Penn Twp. supervisors to advertise data center ordinance limiting buildings’ locations

When: Penn Twp. supervisors meeting, March 23.

What happened: Supervisors unanimously voted to advertise a data center ordinance that would limit the buildings to commercial/light industrial or industrial zoning regions with a special exception.

Details: The ordinance defines data centers as one or more buildings designed and intended primarily to house computers, networking and communication systems, equipment and components used for storing, processing, managing, transmitting and backing up electronic data. Applications presented before the zoning hearing board would have to include a water utilization report along with energy management, emergency response, noise mitigation, electronic waste and thermal impact mitigation plans.

Why: Township manager Mark Heister said the township doesn’t currently have anything on the books regulating data centers, so an interested developer could propose building one anywhere that works for their needs.

Quotable: “I have some experience with this type of thing, and this is a good ordinance,” supervisor Joseph Eisenhauer said during the meeting. “It protects the public, it’s not anything I think would be challenged legally, and it makes sense.”

No proposals yet: Heister said the township received one call from a company inquiring about building a data center several months ago, but he hasn’t heard anything since. Heister said township staff haven’t shared opinions in favor of or against data centers in the township, but they wanted to control where they could be built.

What’s next: The board of supervisors will meet again at 7 p.m. Monday, April 13 at the municipal office, 97 N. Penryn Road in Manheim.