Residents asked Palmerton Area School District officials Tuesday night to speak against a proposed data center in Lower Towamensing Township.

Danielle Jones told directors the site would sit close to district families.

“It would basically be in the backyard of our West End,” Jones said.

She tied the project to student performance.

“Attending the board meetings, we know that the kids on the West End unfortunately already score low in testing,” Jones said. “There’s going to be light pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, which can affect sleep and respiratory health.”

Jones asked whether any director would testify at the hearing. She said one Palmerton Borough council member has already agreed to speak.

“If anybody would be willing to educate themselves and speak, we greatly appreciate it,” she said.

Board President Sherry Haas did not commit.

“That’s something that we would need to discuss,” Haas said.

The hearing was set for Oct. 27 at the Aquashicola Volunteer Fire Company, but the applicant asked to continue it. Township solicitor Jim Nanovic said it will be rescheduled to the week of Dec. 14. If the fire company cannot host, the township may ask the school district about the auditorium.

DTA Alliance LLC, which owns the Alliance Sand Quarry, and Murphy’s Meadow LLC filed a challenge to the township’s zoning ordinance on Sept. 1. The owners argue the ordinance is defective because it permits data centers nowhere in the township. Their curative amendment would allow data centers in an overlay district covering the resort and recreation and rural conservation zones.

The plan calls for 14 buildings across roughly 700 acres, with a combined footprint of 4.5 million square feet. Individual buildings range from 125,000 to 500,000 square feet. The site spans the Blue Shamrock Golf Course and DTA Alliance property at 415 Golf Road, off Fireline Road. It stretches from the Bowmanstown border toward Memorial Park in Palmerton, bordering Princeton and Edgemont avenues.

Dan Connor, operations manager for DTA Alliance, has said the plan includes a provision for a power plant that would most likely run on natural gas.

Jones said she planned to attend a Memorial Park meeting, saying that property would also be affected.

Mary Farquhar, another Palmerton resident, backed her request later in the meeting.

“We would appreciate some support as far as the data centers go, because we don’t want to compound any of the problems and errors that were made during the COVID era and give these kids any further deficit to have to rise above,” she said.