Nesquehoning’s Planning Commission is beginning to plan on how to regulate data centers within the borough limits. It will hold a meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the borough hall to discuss the matter.

Last month, borough council, on the suggestion of solicitor Robert Yurchak, asked the planning commission to begin looking at whether regulations should be in place for data centers, noting that the borough can’t deny them from being built within the borough limits, however, an ordinance can be made on how to regulate them.

“With the power lines coming in, access to water and all the land we have in Nesquehoning, I don’t want to see a proliferation of data centers all around, so that’s the reason I’m suggesting we do some work on it and see what they come back with,” Yurchak said, noting the surrounding communities, including Packer, Banks, Kidder, Penn Forest and Lehigh townships, as well as Beaver Meadows are all looking into this matter.

In August, Bitfarms Ltd., a Canada-based company that purchased Panther Creek Waste Coal-fired Power Plant earlier this year, announced that it had entered into a partnership with T5 Data Centers to develop an advanced artificial intelligence data center at the Nesquehoning facility.

No formal plans on this data center have come before council to date.