Jim Thorpe Borough Council voted Thursday to advertise a proposed zoning ordinance amendment that would allow data centers in Jim Thorpe only in the industrial zone and only with explicit approval.

The vote came after council held a required public hearing on the proposal at which no residents appeared to speak.

The move comes as data center development has become one of the most contentious land-use questions across Carbon County.

Neighboring Penn Forest Township drew standing-room crowds to its supervisors meetings when it took up similar rules, and Palmerton Borough adopted its own data center ordinance on a 5-0 vote just 10 days before Thursday’s hearing.

Jim Thorpe officials began laying the groundwork for the ordinance late last year.

At a council workshop in November, officials said the goal was to channel data centers to appropriate locations.

Borough ordinance

The Jim Thorpe ordinance lays out 11 pages of conditions a developer would have to meet before a data center could open here. The document defines a data center as “a building or buildings which are occupied primarily by computers and/or telecommunications and related equipment where digital information is processed, transferred and/or stored, primarily to and from offsite locations.” The definition explicitly extends to “cryptocurrency mining, blockchain transaction processing, and server farms.”

Under the proposed ordinance, data centers would be permitted only as a special exception in the industrial zone, which is geographically concentrated along the Lehigh River and the railroad corridor. Getting that special exception would require a developer to clear a series of hurdles spanning noise, water, power, aesthetics, emergency management and environmental standards.

On noise, the ordinance would cap sound generated by a data center at 67 decibels during daytime hours — 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday — and at 57 decibels during nighttime and weekend hours, as measured from the property line. An applicant would be required to hire a professional acoustics expert to conduct sound studies at three stages of the project: during the special exception process; during building permit approval; and six months after occupancy.

Generators would be prohibited from operating between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. except during emergencies, and all generators would be required to have functioning mufflers and enclosures.

The ordinance also mandates closed-loop cooling for server racks and IT equipment, prohibiting the open evaporative cooling towers that critics of data center development frequently cite as major water consumers.

“Use of open, evaporative cooling towers for facility heat rejection is prohibited,” the ordinance states, “unless an applicant demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that closed-loop technology is infeasible for the specific project.”

Data centers relying on a nonpublic water source and using more than 10,000 gallons per day would be required to conduct a water feasibility study showing their withdrawals would not “endanger or adversely affect the quantity or quality of groundwater supplies or surface waters in the vicinity.”

Any data center within 300 feet of a public roadway or residential zone would be required to fully enclose its exterior mechanical equipment or screen it from view using a combination of landscaping, berms and fencing. Fencing along public roads could not be chain-link and could not include barbed wire. Buildings facing a road or residential zone would have to incorporate architectural variety — changes in material, height or building step-backs — every 150 horizontal feet, and exterior walls would be required to use “low-reflective, subtle, or earth tone” colors. Fluorescent and metallic exterior colors would be prohibited.

Other requirements

A maximum building height of 50 feet would apply, and structures would have to be set back at least 200 feet from any residential zone or property developed with a “sensitive receptor,” a term the ordinance defines to include schools, day cares, long-term care facilities, retirement homes, places of worship, parks and campgrounds.

Developers would also have to submit a detailed emergency response plan reviewed by the fire department and the borough’s emergency management coordinator, including procedures for fire suppression, containment, ventilation and evacuation, and contact information for facility representatives available 24 hours a day.

Any battery storage systems would have to comply with National Fire Protection Association Standard 855 and include fire suppression systems designed specifically for battery storage. A campus security plan prepared in consultation with police and emergency officials would also be required.

The ordinance would also require a decommissioning plan filed at the time of application. If a data center ceased operations, decommissioning would have to begin within one year and be completed within 18 months.