Municipal zoning may permit, conditionally permit, or prohibit data centers by district, provided the ordinance preserves a reasonable opportunity for the use to locate somewhere within the municipality.

Data centers should be regulated as a distinct principal use rather than treated as ordinary accessory information-technology facilities.

Municipalities may classify facilities by type and scale, including hyperscale, cloud, enterprise or regional, edge or micro, and cryptocurrency-mining data centers, and apply different standards to each category.

Large facilities may be limited to industrial areas with sufficient power, fiber, water, and sewer capacity and limited proximity to residential, institutional, conservation, or village areas.

Zoning or conditional-use standards may impose minimum lot areas and frontages, maximum building and impervious coverage, floor-area ratios, maximum building or campus size, height limits, setbacks, buffers, and expansion thresholds.

Accessory infrastructure, including generators, substations, transformers, battery systems, cooling equipment, fuel storage, utility pads, loading areas, fencing, and stormwater facilities, may be subject to separate dimensional, location, screening, and approval requirements.

Large projects may be required to obtain amended conditional-use approval or comply with phasing limits when they exceed approved thresholds for floor area, electrical demand, equipment, generator capacity, impervious coverage, or utility infrastructure.

Data center proposals may be required to provide architectural treatments, screened rooftop and mechanical equipment, specified exterior materials, facade articulation, and coordinated design for buildings and accessory structures.

Outdoor storage of equipment, containers, trailers, spare generators, construction materials, fuel, or replacement components may be prohibited or strictly regulated.

Facilities may be required to comply with measurable noise and vibration limits at property lines or receiving properties, with stricter limits near residences, schools, hospitals, parks, or other sensitive uses.

Larger or more intensive facilities may be required to submit acoustic studies and conduct post-construction noise verification after occupancy, major equipment changes, or documented complaints.

Generator testing may be restricted by specified days, hours, duration, frequency, and limits on simultaneous testing.

Exterior lighting may be required to use full-cutoff or fully shielded fixtures, comply with maximum illumination levels and pole-height limits, and minimize glare and light spillover.

Projects may be required to provide perimeter buffers, berms, evergreen screening, street-frontage and parking landscaping, equipment-yard screening, vegetation preservation, replacement plantings, and long-term landscape maintenance.

Security fencing, walls, gates, guardhouses, barriers, surveillance equipment, lighting, emergency access, vehicle queuing, and related access-control features may be subject to height, material, opacity, setback, landscaping, and emergency-response requirements.

Applicants may be required to submit traffic impact studies and plans covering construction traffic, haul routes, staging, worker parking, delivery timing, road protection, truck movements, emergency access, and heavy-haul access.

Applicants may be required to document electrical load, project phasing, utility coordination, interconnection plans, substations or transmission extensions, and required distribution upgrades.

Applicants may be required to provide will-serve letters or equivalent documentation for electric, water, sewer, natural gas, telecommunications, fiber, and other utilities before occupancy or later project phases.

Water and sewer submissions may be required to disclose domestic, cooling, fire-flow, process-water, wastewater, pretreatment, reclaimed-water, average, peak, seasonal, and drought-condition demands.

Projects using private wells may be required to submit a hydrogeologic study addressing aquifer capacity, recharge, wellhead protection, and effects on neighboring wells.

Cooling-system submissions may be required to identify cooling technology, average and peak water demand, cooling-tower and chiller locations, heat-rejection equipment, chemical storage or discharge, drift, plume, noise, screening, setbacks, and leak management.

Applicants may be required to identify environmental constraints and obtain or coordinate applicable reviews for wetlands, streams, floodplains, steep slopes, woodlands, groundwater recharge areas, historic resources, threatened species, stormwater, erosion, and contaminated sites.

Applicants may be required to disclose generators, fuel, batteries, hazardous materials, chemicals, emissions, storage locations, containment, emergency shutoffs, permits, and emergency-response procedures.

Facilities may be required to prepare and maintain an emergency response plan covering fire, EMS, police, hazardous materials, power failures, fuel spills, battery incidents, severe weather, security events, emergency contacts, site tours, fire pre-plans, Knox boxes, and responder access.

Operations may be subject to limits or conditions on delivery hours, construction hours, generator testing, outdoor maintenance, waste collection, truck routes, loading, equipment replacement, lighting, snow removal, and complaint response.

Applicants may be required to submit an operations and maintenance plan covering staffing, shifts, deliveries, maintenance, generator testing logs, noise compliance, equipment replacement, landscaping, stormwater, waste management, and emergency contacts.

Municipalities may require annual reporting or periodic certifications concerning emergency contacts, generator testing, landscape maintenance, noise compliance, stormwater maintenance, and other approved conditions.

Larger facilities may be required to submit a decommissioning or reuse plan addressing equipment removal, fuel tanks, batteries, environmental closeout, vacant-structure security, landscaping, stormwater, and adaptive reuse.

Where legally authorized, municipalities may require financial security, such as a bond or escrow, for specified public improvements or facility-removal obligations.

Projects may be required to submit a formal phasing and coordination plan and attend coordination meetings at milestones including preconstruction, major earth disturbance, utility or road work, equipment delivery, generator testing, occupancy, and future phases.

Electronic, animated, or dynamic signs may be prohibited or limited unless needed for safety, security, or emergency communication.

Municipal zoning may regulate data centers but should not totally exclude them or make them practically impossible to build; the ordinance should preserve a realistic opportunity for the use to locate somewhere in the municipality. reasonable and meaningful opportunity

Data centers should be identified as a principal land use and classified by type and scale, including hyperscale, cloud, enterprise or regional, edge or micro, and cryptocurrency-mining facilities. This creates a defined zoning framework under which municipalities can permit and review different facility types, subject to locally adopted standards. Data Centers should be defined as a principal use

Municipalities may allow data centers by right or as conditional uses in appropriate districts, with larger facilities generally directed toward industrial areas and smaller facilities potentially allowed in industrial, heavy-commercial, institutional, or technology-oriented districts. The location must be tied to planning, infrastructure capacity, and compatibility considerations. permitted, conditionally permitted, or prohibited

Municipalities may treat the electrical, cooling, battery, generator, fuel, communications, and similar facilities needed to operate a data center as accessory components of the principal use, although the ordinance may require separate approval for some components and impose standards for their location, screening, access, safety, and maintenance. which facilities are permitted as accessory components

The guide recognizes that data centers typically operate continuously and recommends regulating the external activities that affect neighboring properties—such as deliveries, generator testing, maintenance, lighting, and waste collection—rather than treating continuous internal data operations as prohibited. operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week

Under Pennsylvania's multi-municipal planning framework, data centers and other land-use categories need not be provided in every municipality if they are planned for and accommodated within a reasonable geographic area of the overall plan. all uses need not be provided in every municipality