Data centers and data center accessory uses are allowed only as a conditional use in the Industrial District.

Before the conditional-use hearing, the applicant must submit an environmental and community impact analysis addressing operations, traffic, materials, site conditions, emergency services, water, sewage, waste, schools, municipal finances, and environmental impacts.

The applicant must submit an environmental impact assessment prepared by a qualified professional, including analysis of air emissions, truck idling, nuisance impacts, alternatives, unavoidable impacts, mitigation, and critical environmental areas.

A professional acoustical engineer must prepare a noise mitigation plan and acoustic study with preliminary, interim, and post-construction as-built studies; the Township may require supplemental studies or amended plans.

Normal operations are limited to 80 dB(A) during weekday daytime hours and 70 dB(A) during weekday nighttime and weekend hours, measured at the property line. Noise may not exceed 70 dB(A) at residential zoning boundaries or the lot line of a sensitive receptor.

The applicant must provide a vibration study demonstrating that equipment vibrations will not be perceptible to people beyond the property line.

Backup generators must meet applicable emissions laws and achieve EPA Tier 4 standards or an equivalent standard, with annual testing and reports submitted to the Township and relevant agencies.

A data center must make good-faith efforts to maximize renewable or clean energy use, must provide its own safe, dependable, and sustainable energy system, and may not use power or other energy sources provided, supplied, developed, or used by the Township and its residents.

Any energy-generation system supplying a data center during normal operations is treated as a separate use and requires separate zoning, state, and federal approvals.

The applicant must submit a professional-engineer-certified water utilization report specifying intake, sources, discharges, cooling-system type and efficiency, and stormwater compliance.

The applicant must obtain documentation from the applicable water provider certifying that sufficient capacity is available and that the provider will serve the data center, including disclosure of known project-related effects on water rates or availability.

Connection to public water and public sewer is mandatory, and the applicant must provide the Township with the anticipated draw on the Township water system.

The applicant must demonstrate that wastewater disposal, including cooling or industrial wastewater, has been adequately provided and approved by the Township Sewer Authority and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The applicant must comply with Township stormwater requirements and identify the project's effects on groundwater recharge and stormwater runoff.

All data centers and accessory uses must use a closed-loop cooling system and submit a professional-engineer-certified thermal impact mitigation plan addressing heat reuse or dissipation and heat-island mitigation.

No data center may be located in a FEMA-designated 100-year or 500-year floodplain shown on the most recent applicable flood insurance rate maps.

A single-story data center must be at least 30 feet high, the maximum building height is 45 feet including rooftop equipment, and accessory uses may not exceed 30 feet.

Lot coverage, including roads and parking lots, may not exceed 40 percent.

Parking must provide at least 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.

Data centers and accessory uses must be set back at least 500 feet from residential properties, residential zones, or sensitive receptors.

Ground-mounted cooling, ventilation, heat, or power equipment must be set back at least 300 feet from residentially zoned districts and, as written, 300 or 500 feet from property used for residential or community purposes.

Fencing is limited to a maximum height of 10 feet, must use specified durable or visually appealing materials, and may not use barbed wire or razor wire.

The site must provide landscape buffers along all property boundaries, including a 50-foot buffer along public streets, a 100-foot buffer next to residential or community property or residential zoning, and a 50-foot buffer next to nonresidential uses, with specified native-tree and shrub plantings.

Cooling, ventilation, generator, substation, and other operating equipment near roadways, residential districts, or sensitive receptors must be enclosed or screened, and rooftop equipment must be screened on all four sides and set back from parapet walls by at least the equipment's height.

Air, dust, smoke, glare, exhaust, heat, and humidity generated by the use must not be perceptible at or beyond the property line.

The applicant must submit a detailed emergency response plan covering flood, fire, explosion, and catastrophic weather events, with review by the local fire department and county emergency management, responder training, emergency access, and annual fire-safety inspections.

Battery or other energy-storage systems must comply with NFPA 855 or similar standards and include fire-suppression systems specifically designed for battery storage.

Outdoor lighting must comply with IESNA practices, be shielded or directed away from adjoining properties, and not exceed 0.2 foot-candle beyond the property line.

The applicant must submit electronic-waste procedures covering removal, recycling, or disposal of servers, hazardous materials, batteries, and related products during upgrades or decommissioning.

A decommissioning plan is required for the conditional-use and land-development applications, including removal of unnecessary infrastructure, hazardous-material disposal, utility disconnection, soil stabilization, revegetation, and restoration compatible with surrounding uses or the most restrictive adjacent zoning district.

If operations cease or the facility is abandoned for 12 continuous months, the owner or operator must notify the Township and has six months to dismantle the facility, remove accessory equipment, and restore the land.

Before project approval, the owner or operator must provide financial security equal to 150 percent of estimated decommissioning costs, maintain it throughout the project, and update it every five years based on engineering cost estimates.

The applicant or operator must place $10,000 in escrow with the Township for engineering and legal fees and replenish the escrow when requested.

Each operation must maintain 24-hour emergency contact signage at the entrance identifying the company, owner or representative, telephone contact, and local power company contact.

The ordinance expressly permits Data Centers and Data Center Accessory Uses as a Conditional Use in the Industrial District. This creates a defined zoning pathway for approving data centers in that district.

The definition of Data Center expressly covers a broad range of facilities, including server farms, cloud computing hubs, colocation centers, telecommunication switching hubs, cryptocurrency mining, and blockchain transaction processing. This allows multiple types of digital infrastructure to use the ordinance’s approval pathway.

Data Center Accessory Uses may be located on the same tract and include electrical substations, utility lines, cooling-water and wastewater facilities, water-holding facilities, pump stations, environmental controls, and security structures. This allows much of the supporting infrastructure to be developed as part of the data center use.

The ordinance states that maximum decibel limits do not apply during times of power outage, although emergency-generation sound levels must still be evaluated and reported.