Data centers are allowed only by special exception, rather than by right, in specified zoning districts. Hyperscale and major facilities are generally limited to Heavy Industrial and Mining districts, while Edge/Minor facilities may also be considered in General Business, Highway Business, and Light Industrial districts.

Hyperscale and major data centers may be considered in Light Industrial, General Business, or Highway Business districts only when located on the same parcel as a power-generation station that existed when the amendment was enacted, subject to applicable state and federal requirements.

The applicant must satisfy the County Zoning Ordinance, the County Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, the data-center standards, and all applicable local, state, and federal requirements before approval.

Applicants must demonstrate consistency with the Luzerne County Comprehensive Plan, including its policies on agricultural preservation, rural character, environmental protection, water resources, and infrastructure capacity, or identify mitigation measures for conflicts. The County may deny or condition approval if the showing is inadequate.

Edge and Minor data centers, including accessory uses, must generally be set back 1,000 feet from residential zoning districts containing residences and from properties developed with sensitive receptors. The setback may be reduced only to 750–999 feet if enhanced environmental performance, noise control, visual screening, and thermal-impact protections are demonstrated.

Hyperscale and Major data centers, including accessory uses, must generally be set back 2,000 feet from residential zoning districts containing residences and from properties developed with sensitive receptors. The setback may be reduced only to 1,500–1,999 feet if enhanced environmental performance, noise control, visual screening, and thermal-impact protections are demonstrated.

Data-center principal buildings must be at least 750 feet from all property lines, while the measure also requires data centers and accessory uses to be at least 500 feet from property lines.

Data centers must be set back 1,000 feet from adjoining properties and public road rights-of-way, 50 feet for parking lots from public rights-of-way and property lines, and 500 feet from bodies of water, perennial or intermittent streams, and wetlands.

Data centers must take access from an arterial or collector road and provide secondary access suitable for emergency response.

Data centers over 100,000 square feet must have at least five acres of lot area, maximum building coverage is 40 percent, and maximum impervious coverage is 50 percent.

Building height is limited by the zoning ordinance's Appendix 2, or to 60 feet where Appendix 2 provides no maximum. Roof-mounted appurtenances and equipment are included, and a height waiver requires written certification from the local fire department that the taller building can be adequately protected.

Roof-mounted equipment must be set back from the parapet by at least the same distance as its height above the roof, and accessory-use structures generally may not exceed the principal building's height.

A 100-foot landscape buffer is required between data centers or accessory uses and adjoining residential districts, sensitive receptors, or public roadways. The buffer requires specified native trees, ornamental trees, and shrubs, including minimum planting sizes and quantities.

Ground-mounted and roof-mounted cooling, ventilation, power-generation, and other operating equipment within 300 feet of a public roadway, specified residential districts, or a sensitive receptor must be fully enclosed or screened from public view when enclosure is not mechanically feasible.

Fencing along public and private roadways may not be chain-link or include barbed wire or similarly intrusive deterrents. Fences must generally be at least six feet and no more than ten feet high, and screening may not obstruct visibility from side streets or adjoining driveways.

A landscape bond must cover the cost of purchasing, planting, maintaining, and replacing required vegetation for 18 months. Failed plantings must generally be replaced in kind within 90 days of County notice or by the end of the next planting season, whichever is later.

Applicants must submit third-party pre-construction and post-construction noise studies, including baseline conditions, vibration, octave-band and full-spectrum analysis, low-frequency noise, and noise from substations, generators, and accessory uses. The post-construction study is due no sooner than one month and no later than 12 months after the first certificate of occupancy.

Sound at property lines may not exceed 40 dB(A) and 50 dB(C) during nighttime, weekends, and holidays, or 45 dB(A) and 60 dB(C) during weekday daytime hours. Where baseline noise is already higher, operations generally may not materially increase the baseline.

A qualified vibration study must demonstrate that vibration will not be perceptible to people beyond the property line and must address potential impacts on wildlife and pollinators. Audible tonal noise can trigger a six-decibel penalty when the specified narrow-band audibility threshold is met.

