New data centers and qualifying expansions must undergo major-subdivision or major-land-development review and comply with Section 713; existing facilities are generally exempt unless physical modifications materially change their size, type, or equipment.

Applicants must submit an environmental and community impact analysis addressing operations, traffic, materials, environmental and cultural resources, emergency services, water, sewage, waste, schools, municipal finances, and potential impacts such as noise, heat, glare, vibration, wastewater, and stormwater.

Data center buildings may not exceed 60 feet in height, including roof-mounted cooling, ventilation, and HVAC equipment, and accessory uses may not exceed the principal building's height.

Data centers and accessory uses must be set back 200 feet from property lines and public rights-of-way, 750 feet from existing residences or sensitive receptors, and 500 feet from bodies of water, streams, and wetlands.

Sites must maintain a buffer along property lines and road rights-of-way, generally at least 50 feet wide with at least 25 feet landscaped; the buffer may not be used for parking or storage, and ground-mounted equipment is prohibited in setbacks.

Sites must have a security fence at least six feet high, and rooftop equipment must be screened on all sides.

Loading bays, truck entrances, and truck aisles must be located away from sensitive receptors and screened unless doing so is physically impossible.

Normal operations must not exceed 67 dB(A) during specified weekday daytime hours or 57 dB(A) during specified weekday nighttime and weekend hours, measured at the property line. Preliminary, interim, and as-built professional sound studies are required and must be funded by the applicant.

Noise limits do not apply during power outages, but required sound studies must evaluate anticipated noise while all emergency generators are operating.

Applicants must provide a professional vibration study showing that facility-related vibration will not be perceptible beyond the property line and must pay current and future noise and vibration study costs.

Projects using public water must provide certification that sufficient water capacity is available and that the public system can accept the project's sewage flow.

Projects using nonpublic water must submit a water-feasibility study addressing supply, withdrawals, recycling or discharge, wells, groundwater, surface waters, and related impacts; approval is prohibited unless adequate supply and no adverse water impacts are demonstrated.

Nearby wells, groundwater, reservoirs, lakes, ponds, and surface waters may be used only for domestic purposes; cooling, humidity control, fire suppression, and other nondomestic uses must be supplied from rivers or streams.

Projects withdrawing at least 100,000 gallons per day averaged over 30 days, or using at least 20,000 gallons per day consumptively averaged over 30 days, must obtain applicable Susquehanna River Basin Commission or Delaware River Basin Commission approval.

Applicants must demonstrate that domestic, cooling, and industrial wastewater disposal has been adequately provided and approved by the Sewage Enforcement Officer or Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

New data centers and qualifying expansions must use closed-loop cooling for server racks and IT equipment. Open evaporative cooling towers are prohibited unless the applicant proves by clear and convincing evidence that closed-loop technology is infeasible and obtains a conditional exemption.

Data centers may not be designed to rely on private potable wells for primary cooling make-up water.

Before building or occupancy approvals, applicants must provide evidence of compliance with applicable Pennsylvania DEP and federal NPDES requirements, including required water-withdrawal authorizations and discharge permits. A claimed no-discharge closed-loop system requires a sworn engineering statement and operations and maintenance manual and may require third-party validation.

Hazardous antifreeze or heat-transfer fluids require spill prevention, secondary containment sized for the full system volume, a hazardous-materials response plan, routine leak testing, and annual containment-integrity certification.

Applicants must submit an energy- and water-efficiency plan addressing conservation, energy and water use, and heat-recovery opportunities.

Grid-connected projects must obtain utility documentation confirming available capacity and service, adequate and safe infrastructure, acceptable cooling and operating systems, no harmful electrical interference or voltage fluctuations, and third-party inspection of electrical work.

A data center drawing at least 75 MW must complete a six-month electric-grid usage baseline study before construction and submit an electric-service plan.

For data centers drawing at least 75 MW, the applicant must pay additional loading or transmission costs above the baseline, fund required infrastructure upgrades, submit usage and billing reports after startup, provide remote-disconnect capability, and install onsite generators capable of supplying 65% of peak demand using Tier 4-or-greater generators subject to applicable emissions and noise requirements.

Energy-generation systems intended to supply a data center during normal operations are treated as separate uses and require approval under the regulations applicable to that type of generation.

New primary distribution lines and associated electrical infrastructure serving a data center must generally be installed underground from the utility supply point to the data center point of service. Waivers require documented technical impracticability, utility refusal, or another specified basis, with supporting engineering documentation.

The applicant must pay the costs of underground electrical installation, permitting, utility coordination, connection, restoration, and related work; the County or municipality may require financial security for completion.

Applicants must submit an emergency response plan accepted by the local fire department and emergency-management services before approval, covering fire suppression, containment, ventilation, evacuation, emergency access, hydrants, responder training, and annual fire-safety inspections.

If specialized fire-protection equipment, agents, systems, or service extensions are required, the applicant must obtain approval from the local fire-response agency and pay the related costs; permits may be denied if the required response service is unavailable.

