A plan for a proposed data center in Nesquehoning needs more work before it could move forward, Carbon County officials said.

On Tuesday, the Carbon County Planning Commission voted to recommend conditional plan rejection for the Carbon Node East Development. The plans call for Keel Infrastructure, which was formerly Bitfarms Ltd., to construct four data center buildings totaling 618,921 square feet on a 103.95-acre property just off Industrial Road in the industrial zoned area of the Hauto Valley Estates portion of the borough.

Ivan O. Meixell, county planner, recused himself from the plan review due to a conflict of interest with the project.

Greg Haas of Keystone Engineering and the county’s engineering consultant, completed the review of the 211-page plan. Haas also serves as Nesquehoning zoning and planning boards engineer.

Haas outlined his review, noting that while there are no visible barriers toward development, “the plan, as submitted does not conform” to several ordinances, including Nesquehoning’s sewer and sewage disposal ordinance, subdivision and land development ordinance, water ordinance and zoning ordinance.

He went on to explain items that were still needed to be addressed or corrected in the plans, including state approvals and permits, further explanations on sewer items, stormwater management and drainage work needed, impacts to existing wetlands and final site design details such as landscape, noise and lighting better outlined.

Haas then recommended conditional plan rejection until issues outlined in the review were adequately mitigated or addressed.

No discussion between the board took place prior to voting on Haas recommendation.

The comments now go to Nesquehoning Borough for inclusion in discussion regarding the plans as borough commissions and boards begin looking at whether or not to approve the project.

Nesquehoning is holding a public hearing today at 5 p.m. ahead of its borough council meeting to allow for public comment on a proposed data center ordinance the borough plans to vote on this evening.

The ordinance better defines what a data center is, where it could be built and what companies must do in operations to comply with the borough’s outlines.

The borough council is not voting on the data center’s plans at this meeting.

The data center project began last year, when Bitfarms Ltd., which purchased the Panther Creek Cogeneration Plant off Dennison Road, announced its plans to construct the complex on land owned by Kovatch Enterprises.

Several public meetings to further outline the plans were held, followed by the borough planning commission and zoning board working to create the proposed ordinance that is expected to be acted upon tonight.

In March, Bitfarms, which is based in Canada, announced the rebranding to Keel Infrastructures, with offices based in the United States. Keel is “a North American digital infrastructure and energy company that develops and owns data centers and energy infrastructure for high-performance computing workloads, including AI.”

A more in-depth visual of the project is also available on Keel’s website at www.keelinfra.com/campuses/panther-creek.