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

Data centers are subject to a maximum building height of 60 feet, including roof-mounted cooling and ventilation equipment; accessory uses may not exceed the principal building’s height.

Data centers and accessory uses must be set back 200 feet from residential zoning districts, residential uses, and properties containing sensitive receptors.

A landscape buffer at least 25 feet wide is required next to residential zoning districts, residential uses, sensitive receptors, and public roadways, with specified native tree and shrub plantings.

Cooling, ventilation, power-generation, and other operating equipment within 300 feet of a public roadway, residential area, or sensitive receptor must be fully enclosed or fully screened by approved landscaping, buildings, berms, or solid screening.

Property fencing is restricted: fencing along public and private roadways may not be chain-link, may not use slatted inserts, and may not include barbed wire or similarly intrusive deterrence devices unless the fencing is fully screened.

Applicants must submit preliminary, interim, and as-built sound studies by qualified acoustical professionals. Normal operations may not exceed 67 dB(A) during weekday daytime hours or 57 dB(A) during weekday nighttime and weekend hours, measured at the property line. The as-built study is required six months after the certificate of occupancy and before final escrow release.

Sound studies must evaluate anticipated noise when all emergency power-generation equipment, including backup generators, is operating, although the stated maximum decibel limits do not apply during power outages.

Applicants must provide a qualified-professional vibration study demonstrating that vibrations from the data center, accessory uses, and associated equipment will not be perceptible beyond the property line.

A data center using public water must provide certification from the public authority that it will supply the project’s required water.

A data center relying on nonpublic water must submit a water feasibility study addressing projected demand, sources, uses, safe yield, recycling and discharge, nearby wells and surface waters, and effects on groundwater and surface-water quantity and quality. Approval requires a showing that the supply is adequate and that withdrawals and discharges will not cause the specified adverse effects.

Projects must provide Delaware River Basin Commission review or approval for water withdrawals of at least 100,000 gallons per day over a 30-day average or consumptive water use of at least 20,000 gallons per day over a 30-day average. Ordinance 416 also requires DRBC review focused on impacts to groundwater and surface-water quality and quantity.

Applicants must demonstrate that adequate wastewater disposal, including domestic, cooling, and industrial wastewater, has been provided and approved by the Sewage Enforcement Officer and/or the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

A data center connecting to the electric grid must provide the electric service provider’s certification that sufficient capacity exists and that the provider will serve the facility, including disclosure of known project-attributable impacts on electric rates or availability for other uses.

Energy-generation systems intended to supply a data center during normal operations are excluded from the data center use and must receive separate approval under the zoning rules applicable to that type of generation.

Applicants must submit an Emergency Response Plan prepared by a qualified professional and accepted by the local fire department and emergency management services. The plan must address fire suppression, containment, ventilation, evacuation, emergency access, responder training, and annual fire-safety inspections.

Data centers proposing battery or other energy storage must comply with NFPA Standard 855 or similar standards and must install fire-suppression systems specifically designed for battery storage.

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

At the end of the project’s life, after 12 months of inactivity, or six months before an alternative use as a data center, the site must be restored or altered for beneficial reuse, including removal of unused equipment, structures, servers, cooling equipment, and containment ponds. A decommissioning agreement must be executed before construction.

The facility owner or operator must submit decommissioning cost estimates during land-development approval and update them every two years, then maintain financial assurance posted with the Township. The assurance may include a bond, letter of credit, corporate guarantee, or other accepted security, and may not be less than 125% of the estimated decommissioning cost.

If the facility owner or operator fails to decommission within the required period, the landowner has six months to do so; if neither party completes the work, the municipality may undertake decommissioning and recover costs from the posted funds.

A purchaser or transferee of a data center must assume the original developer’s monetary and operational decommissioning obligations.

Data centers are expressly allowed as a conditional use in the Industrial District, providing a defined zoning pathway for approval: “G-22 Data Center”.

The definition of a data center accessory use allows related infrastructure on the same tract or unified development, including substations, utility lines, generators for interrupted power, cooling systems, water facilities, wastewater treatment, pump stations, storage, security, and administrative buildings: “including but not limited to”.

Existing topography or vegetation may satisfy all or part of the required landscape buffer when it adequately screens the facility, potentially reducing new landscaping requirements: “existing topography and/or vegetation constitutes all or part”.

Cooling, ventilation, power-generation, and other operating equipment does not have to be fully enclosed when enclosure is not mechanically feasible under the manufacturer’s specifications; alternative screening methods are allowed instead: “except where not mechanically feasible”.

The specified noise limits do not apply during power outages, although studies must still evaluate and report expected noise when emergency generation equipment is operating: “shall not apply during times of power outage”.

Parking is set at the lesser of one space per 8,000 square feet of regularly accessible employee floor area or one space per employee on the largest shift, limiting the required parking supply: “whichever is lesser”.

The decommissioning provision permits the facility to be altered for beneficial reuse instead of requiring restoration strictly to its pre-project condition: “altered in a manner that will allow for a beneficial reuse”.