Upper Mount Bethel zoners: Supervisors should decide data center appeal
Slate Belt Holdings LLC is challenging Upper Mount Bethel Township’s zoning ordinance, arguing that it unconstitutionally excludes data center uses. The company has proposed up to 24 data centers on a roughly 754-acre property west of River Road, and the township’s zoning hearing board adjourned the validity challenge hearing.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC is contesting Upper Mount Bethel Township’s zoning ordinance, arguing that it does not define or allow data center uses as required under Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code and is therefore unconstitutionally exclusionary. The challenge concerns a roughly 754-acre property west of River Road in Northampton County where the developer has proposed a campus of as many as 24 data centers.
The Upper Mount Bethel Township Zoning Hearing Board adjourned the validity challenge hearing. Slate Belt Holdings has presented two development options for the proposed hyperscale data center campus, while the dispute over whether the township’s zoning rules legally accommodate such uses remains unresolved.