values of surrounding buildings, both residential and commercial.

So why are we entertaining a data center within the boundaries of Pennsylvania's third largest city?

Will this data center bring in more value than it is worth?

The answer is no.

Despite some of the dubious claims that the developers of the developers, this data center will not bring the jobs to local community.

The profits will be shared by only a few Calbert's conglomerates.

Thoughts on AI and the environment aside.

From a business perspective, this is a bad investment.

Whatever the promises of AR, as described by either the developer or any defenders, AI will not be bringing that to us with this investment.

This is just an investment.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Do we have anybody else that's weighted?

Oh, right.

Um I'm an Allentown resident.

I've been Allentown resident all my life.

My name is Carissa Johnson.

I've lived here, worked here.

Um I'm representing my center that I work at Liz Innovation Academy.

Um I've heard a lot of Camelot for kids, which is great.

Um, but we are in the backyard of your proposed um center.

Uh, and that will affect our kids that also have respiratory issues, um, auditory sensitivities.

We actually had to cancel our Lehab Valley Zoo trip today because of the air quality.

So just thinking of the potential, you know, um risks to the air quality with your data center and how that will affect their daily play that they're required to have.

Um is very concerning for me as an educator, as a teacher, um, as a person in this community.

And you know, I know Allentown has uh climate action plan, and I hear some of your uh proposal that kind of combats that that effort.

Um you said you're gonna take a sidewalk to put a drive.

Um, as far as I know, there's only one side of the street that has that sidewalk, and you guys are on there.

No.

Okay.

Uh I think for the first one, it was going away.

And um, you know, that is a concern as well when we're talking about lowering uh emission full fuel and and having more uh community involvement with um more eco-friendly options.

I just want to put that in your mind as a climate action plan, you know, your your efforts in the city of Allentown and how this can hurt that as well as like the water usage.

I've heard about the drought.

We all know that you know the climate is just drastically changing and affecting a lot of things, and do we want to keep putting more strain onto that is a big concern and question that I think everybody should be thinking about.

Um so yeah, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, anyone else.

All right.

Well, I would like to thank those who have remained that uh that did come up and speak, and those who just came to participate uh in the audience.

I I appreciate that.

Um as one of our last speakers said it's really important that that people in the community exercise their right to um to engage with these processes.

So uh as was mentioned in the very beginning of this meeting, we're not taking any action today.

Um we're eagerly waiting for a resubmission and re uh nude reviews from our staff and and consultants.

So um I think the developers heard a lot uh from the community.

I think you know you've heard a lot obviously before tonight, but um I hope that you know that that resonates with you guys.

Um I'll give you an opportunity if you'd like any sort of rebuttal or anything, or you just want to take that back for the sake of we don't need to do a length.

No, I was just gonna say, you know, as when your staff gave us comments, um, you know, there was a lot of things that were echoed.

I would like to just stress that you know there was a lot of talk tonight about AI data centers.

I never said that this was an AI data center, it's an a it's a data center, it can have a lot of different activities to it.

So just that.

Um, secondly, you know, I I think there again can you know there was concern about water and the drought.

We're using less water than was proposed.

Um so I think rather than spinning up here and talking more tonight, we're gonna resubmit the plans.

Um, I know there was a lot of concern about enforceability, the part of the plans having deed restrictions and covenants as a contingent makes not only the city have rights, but every individual would have rights to enforce those covenants if they're recorded as part of the plan.

Um we could talk about community benefits agreements and other enforcement remedies that are not available to the city under the law.

So those are all things which we will actively engage with staff and and the planning commission and whoever you direct us to.

Um I thank you for listening and being open-minded.

We heard everyone's comments.

Um I think we can still be a responsible and good neighbor and address Cameloth's concerns and everything like that.

And that's our job to do that, and we'll see you with a resubmission soon, and then probably be back before you get in the September time frame.

We think.

Thank you all and have a good night.

Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Yeah, thank you.

Very good.

All right.

Um, so I think for for sake of formality, we should probably take a look from the table or no motion at all.

George?

George?

Sorry, I'm not sure.

Uh I'm I'm questioning whether we should need a motion to table officially, since this is a this is a planning commission and it's a active application.

I would just agree with that and just for the record, we need an extension of the time frames of the MPC.

The applicant has agreed to submit those to us.

It's as a far I'd just like to say it on the record.

You agree to extend the time frames of the MPC.

I will confirm here for this being videoed that I grant an extension of at this point of 90 days to the provisions of the MPC.

I will give a formal written version of that which is required.

I'll get it out tomorrow.

Umfortunately, today my day got a little away from me, and then I had a pleasure to prepare.

So thank you very much.

Yep, thank you.

That's confirmed.

I would proceed to I move to table.

All right, Craig's made a motion to table.

I'll second.

Eric seconds.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Excellent.

All right, everybody, thank you and good night.

Thank you very much.