Prologis can move forward with its plan to convert an existing Allen Township warehouse to a data center, following approval from the township’s board of supervisors. Township supervisors voted unanimously at the March 24 meeting to approve the request from Prologis for the one-million-square-foot warehouse at 2500 Liberty Drive, just off Route 329 near Savage Road.

The request involves amending the current plan for the site, said Justin Fanslau, Prologis market officer. Prologis constructed the warehouse in 2023 as part of a plan for a three-building Prologis Park, which was created in 2016.

Several township residents expressed concerns about the proposed data center.

“My concerns include the rising cost of electricity,” Chris Lee said. “These data centers are huge consumers of electricity, right? And there’s the noise pollution, right? The HVAC goes on, and the backup generators create pollution and noise. There’s housing across the street on Savage Road.”

Lee also expressed concerns about water availability and said it would create very few jobs in the long run.

Meanwhile, Robert Bysher, township resident, questioned whether this represented an appropriate use under the current zoning ordinance.

B. Lincoln Treadwell Jr., township solicitor, stated a data center did, in fact, align with approved uses for the building under its current zoning designation.

“They could have just applied for a change of use and a zoning permit, and you wouldn’t have known about it, but they didn’t,” Treadwell said. “There’s no zoning hearing board (for that permit). There’s no board approval. In an effort to be as open and transparent as possible, they came to the board on an agenda so that people could come in and express their opinions.”

Supervisors questioned Prologis on the power, water and noise concerns during the company’s presentation.

Sufficient power capacity and connection exist on site to support a data center, and Prologis will construct a substation to handle getting the electricity into the data center, Fanslau said.

“We have reviewed with PPL, and they have excess capacity existing at their Siegfried substation,” Fanslau said. “There’s no impact to any neighboring property owners, no easements or right of way. There is no cost to the township or PPL for this new infrastructure being constructed.”

Additionally, the data center will use a closed-loop water system to cool the data center, meaning the water system will not experience negative impacts, Fanslau said.

“Similar to if you have a pool at home,” he explained. “You don’t fill it up every time you go to swim. You fill it up once.”

According to Prologis officials, a data center will also reduce traffic and shipping activity at the site, creating a lower impact use on the site, and could potentially increase the tax base at the building.

Following Prologis’ presentation, Gary Behler, township supervisor, said this site was one of the better options if a data center had to go in Allen Township.

“Keeping in mind that we are obligated to follow the Municipalities Planning Code that is mandated by the state, and it basically says if we want to have our zoning, which we do, we have to allow for every use somewhere in the township,” Behler said. “So even though the use may not line up 100%, the location of where this is going is probably where, at least I would vote, if we had a data center use, to permit it. I would not propose it go anywhere else inside the township.”

Behler went on to recommend Prologis look into installing solar panels on the roof to offset power usage and also perform noise studies to ensure compliance with noise statutes.

In voting to approve the plan, supervisors formally required Prologis to look into the possibility of installing solar panels on the building’s roof to support electricity generation and also required the completion of noise studies both before converting the building to a data center and after to ensure compliance with existing noise statutes.

Supervisors also agreed to have the township’s planning commission begin looking at the issue of a data center ordinance.