Resolution 105-2026 declares portions of the zoning ordinance invalid because they do not regulate data centers and establishes a 180-day curative-amendment period.

During the 180-day curative-amendment period, the City is not required to consider zoning permits, zoning approvals, or landowner curative amendments for data centers, data-center accessory uses, or similar uses.

The review draft would allow data centers only in the H-M Heavy Manufacturing District and only through conditional-use approval by City Council.

The review draft would require a minimum lot size of five acres for a standard data center and eight acres for a major data center or data-center campus, with a minimum 200-foot lot width.

The review draft would limit building coverage to 50%, impervious coverage to 70%, and require at least 15% landscaped open space.

The review draft would impose minimum setbacks of 75 feet from public street rights-of-way and 50 feet from other lot lines.

The review draft would require principal buildings to be at least 200 feet from sensitive-receptor lot lines or residential zoning boundaries, and generators, battery systems, substations, fuel storage, chemicals, and exterior cooling equipment to be at least 300 feet away.

The review draft would generally limit principal building height to 50 feet; a height of up to 70 feet would require at least 15 acres, additional setbacks, screened rooftop equipment, and Fire Chief confirmation of adequate emergency access and fire suppression.

The review draft would require a data-center campus to submit a ten-year master plan covering anticipated phases, buildings, power, cooling, utilities, access, emergency facilities, buffers, and open space, and would aggregate affiliated parcels and shared infrastructure to prevent segmentation.

Before applying for conditional use approval for a major data center or campus, the review draft would require a pre-application conference and a public information meeting at least 30 days before filing, with notice to nearby property owners.

The review draft would require an environmental and community impact assessment addressing impacts including water and sewer capacity, electric-grid capacity, air emissions, noise, flooding, stormwater, heat, transportation, emergency services, and cumulative effects.

The review draft would prohibit conditional-use approval when a significant impact identified by the assessment remains unmitigated or proposed mitigation is not technically and financially enforceable.

The review draft would require certifications from the Reading Area Water Authority and the City wastewater utility confirming available water, fire-flow, sewer, treatment, drought, and discharge capacity, with the applicant paying for required project-attributable upgrades.

The review draft would require public water and sanitary sewer service and prohibit routine groundwater or surface-water withdrawals for data-center operations.

The review draft would prohibit once-through cooling and open-circuit evaporative cooling, and would generally require closed-loop or other low-water cooling systems.

The review draft would prohibit discharging cooling water, process water, chemicals, or heat to storm sewers, groundwater, or surface water; sanitary-sewer discharges would require written wastewater-utility approval.

The review draft would prohibit data centers and related equipment on Fritz Island or parcels used for wastewater, drinking-water, flood-control, or other specified critical public infrastructure.

The review draft would impose additional setbacks from the Fritz Island wastewater treatment plant, waterways, and floodplains, including a prohibition on principal buildings in the one-percent-annual-chance floodplain.

The review draft would cap normal operating noise at 55 dBA Leq at sensitive receptors, subject to specified ambient limits, and at 65 dBA Leq at other lot lines, with additional tonal and low-frequency limits.

The review draft would require preconstruction, interim, as-built, and periodic post-occupancy acoustic studies and monitoring, all paid for by the applicant or operator.

The review draft would restrict routine generator testing to Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., generally limit simultaneous testing to 25% of generators, and prohibit normal-operation generator use unless separately approved.

The review draft would require emergency-response, hazardous-materials, spill-prevention, air-emissions, and battery-energy-storage plans, and would require the applicant or operator to fund project-specific first-responder training, drills, and specialized equipment.

The review draft would require a decommissioning and site-restoration plan and financial security equal to 125% of independently reviewed decommissioning and restoration costs before the first building permit.

Under the review draft, abandonment would occur after 12 consecutive months without principal data-center operations, generally requiring decommissioning to begin promptly and finish within 12 months.

The review draft would require annual compliance reports, seven-year record retention, City inspection rights, and written successor agreements when ownership or operation changes.

The review draft would require applicants to fund reasonable City professional-review costs and maintain an escrow deposit for independent engineering, acoustic, environmental, utility, fire-protection, and related reviews.

The review draft would require an impact-mitigation plan and agreement addressing project-related utility, transportation, monitoring, environmental, emergency-response, landscaping, and decommissioning obligations.

A data center receiving discretionary City assistance would have to enter into a City Council-approved Community Benefits Agreement before the assistance is approved or conveyed.

The review draft would require amended conditional-use approval for specified expansions or changes, including increases of more than 5% in floor area or more than 10% in electrical demand, water use, generator capacity, fuel storage, battery-storage capacity, or impervious coverage.

Creates a legal approval pathway for data centers by allowing Data Centers, Major Data Centers, and Data Center Campuses in the H-M Heavy Manufacturing District through conditional-use approval by City Council.

Allows data-center accessory equipment—including generators, battery energy-storage systems, substations, transformers, cooling systems, fuel storage, and telecommunications infrastructure—to be treated as accessory to the data center, subject to applicable safety and regulatory requirements.

Permits existing computer, server, telecommunications, and network equipment serving another lawful use to remain outside the data-center classification when it is secondary and customarily incidental to that use.

Allows data centers to be created through new construction, adaptive reuse or conversion of existing buildings, expansion, intensification, material modification, or phased campus development, provided the applicable standards are met.

Allows a principal data-center building to reach up to 70 feet in height, instead of the standard 50-foot maximum, if the site contains at least 15 acres, additional setbacks are provided, rooftop equipment is screened, and the Fire Chief confirms adequate emergency access and fire-suppression capability.

Allows City Council to approve a closed-circuit evaporative or hybrid cooling component when non-evaporative cooling is not reasonably feasible, water capacity is certified, reclaimed or nonpotable water is considered, enforceable water controls are imposed, and existing customers and wastewater capacity are protected.

Allows minor post-approval modifications to be approved by the Zoning Administrator without an amended conditional-use approval when they do not exceed specified expansion thresholds, reduce compliance, or materially increase impacts.

Permits emergency-generator operation during an actual utility outage or emergency to exceed the ordinary noise limits for the time reasonably necessary to protect life, safety, equipment, or data, subject to restoration of compliance after power returns.

Makes data-center projects eligible for discretionary City economic-development assistance, including City-owned land, grants, loans, loan guarantees, tax abatements, utility subsidies, fee waivers, and other financial or in-kind assistance, if the project enters into a City Council-approved Community Benefits Agreement.

Provides that broader community benefits connected to discretionary City assistance must be handled through a separate Community Benefits Agreement and may not be imposed as an unsupported zoning exaction.

Allows a data center to use underground utility, fiber-optic, telecommunications, and electrical distribution lines to the maximum extent practicable, while allowing aboveground installation when required by the utility or deemed more feasible or safer by the City Engineer.