New data centers must undergo the County's land-development review process applicable to major subdivisions and land developments, including compliance with Section 606 site-design, infrastructure, and improvement standards.

The standards apply to new data centers regardless of size or whether they are hyperscale or edge facilities. Existing facilities are exempt unless a physical modification materially changes their size, intensity, type, or equipment.

Data centers are subject to a maximum building height of 60 feet, including roof-mounted cooling, ventilation, HVAC, and cooling-tower equipment.

Data centers and accessory uses must be at least 200 feet from any property line containing a sensitive receptor, in addition to the required landscape buffer. They also must meet minimum setbacks of 35 feet in front, 20 feet in the rear, and 10 feet on the sides.

A landscaped buffer at least 50 feet wide must surround the facility along the front, side, and rear areas, using native vegetation designed for visual screening and sound reduction. The applicant or operator must maintain and replace the landscaping.

The facility site must have a security fence at least eight feet high. Razor wire and similar enhancements are allowed only when a documented security need is demonstrated and may trigger additional screening or setback requirements.

Applicants must fund and complete preliminary, interim, and as-built sound studies conducted by qualified professionals. The interim study's recommended sound-reduction measures must be incorporated into construction plans, and the as-built study is required six months after the certificate of occupancy and before final escrow release for a development phase.

The County may require additional post-construction sound studies. If a violation is found, the owner or operator must submit a qualified corrective-action plan within 30 days, implement the required measures, and demonstrate compliance through a follow-up study.

Applicants must provide a qualified-professional vibration study demonstrating compliance with applicable ANSI or ISO vibration thresholds, at the applicant's expense.

All data-center developments must submit water and sewage plans, and public-water projects must provide certification that the public authority will supply the required water.

Projects using nonpublic water sources must provide a water-feasibility study demonstrating adequate yield and showing that withdrawals and discharges will not adversely affect nearby groundwater or surface waters. The study must address projected demand, water sources and uses, safe yield, recycling or discharge, geology, nearby wells and surface waters, impacts, qualifications of preparers, and conservation measures.

New data centers and qualifying expansions must use closed-loop or equivalent low-consumption cooling that minimizes consumptive water use and environmental impacts.

Open evaporative cooling towers are allowed only through a conditional exemption from the Mercer County Regional Planning Commission, supported by clear and convincing professional-engineering evidence that comparable alternatives are not feasible, proposed alternative technologies, coolant and containment disclosures, and all required permits.

Data centers may not be designed to use private potable wells as the primary source of cooling make-up water.

Applicants must obtain all required state and federal permits and authorizations before building or occupancy approvals, and all required state and interstate permits before final land-development approval.

Hazardous cooling or heat-transfer fluids require spill prevention, secondary containment sized for the full system volume, and a hazardous-materials response plan. Operators must conduct leak testing and provide annual professional certification of containment integrity upon request.

Grid-connected projects must provide, before final land-development approval, a letter from the electric service provider confirming its willingness and ability to provide service, subject to utility review and infrastructure improvements.

New primary distribution lines and associated electrical infrastructure serving a data center must generally be installed underground from the utility supply point to the facility's point of service.

Applicants must submit an Emergency Response Plan prepared by a qualified professional and accepted by the local fire department and emergency management services before approval. The plan must address fire suppression, containment, ventilation, evacuation, site access, hydrants, responder training, annual fire-safety inspections, and 24-hour County 911 contact information.

Projects with battery or other energy storage must demonstrate compliance with NFPA 855 or similar standards and install fire-suppression systems specifically designed for battery storage.

Applicants must demonstrate that emergency radio, telephone, and related public-safety communications function adequately within the facility and coordinate with emergency-management and fire-department officials.

Operators must take reasonable industry-standard measures to prevent or mitigate disruption to radio, telephone, television, and similar signals caused by the data center.

Off-street parking must be provided at a minimum ratio of one space per employee present during the facility's peak operating shift.

The owner or operator must report any cessation or discontinuation of the development to the County within 48 hours. A facility unused for 12 continuous months is presumed to have reached the end of its useful life, triggering the decommissioning period unless active use is demonstrated.

Decommissioning must be completed at the owner's or operator's expense within 12 months after the end of the facility's useful life and must remove hazardous materials, cabling, electrical components, and other associated facilities, followed by grading and reseeding of disturbed earth unless the landowner requests otherwise in writing.

An independent certified professional engineer must estimate decommissioning costs without and with salvage value after the first year of operation and every fifth year thereafter.

Before construction begins, the owner or operator must post and maintain decommissioning financial assurance equal to net decommissioning costs plus 10%, separate from other land-development security.

If the owner or operator fails to decommission within the required period, the landowner receives an additional six months to do so; afterward, the municipality may complete the work after written notice. A facility transfer must preserve the original decommissioning obligations.

Before final approval, plan recording, zoning or building permits, or site work, applicants must provide financial security acceptable to the municipality for required improvements, restoration, stabilization, remediation, removal, and related compliance costs.

The municipality may require periodic adjustment of the financial security for inflation, construction-cost changes, revised site conditions, plan modifications, or incomplete improvements, with updated estimates potentially charged to the applicant.

A successor owner or operator must assume all financial-security obligations before a transfer is approved. Failure to maintain the required security is an ordinance violation.

The County may enforce violations through suspension or revocation of land-development approval, withholding of building permits or occupancy certificates, stop-work orders, corrective-action plans, and forfeiture of financial security. Each continuing day of violation is a separate offense unless otherwise provided by law.

More restrictive municipal zoning requirements remain applicable, and the County standards do not determine whether data centers are permitted land uses or where they may be located under municipal zoning.

The County limits its review to site design, infrastructure adequacy, and external physical impacts, and expressly excludes regulation of a data center’s internal business activities, cybersecurity, data-processing logic, and computational workloads. limits County review to external impacts

The standards are technology-neutral and allow applicants to propose alternative cooling and energy designs that meet or exceed the ordinance’s performance standards, giving developers flexibility to use emerging technologies rather than prescribed systems. technology-neutral standards

The ordinance allows data center accessory uses on the same tract or unified assemblage, including temporary-power generators, electrical substations, utility lines, cooling systems, water facilities, wastewater treatment, security facilities, and related structures, facilitating development of an integrated campus. Data Center Accessory Uses

Data centers constructed before the ordinance’s effective date are exempt from the new requirements, unless a later physical modification materially changes the facility’s size, intensity, type, or equipment. existing data centers are not required to comply

A data center using public water can proceed through a documentation-based approval path by submitting certification that the public authority will supply the required water, rather than preparing the detailed nonpublic-water feasibility study. public water supply certification

The Mercer County Regional Planning Commission may grant a conditional exemption from the preferred low-consumptive-use cooling approach when the applicant demonstrates that those technologies are not reasonably feasible and proposes alternatives meeting comparable or better water, noise, and environmental performance. conditional cooling exemption

The ordinance preserves the authority of electric utilities and regulators by making County requirements subject to utility tariffs and regulatory approvals and by prohibiting requirements inconsistent with utility or regulatory authority. subject to utility tariffs and regulatory approvals

Noise limits do not apply during unplanned utility outages or emergency conditions beyond the operator’s control, allowing emergency power equipment to operate during those events without violating the applicable limits, although routine testing and maintenance remain subject to them. emergency noise exemption