Data centers are allowed only as a conditional use in the C-2 Zoning District, requiring compliance with the ordinance’s approval procedures, standards, and criteria.

Data center buildings may not exceed 60 feet in height, including roof-mounted cooling, ventilation, HVAC, and cooling-tower equipment.

Data center accessory uses may not exceed the height of the principal data center building.

Data centers and accessory uses must be set back 200 feet from any residential zoning district boundary or the lot line of property developed with a sensitive receptor.

A landscape buffer at least 25 feet wide is required along adjoining residential zoning districts, sensitive receptors, and public roadways, with specified native tree and shrub planting requirements. Existing vegetation or topography may count toward the buffer only if approved by the council upon recommendations from the Township Engineer and Planning Commission.

Cooling, ventilation, power-generation, and other operating equipment located within 300 feet of a public roadway, residential zoning district, or sensitive receptor must be fully enclosed unless enclosure is mechanically infeasible. If enclosure is infeasible, the equipment must be fully screened by approved buildings, vegetation, buffers, berms, or solid fencing or walls.

Fencing along public or private roadways may not be chain-link, with or without slatted inserts, and may not include barbed wire or similarly intrusive deterrence devices, unless the fencing is fully screened from view.

Normal operations must meet maximum noise levels of 67 dB(A) during weekday daytime hours and 57 dB(A) during weekday nighttime and weekend hours, measured at the property line.

Applicants must submit a preliminary sound study during the conditional-use process, an interim sound study during building-permit review, and an as-built sound study six months after the certificate of occupancy and before final escrow release for a land-development phase. The Township may require additional as-built studies, and violations of the noise limits constitute ordinance violations.

Although the ordinary noise limits do not apply during power outages, required sound studies must evaluate and report anticipated noise when all emergency power-generation equipment, including backup generators, is operating.

Applicants must provide a vibration study demonstrating that vibration from the data center, accessory uses, or associated equipment will not be perceptible to human senses beyond the property line.

Projects using public water must submit certification that the public authority will provide the required water supply.

Projects relying on nonpublic water sources must submit a water-feasibility study addressing supply yield, projected demand, water uses, recycling or discharges, nearby wells and surface waters, and effects on groundwater and surface-water quantity and quality. Approval is prohibited unless the study demonstrates adequate supply and no adverse effects.

Applicants must demonstrate that domestic, cooling, and industrial wastewater disposal has been provided and approved by the applicable sewage or environmental authorities.

The data center owner must pay any cost of increasing conveyance or capacity in the public water system that is necessary for the project.

Projects connecting to the electric grid must provide documentation from the electric service provider confirming available capacity and service, and must identify known impacts on electric rates or availability for other uses.

A conditional-use applicant must provide an electric interconnection agreement confirming that capacity is available and service will be provided. Any known impacts on electric rates or availability must be stated, and costs to residential Township customers must be offset by the data center owner.

Energy-generation systems intended to supply a data center during normal operations, including solar, wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear systems, are excluded from the data center use and must be approved separately under the zoning rules applicable to those uses.

Applicants must submit an Emergency Response Plan prepared by a qualified professional and accepted by the local fire department and emergency management services as part of the conditional-use process.

The Emergency Response Plan must address fire suppression, containment, ventilation, evacuation, emergency access roads, hydrant locations, first-responder training, and annual fire-safety inspections.

Data centers with battery storage or other energy-storage devices must demonstrate compliance with NFPA Standard 855 or similar standards and provide fire-suppression systems specifically designed for battery storage.

No data center may be approved unless the applicant demonstrates that fire-suppression, containment, ventilation, and evacuation procedures sufficiently protect public health, safety, and welfare.

Building façades facing a road or existing residential use must incorporate at least two specified design elements, such as changes in materials, patterns, textures, colors, or height, or five-foot step-backs or recesses, for every 150 horizontal feet.

Data centers must provide at least one parking space per 8,000 square feet of floor area regularly accessible by employees, or one space per employee during the largest shift, whichever requirement results in fewer spaces.

Allows data centers in the C-2 Zoning District through the conditional-use approval process, rather than prohibiting them outright.

Defines broad data-center accessory uses that may be located on the same tract or unified adjacent parcels, including generators for emergency power, substations, utility lines, cooling systems, water facilities, wastewater treatment, storage, security, and administrative structures.

Permits data centers to have a maximum building height of 60 feet, including roof-mounted cooling and ventilation equipment.

Allows existing topography or vegetation to satisfy all or part of the required landscape buffer when the Township determines it adequately screens the facility.

Allows required landscape-buffer areas to count toward the minimum setback distance.

Permits cooling, ventilation, power-generation, and other operating equipment within 300 feet of roads, residential districts, or sensitive receptors to remain unenclosed when full enclosure is not mechanically feasible, provided it is screened by approved alternatives.

Permits property fencing, including fencing that would otherwise not meet roadway-fencing restrictions when it is fully screened from view by an approved screening method.

Exempts maximum noise limits during power outages, although outage-related emergency-generation noise must still be evaluated and reported in the required sound studies.

Sets parking at the lesser of one space per 8,000 square feet of regularly employee-accessible floor area or one space per employee on the largest shift, reducing the parking requirement for facilities with limited staffing.