TL;DR · 30-second read
The Short Version
A power company, Talen Energy, and a business partner want to build up to 29 huge computer buildings on about 900 acres in a small Pennsylvania township. Buildings like these run cloud services and artificial intelligence.
The largest version would have floor space equal to about 60 football fields. It would also have its own power plant. The developers have offered the township up to $50 million in community payments.
The local zoning board did not rule on the project. It gave the township’s elected leaders 60 days to act on rules for projects like this. A local deadline, not the power supply, now sets the schedule.
The Upper Mount Bethel Township Zoning Hearing Board in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, voted 4-1 on Monday, Oct. 19, to postpone a hearing on Slate Belt Holdings’ challenge to the township’s zoning ordinance. The hearing now resumes Dec. 17. In the meantime, the board gave township supervisors 60 days to take action on data center regulation, The Morning Call reported. Slate Belt Holdings is a partnership between Talen Energy and River Pointe Logistics.
The challenge covers 23 data center buildings and two substations on 754 industrially zoned acres west of River Road. A second challenge, filed Oct. 8 and due to be heard by November, covers six more buildings, battery storage and a power plant on roughly 152 acres east of the road. Land development plans filed Oct. 13 show two layouts across the roughly 900 acres. One has 29 buildings totaling 3.5 million square feet. The other has six buildings totaling nearly 1.5 million square feet.
Executive Summary
The postponement does not decide anything. It does move the project’s next date onto a township calendar. The zoning board chose not to rule on whether the township’s ordinance is valid as applied to data centers. Instead it handed the issue back to the elected supervisors. According to the board’s solicitor, they are expected either to advance the long-delayed data center ordinance or to act on the memorandum of understanding the developer has proposed. A memorandum of understanding is a negotiated, non-final agreement between the parties.
This matters beyond one township because of what the project bundles. The plan pairs hyperscale data center buildings with two substations, battery storage and an on-site power plant. Hyperscale means very large facilities built for cloud and large-scale computing customers. Developers increasingly treat that combination as the scarce asset in data center buildout. Here it is held up at an earlier gate: whether local land-use law permits the buildings at all, and on what terms. Two and a half years after the township’s zoning officer was first asked that question, the township has not passed a data center ordinance.
The Gate Is a Township Ordinance, Not a Power Plant
Power is often described as the binding constraint on large data center projects. That means grid connections, substations and on-site generation. Slate Belt’s plan addresses power directly. The western parcel includes two substations, which step high-voltage transmission power down for use on site. The eastern parcel adds battery storage and a power plant. Having a power producer as a partner signals that the developers see energy supply as part of the product, not something they hope to secure later.
None of that sets the timetable right now. The next operative date is Dec. 17, and a five-member zoning hearing board chose it. The legal question is narrow but decisive. Slate Belt’s attorney, Shawn Gallagher, argues that an April 2024 determination by the township’s zoning officer makes a data center a use permitted by right. That would mean approval without discretionary review. The township’s newly hired solicitor, Bill Jones, counters that the April 2024 plans did not include square footage. Under the township’s ordinances, total square footage determines whether a developer needs a special exception, which is a discretionary approval with its own hearing and conditions.
That is why the two layouts matter. The gap between the 29-building, 3.5-million-square-foot option and the six-building, roughly 1.5-million-square-foot option is about 2 million square feet. On the township’s reading, that kind of size difference changes the approval path. For anyone who builds, supplies or finances a campus like this, the scale of the investment depends on how a township defines a land use. That is the mechanism behind the headline. Securing power and securing permission are separate tracks, and the slower one sets the pace.
What $50 Million Has and Has Not Bought
Slate Belt’s August proposal offered up to $50 million in donations. In exchange, the township would end the legal fight, work with the developer on data center zoning changes and eventually approve its plans. An updated $50 million community benefits agreement came with the Oct. 13 filing. Community benefits agreements are common in large developments. They package payments or commitments to a host community, usually in return for cooperation on approvals.
The offer is substantial, but it is conditional by design. As described, the money depends on outcomes the township would have to deliver, including zoning changes and approvals. That explains why it has not settled the question. Supervisors have split on strategy. Some argue that negotiating directly with the developer is the best way to win environmental protections. Others want to pass the township’s own ordinance first. Several versions of the deal have gone back and forth without a resolution. The zoning board’s move now puts both paths on the same 60-day clock.
For developers watching from elsewhere, one lesson is clear from this case. A large benefits package can open a negotiation, but it does not replace a legal basis for approval. Where the underlying ordinance is unsettled, the money becomes one bargaining chip among several. It does not shortcut the process.
A Deadline With an Undefined Ask
The 60-day instruction is firm on timing and vague on substance. Ron Angle, the alternate member who made the motion, said he expected supervisors to “do the job that the citizens of this township elected them to do.” Supervisors Chair John Bermingham told The Morning Call he did not know what he was supposed to do in 60 days. Solicitor Chad DiFelice’s reading, either advance the ordinance or act on the memorandum, is the clearest guide available. It still leaves supervisors to choose between two strategies they have been divided on.
The process is also gaining participants. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network was granted standing on behalf of 27 members who live within half a mile of the proposed campus. One non-member resident in that radius was also admitted. Standing gives these parties formal rights to present evidence and argument. A second validity challenge covering the eastern parcel, which holds the power plant, is scheduled separately for November. The developer’s spokesperson said that challenge seeks to clarify how zoning applies to the full buildout.
The supervisors’ draft ordinance went to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission for review on Sept. 21. An earlier March 2025 draft, written after Amazon showed interest in a data center deal, was never finalized. Each delay so far has carried a cost for everyone involved. The developer has faced litigation and uncertainty. Residents have had to organize legal representation. Supervisors have had to defend an ordinance whose application to this use is still disputed.
Background
Upper Mount Bethel is a township in the Slate Belt region of Northampton County, in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley along the Delaware River. The question of how its zoning ordinances apply to data centers dates back two and a half years, to an April 2024 request for an interpretation from the township’s zoning officer. Amazon’s interest in a data center deal, beginning in 2024, prompted a March 2025 draft ordinance that was never adopted.
Hyperscale data centers are very large facilities built to serve cloud and large-scale computing customers. They need large tracts of land, substantial electricity and approval from local governments, which often lack rules written for this kind of use. Slate Belt Holdings, the Talen Energy and River Pointe Logistics partnership, has pursued both a legal track through zoning challenges and a negotiated track through a proposed $50 million community benefits agreement. Source: ‘They’re on notice’: Upper Mount Bethel board gives supervisors 60 days to take action on data center regulation (The Morning Call): the zoning hearing board postpones Slate Belt Holdings’ validity challenge to Dec. 17 and gives supervisors 60 days to act on data center rules.Sources