A citizen task force reviewing East Pikeland Township's data center ordinance has recommended a series of additions addressing lighting, noise, generators, and a community benefits agreement, with the proposals set to go before the planning commission next week.
Nick DeSalvo, who updated the board of supervisors on the task force's work Tuesday, said the group was divided into three subgroups, with each assigned specific sections of the ordinance to review and recommend amendments.
The task force met August 28 with representatives of the township’s planning commission to discuss its ideas.
Among the topics reviewed, DeSalvo said, were color temperatures for lighting and signage, remediation standards, noise decibel levels, vibration metrics, height restrictions, and requirements for the best available technology in the operation of generators.
The group also proposed additions to the ordinance's definitions section and discussed a potential community benefits agreement that could include equipment for first responders or improvements to township parks.
"We look forward to the planning commission's thoughts about those ideas at their meeting next week," DeSalvo said.
He said the task force has been meeting publicly on the last Friday of each month at 6 p.m. at the township building. The planning commission is scheduled to meet Tuesday, September 8, at 7 p.m.
The recommendations build on a data center ordinance adopted by supervisors in July. The ordinance added data centers as a defined use and requires any proposed facility to go through a conditional use process before the board of supervisors.
Under the ordinance, a data center could be permitted only in the township's Utility District, a strip along the Schuylkill River that includes the former Cromby coal plant site owned by PECO. Officials have said no data center application is currently pending in the township.
The citizen task force was created after the ordinance was adopted as part of an effort to further strengthen the township’s data center regulations.
Township Solicitor Jonathan Long said he also provided clarifying language specifying that data centers should not be considered public utilities. The language would reserve the Utility District for utility uses and select non-utility uses, including data centers, while specifically excluding data centers from the ordinance's definition of utilities.
State Action and Local Limits
Long said Gov. Josh Shapiro’s recent executive order on data centers removes the projects from the state's fast-track permitting program but does not establish a moratorium. He said a moratorium would require action by the state legislature.
Board Chair Ronald Graham said State Sen. Katie Muth, who has been pushing for a statewide three-year moratorium on data center projects, has been in contact with township staff and has provided officials with information intended to help strengthen East Pikeland's ordinance.
“I think with our task force, we may come into some information that would be valuable to her as well,” Graham said.
The planning commission can recommend changes to the township’s data center ordinance, but any amendments would ultimately need to be approved by the board of supervisors at a future meeting.
"I don't see myself as a fan of data centers of any size," Graham said Tuesday.