Data centers must use closed-loop water circulation for cooling unless an alternative system is shown to use less water and energy. Private groundwater wells or direct surface-water withdrawals may not be the primary cooling source when public water is available.

Public-water service requires certified documentation that the public authority will supply the project's water. Nonpublic water sources require a qualified professional water-feasibility study addressing demand, seasonal fluctuations, wells, surface waters, safe yield, recycling, discharges, and impacts on groundwater and nearby water resources.

Projects meeting specified thresholds must obtain review and approval from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and/or Delaware River Basin Commission: withdrawals of at least 100,000 gallons per day averaged over 30 days, or consumptive use of at least 20,000 gallons per day averaged over 30 days. Required state and regional permits must be obtained before approval.

Applicants must analyze wastewater disposal, including HVAC discharges. Untreated wastewater may not be discharged to stormwater systems or surface waters, and private wastewater systems require a feasibility study addressing capacity and impacts on wells and water bodies.

A professional-engineer-certified Thermal Impact Mitigation Plan is required, covering waste-heat sources, off-site heat effects, heat-island and plume impacts, mitigation, feasible waste-heat reuse, and monitoring where required.

Grid-connected projects must provide utility certification that adequate electric capacity is available and that the utility will serve the data center. The application must also document the utility application, required fees, transmission security agreement, signatures, and proposed energization date.

An engineer-certified Energy Usage Plan is required and is subject to County and municipal review. Projects with projected demand over 50 megawatts that connect to the grid must obtain at least 10 percent of their power from renewable generation within the PJM region through a power-purchase agreement or similar mechanism rather than renewable-energy credits alone.

On-site fossil-fuel emergency generation is limited to outages, routine maintenance, or readiness testing. Routine testing is restricted to 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and capped at 100 hours per year; peak shaving and supplying power to the grid are prohibited.

Generators must meet Tier 4 diesel standards, have functioning mufflers and enclosures, and comply with applicable noise restrictions. Backup generators generally may not operate from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. except during declared emergencies or when the facility is deemed essential.

Applicants must submit an Emergency Response Plan accepted by the local fire department and emergency-management services, provide responder training at the applicant's expense, conduct annual fire-safety inspections, provide emergency contact signage, and distribute the plan to officials and emergency responders.

Projects using battery storage must comply with NFPA 855 or similar standards and provide battery-specific fire-suppression systems. Equipment must be housed in grounded, pre-engineered, fire-rated metal structures designed to resist an internal electrical fire for at least 30 minutes.

Applicants must coordinate with the County 911 Coordinator to ensure adequate radio coverage throughout all on-site buildings and facilities and must install enhancement systems if necessary.

Principal buildings require articulated entrances, off-site elevations or renderings, façade design changes at specified intervals, screening of rooftop equipment on all four sides, and downward-directed full-cutoff lighting with no visible light source from adjacent residences.

Applicants must submit an Electronic Waste Plan addressing safe removal, recycling, or disposal of server infrastructure, hazardous materials, batteries, and electronic waste when equipment is updated or decommissioned.

A qualified-professional Decommissioning Plan is required at application. Decommissioning must begin within one year after operations cease or abandonment is declared and generally must be completed within 18 months.

Decommissioning must be secured by bonds, letters of credit, escrow, cash, or another accepted financial instrument equal to at least 100 percent of estimated decommissioning costs, excluding salvage value. The estimate and security must be updated every five years, with additional enforcement and lien rights available to the County.

A Developer's Agreement and affidavit are required at application, including commitments regarding community incentives, required reports and studies, proposed power arrangements, and financial security before submission of a land-development plan.

Hyperscale and Major data-center developments must include a Community Incentive Package for the host municipality or localized area. The package must be proportional to project scope and impacts and enforceable through a Developer's Agreement.

