Upper Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County
Slate Belt Holdings has filed plans for up to 29 data center buildings near the old Portland coal plant, and the township's zoning hearing board has asked the supervisors to decide its challenge to township rules.
In 2024 the township zoning officer ruled that a data center is a use permitted by right in the I-2 district, and Amazon Web Services was rumored to be eyeing the site. In April 2025, supervisors discussed a data center field trip while bound by a confidentiality agreement. In April 2026 Slate Belt Holdings bought the three parcels west of River Road. On July 23, 2026 it filed a zoning validity challenge, the day before a special meeting where supervisors approved updated data center performance standards and Talen confirmed it is a partner. The developer's MOU, which offered up to $50 million if the campus reaches 2 gigawatts, was introduced Aug. 10 and revised Aug. 18 and Aug. 25. On Aug. 24 a motion to reject any MOU failed 3-2 and the board hired its solicitor to defend against the challenge. The developer launched a project website in early September. On Sept. 21 supervisors voted 3-1 to send the township's own conditional-use ordinance to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission and refused to forward the developer's version. On Sept. 28 they discussed hiring a paid consultant to negotiate a benefits agreement and tabled it. RPL East LLC filed a second validity challenge on Oct. 8 for 5027 River Road, and on Oct. 13 Slate Belt Holdings submitted preliminary land development plans and a $50 million benefits term sheet. On Oct. 19 the zoning hearing board adjourned the Slate Belt Holdings hearing, asked the supervisors to rule on the challenge, and agreed to reconvene Dec. 17 after the developer granted a 60-day extension.
The developer's narrative puts full build-out at up to about 2,100 MW, with 1,020 MW under agreement with FirstEnergy and about 1,000 MW more expected from a mix of FirstEnergy grid service and on-site generation. It says interconnection costs would be paid under FirstEnergy's regulated tariffs.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC (land development submission)Plans include Tier 4 equivalent standby generators and leave room for on-site generation and battery storage, with final capacity to be set later. RPL East's filing for the east side includes an electric generation facility and a large battery storage area.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC (land development submission)The developer says cooling will be closed-loop, filled from an off-site source, with no use of on-site wells or the Delaware River. Domestic water would be about 35,000 gallons a day under Design 1 from an extension of Portland Borough Authority service, plus about 5 million gallons of on-site fire water storage.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC (land development submission)The narrative names chillers, transformers and standby generators as the main outdoor sound sources and promises a site acoustical study, sound-attenuated generator enclosures and weekday daytime generator testing. Residents raised noise at township meetings.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC (land development submission)The developer's Design 1 calls for buildings about 80 feet tall (Design 2, 35 feet), while the township ordinance sent to county review caps data center height at 45 feet. Plans include a landscape berm where the site borders the Upper Mount Bethel Township Community Park.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC (land development submission)Leaders: Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper
Tactics: Online letter campaign to supervisors; public comment at township meetings
Asked supervisors to reject the MOU, get an independent legal assessment of the validity challenge and pass a comprehensive data center ordinance.
Tactics: Represents members of the public in the zoning hearing alongside the Delaware Riverkeeper Network; issued joint action alerts and talking points urging supervisors to reject the developer's MOU and to oppose the validity challenge
Co-author with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network of the August 2026 action alert on the Slate Belt Holdings MOU.
Argues the zoning ordinance is unlawfully exclusionary toward data centers and asks for site-specific relief or a ruling that a data center is permitted by right in the I-2 district as a 'high technology industry' or 'general industrial' use.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC v. Upper Mount Bethel Township · Hearing scheduled for Oct. 19, 2026Seeks a ruling that data centers and an electric generation facility are permitted by right on the roughly 152-acre former Portland Generating Station site at 5027 River Road in the I-3 Heavy Industrial District.
RPL East LLC v. Upper Mount Bethel Township · Filed; hearing not yet scheduledChallenges two sections of the zoning ordinance as exclusionary toward data centers on about 754 acres west of River Road and seeks site-specific relief, or in the alternative a determination that data centers are permitted by right as a high technology industry or general industrial use, plus interpretations of five ordinance sections.
Slate Belt Holdings LLC (applicant, attorney Sean Gallagher); Upper Mount Bethel Township; members of the public represented by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Green Amendments For The Generations · Hearing adjourned Oct. 19, 2026; the board asked the Board of Supervisors to rule and agreed to reconvene Dec. 17 after the applicant granted a 60-day extensionIn Pennsylvania, the local zoning ordinance sets the route. A conditional use is decided by the elected governing body (supervisors, commissioners or council). A special exception or variance, and an appeal of a zoning officer’s decision, go to the Zoning Hearing Board. Each is a public hearing on a record: affected neighbors can ask for party status, cross-examine witnesses, and appeal. Municipalities can also adopt data center ordinances with enforceable standards.
Know your rights →Organized community opposition is the single most effective check on these projects in Pennsylvania. Show up to hearings, submit comment when it is taken, support legal and expert-witness costs, and press your municipality for a real ordinance. Pennsylvania municipalities cannot simply freeze applications, but a curative amendment under the Planning Code gives them a defined window to fix a defective ordinance.
How communities push back →