Data centers are allowed by conditional use only in the Public University District, requiring approval by the Township Board of Supervisors after a public hearing; they are not permitted by right.

Before the conditional-use hearing, the applicant must submit an environmental and community impact analysis addressing operations, employees, vehicle trips, stored materials, nearby environmental and cultural resources, disposal methods, public-service impacts, and anticipated effects such as noise, heat, glare, vibration, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste.

Before the conditional-use hearing, the applicant must provide a preliminary noise-and-vibration study and an approved Emergency Response Plan.

An Environmental Impact Assessment prepared by a qualified professional is required, including analysis of air emissions, truck idling, nuisance impacts, alternatives, unavoidable adverse impacts, mitigation, and critical impact areas such as floodplains, streams, wetlands, riparian buffers, mature vegetation, and aquifer recharge areas.

The applicant must submit a professional acoustic study and Noise Mitigation Plan, agree to pre-construction and post-construction noise studies, establish baseline sound levels at different times of day, and submit a post-construction study between one and twelve months after the first certificate of occupancy.

A qualified professional must prepare a vibration study demonstrating that vibration from the data center or its equipment will not be perceptible beyond the property line.

Backup generators must meet or exceed applicable state and federal emissions requirements, and generators must achieve EPA Tier 4 standards or an equivalent standard.

Annual testing of data-center equipment and emissions is required, with reports submitted to the Township and relevant state and federal agencies.

Applicants must make good-faith efforts to maximize renewable or clean energy use and must submit a professional-engineer-certified Energy Management Plan covering electricity demand, energy sources, storage capacity, and renewable-energy efforts.

A data center connecting to the electric grid must provide certification from the electric service provider that sufficient capacity is available and service will be provided, along with known impacts on electric rates or availability for other users.

Energy-generation systems intended to supply a data center during normal operations are excluded from the data-center use and require separate permits under applicable zoning, state, and federal regulations.

The applicant must demonstrate adequate water supply and must show that withdrawals and discharges will not adversely affect nearby groundwater or surface water.

A professional-engineer-certified Water Utilization Report is required, detailing daily intake, water sources, discharge volumes and destinations, cooling-system type and efficiency, and stormwater compliance; public water capacity and service certification are also required.

Connection to public water and public sewer is mandatory, and wastewater disposal for domestic, cooling, or industrial wastewater must be approved by the Harborcreek Township Sewer Authority and/or Pennsylvania DEP.

A data center may not rely primarily on private potable wells for cooling make-up water.

New data centers and qualifying expansions must use closed-loop cooling for server racks and IT equipment. Open evaporative cooling towers are prohibited unless the applicant proves closed-loop technology infeasible by clear and convincing evidence, obtains a Township conditional exemption, and obtains all applicable state permits.

A Thermal Impact Mitigation Plan certified by a professional engineer is required, addressing waste-heat reuse or dissipation and vegetative, green-roof, or site-design measures to offset heat-island effects.

Hazardous glycol or other heat-transfer fluids require spill prevention, secondary containment sized for the full system volume, a hazardous-materials response plan, routine leak testing, and annual certification of containment integrity.

Data centers are prohibited in areas within either the 100-year or 500-year FEMA floodplain shown on the Township's most recent Flood Insurance Rate Maps.

A single-story data center must be at least 30 feet high, while the maximum building height is 60 feet including rooftop cooling and ventilation equipment; accessory uses may not exceed the principal building's height.

Data centers and their accessory uses must be set back at least 200 feet from residential or community-use property lines and residential zoning districts, and at least 100 feet from other nonresidential uses, with a minimum 75-foot front setback.

Ground-mounted cooling, ventilation, heat, or power equipment must be at least 300 feet from residential or community-use property lines and residential zoning districts.

Data centers and accessory uses are limited to 40 percent lot coverage.

A minimum 50-foot buffer yard is required along public street frontages and nonresidential boundaries, and a minimum 100-foot buffer is required along boundaries adjoining residential or community uses or residential zoning districts; plantings must use native species.

Cooling, ventilation, generator, substation, and other operating equipment must be screened; ground equipment must be enclosed when technically feasible, and rooftop equipment must be screened on all four sides.

Any activity producing air emissions, dust, smoke, glare, exhaust, heat, or humidity must be conducted so that the impact is not perceptible at or beyond the property line.

Fencing is limited to 10 feet in height, must use visually appealing or durable security-grade materials, and may not use barbed wire or razor wire.

Parking must include one space per two guests plus one space per employee on the largest shift, and at least one off-street loading space is required; loading spaces may be located on only one facade of the principal building.

A detailed Emergency Response Plan is required for flood, fire, explosion, and catastrophic weather events, must be reviewed and accepted by the local fire department and emergency-management services, and must address suppression, containment, ventilation, evacuation, emergency access, hydrants, responder training, and annual fire-safety inspections.

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

Each data center must post 24-hour emergency contact information at the entrance, including the company, owner or representative, telephone number, and local power company's contact information.

An Electronic Waste Plan is required for removal, recycling, or disposal of server infrastructure, hazardous materials, batteries, electronic waste, and related products during upgrades or decommissioning.

A decommissioning plan is required at application and must address inventories, timelines, equipment removal, material disposal or recycling, and future site use or restoration.

Decommissioning must begin within one year after discontinuation or abandonment and must be completed within eighteen months thereafter unless the Township grants a written extension.

Decommissioning must remove hazardous materials, cabling, electrical components, and associated facilities, and exposed soil must be stabilized under applicable erosion and sediment-control requirements.

The owner must provide Township-approved financial security equal to 110 percent of estimated decommissioning costs, with the estimate reduced by a 90 percent credit for salvage and resale value.

The decommissioning cost estimate and security must be updated every five years, and any required increase in security must be provided within 30 days after Township approval of the updated estimate.

The Township may require supplemental or amended environmental, energy, water, thermal, emergency-response, and other plans before zoning approval, and the facility owner must pay the Township's administrative, legal, and engineering costs for review of decommissioning security estimates.

The amendment expressly allows a Data Center as a conditional use in the Public University District, creating a zoning path for approval after a public hearing by the Township Board of Supervisors.

The definition of Data Center covers a broad range of facilities and activities, including server farms, cloud computing hubs, colocation centers, cryptocurrency mining, and blockchain transaction processing, allowing those operations to be treated under the same use category.

Data Center Accessory Uses may be located on the same tract or an assemblage of adjacent parcels developed as a unified development, including generators, electrical substations, utility lines, cooling facilities, wastewater treatment, water facilities, and security structures, subject to the limitation that normal-operation energy-generation systems are not included.

The Planned Research and Business Park district expressly permits data and communication centers and information processing facilities and allows accessory facilities such as central energy plants and wastewater treatment facilities, providing an additional development framework for data centers.

For data centers, the amendment establishes specific dimensional limits, including a 30-foot minimum and 60-foot maximum building height, with the maximum including rooftop cooling and ventilation equipment; accessory uses may be as tall as the principal building.

The amendment generally requires closed-loop cooling but allows a conditional exemption when the applicant proves that closed-loop technology is infeasible, subject to engineering documentation, alternative technologies, Township conditions, and applicable state permits; the rule applies to all new data centers and qualifying expansions.

Energy systems intended to supply a data center during normal operations are treated as a separate use rather than part of the Data Center use, allowing proposed solar, wind, fossil-fuel, or nuclear generating systems to pursue separate zoning and state or federal approvals.