The applicant must hold a publicly advertised meeting before the first Zoning Hearing Board or Planning Commission discussion and maintain a public project website with maps, renderings, project parameters, construction schedules, meeting dates, and permit status from at least two weeks before the meeting through final land-development approval.

The special-exception application is incomplete and no hearing may be scheduled until required supporting materials are submitted, including a site plan, energy-production and renewable-energy declaration, electricity and water-infrastructure plans, Emergency Response Plan, Decommissioning Plan, and Developer's Agreement affidavit.

Parking is required at the lesser of one space per 8,000 square feet or one space per employee on the largest shift, plus 53 visitor spaces per unit. The County or municipality may require an additional 25 percent of the required spaces to be held in reserve.

The amendment takes effect 15 days after adoption and applies to data-center plans submitted on or after the effective date.

Hyperscale and Major Data Centers may be approved by special exception in Heavy Industrial and Mining districts.

Hyperscale and Major Data Centers may also be approved by special exception in Light Industrial, General Business, and Highway Business districts when located on the same parcel as an existing power-generation station.

Edge, Minor, Microdata, and Modular Data Centers may be approved by special exception in General Business, Highway Business, Heavy Industrial, Light Industrial, and Mining districts.

Data Center Accessory Uses may be located on the same tract or contiguous parcels as a unified Data Center development and may include substations, utility lines, cooling and wastewater facilities, water towers, pump stations, security facilities, and temporary backup generators.

The measure allows a Data Center, energy-generation facility, battery-storage system, solar facility, or wind facility to be reviewed in one unified Campus Development application, subject to compliance with the standards applicable to each use.

The final draft establishes less restrictive general setbacks of 500 feet for Edge and Minor Data Center principal uses and 1,000 feet for Hyperscale and Major Data Center principal uses, with smaller setbacks for accessory uses.

Where sensitive receptors are present, the final draft allows the Zoning Hearing Board to reduce the heightened setbacks to the general dimensional setbacks if the applicant keeps noise at or below existing ambient conditions, provides effective visual screening, and prevents thermal air changes affecting the nearest sensitive receptors.

The measure allows existing vegetation and topography to receive credit toward required buffers when the applicant demonstrates that they provide substantially equivalent year-round screening, reducing the amount of new planting that may be required.

If a proposed cooling system can be shown to use less water and energy than a closed-loop system, the applicant may propose that alternative for approval by the County Engineer, designee, or contracted engineering firm.

A Data Center may use a public water supply instead of preparing the nonpublic-water feasibility study, provided the public authority or utility company certifies that it can supply the required water.

The measure permits on-site energy-generation systems, including solar, wind, natural-gas, renewable-fuel, and Small Modular Reactor systems, when those systems are allowed as permitted or special-exception uses in the applicable zoning district.

The measure permits on-site or behind-the-meter generation using natural gas, renewable fuels, or other clean sources when used to improve reliability, efficiency, or sustainability, subject to environmental, safety, and utility-interconnection requirements.

On-site energy storage of 600 kWh or less is permitted as an accessory use in all zoning districts.

The measure allows a waiver from otherwise applicable building-height limits when the waiver is requested in writing and the local fire department certifies that a taller building can be properly protected.

The measure allows a guardhouse or security kiosk at the primary entrance to be located 75 feet from the street right-of-way, subject to limits on size, location, fuel storage, power-generation equipment, and sight distance.

If berms are infeasible because of utilities, topography, or other valid constraints, the applicant may use decorative walls with landscaping, dense evergreen hedges, or existing vegetation combined with supplemental planting as alternative screening.

When baseline ambient noise already exceeds the ordinance's maximum sound levels, the post-construction study may demonstrate that the Data Center does not materially increase the baseline instead of requiring compliance with the lower absolute limits.

The measure allows a written waiver from underground-placement requirements for certain on-site power lines when underground installation is not technically feasible.

The measure allows routine testing and operation of fossil-fuel emergency generators during power outages, declared emergencies, and limited maintenance or readiness testing, rather than prohibiting their operation at all times.