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

A data center must provide 24-hour emergency signage at the entrance identifying a contact representative and telephone number.

Applicants must make efforts to prevent disruption or loss of radio, telephone, television, and similar signals and must mitigate any resulting harm.

Parking must include at least one space per 8,000 square feet of regularly employee-accessible floor area or one space per employee on the largest shift, whichever requires more spaces, plus three visitor spaces.

Lighting is limited to 10 foot-candles generally and 20 foot-candles at loading and unloading platforms; illumination 20 feet beyond the property line may not exceed 0.1 foot-candle near residences or public rights-of-way, and fixtures must be shielded against glare.

The owner or operator must report cessation or discontinuation of use to the County within 48 hours and decommission the facility at its expense within 12 months after the end of its useful life, which is presumed after 12 consecutive months of nonuse.

If the County identifies cessation or discontinuation without receiving the required report, it may require decommissioning within six months of written or posted notice.

Decommissioning must remove hazardous materials, contents, cabling, electrical components, and associated facilities, and disturbed earth must generally be graded and reseeded unless the landowner requests otherwise in writing.

An independent professional engineer must estimate decommissioning costs after the first year of operation and every fifth year thereafter, and the owner or operator must post and maintain financial security equal to net decommissioning costs plus 10% before construction begins.

If the owner or operator fails to decommission on time, the landowner receives an additional six months to do so; afterward, the municipality may complete the work using the posted financial security.

A purchaser or transferee of a data center must assume the original monetary and operational decommissioning obligations.

The facility owner or operator must maintain general liability insurance of at least $3 million per occurrence and $3 million in the aggregate.

Applicants must pay all land-development application fees and County engineer-review fees before final approval.

Approval may be revoked if a data center is moved or altered so that it no longer conforms to the ordinance, and the facility must be maintained free of hazards and unsafe conditions.

Violations may result in civil penalties of up to $5,000 plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees, with each continuing day generally treated as a separate violation.

Data centers are expressly permitted as a land-development use when approved under the ordinance's procedures, standards, and criteria.

Applications are processed through the ordinance's major-subdivision and land-development procedures, providing a defined approval pathway.

Existing data centers constructed before the effective date are generally grandfathered from the new requirements. Later physical modifications trigger the new rules only if they materially change the facility's size, type, or equipment.

A data center may include accessory facilities on the same tract or a unified development of adjacent parcels, including substations, utility lines, generators, fiber-optic and storage facilities, cooling systems, water and wastewater facilities, fire-suppression systems, environmental controls, and security structures.

The ordinance expressly includes cryptocurrency mining, blockchain transaction processing, and server farms within the data-center use.

Data-center buildings may be up to 60 feet high, including rooftop cooling, ventilation, HVAC, and cooling-tower equipment; accessory structures may be as tall as the principal building.

The County may conditionally exempt a project from the closed-loop cooling requirement if the applicant proves with clear and convincing evidence that the technology is infeasible, provides licensed-engineer documentation and alternative technologies, and satisfies applicable water-use, noise, environmental, and permitting requirements.

Alternative cooling technologies, including geothermal, air-cooled, direct-to-chip liquid cooling, and waste-heat recovery systems, may be used under an approved cooling exemption if they meet the ordinance's standards.

Applicants may use public water and sewer systems if the relevant public authority certifies that sufficient water is available and the sewage system can accept the additional flow.

Projects using nonpublic water sources have a defined approval pathway through a water-feasibility study demonstrating adequate supply and no unacceptable adverse effects on nearby groundwater or surface waters.

Water from rivers and streams may be used for cooling, humidity control, fire suppression, and other non-domestic purposes, subject to a water-feasibility study and applicable approvals.

For grid-connected projects, the applicant may obtain utility service through the ordinance's utility-service process and fund required system upgrades. Projects drawing at least 75 megawatts must complete a grid-usage study and may use remote disconnect capabilities and onsite generators able to supply 65% of peak demand.

The requirement to place new primary distribution lines and related electrical infrastructure underground may be waived when underground installation is technically impracticable because of subsurface conditions, critical-infrastructure conflicts, or a utility's refusal to provide underground service, subject to required documentation and alternative measures.

Temporary aboveground electrical installations are allowed for emergency repairs if permanent underground replacement or remediation is completed within the authorized period, generally no more than 180 days without an extension.

The ordinance's maximum noise limits do not apply during power outages, allowing emergency generators and other emergency power equipment to operate during those events, although required sound studies must evaluate and report expected outage noise.

Energy-generation systems supplying a data center during normal operations are treated as a separate use rather than part of the data-center use, allowing them to be pursued under the regulations applicable to that separate use.

Data centers are classified as major land developments and must undergo major-subdivision and major-land-development approval procedures before construction.

Data centers and accessory uses may be built only after approval under the procedures, standards, and criteria in Section 713.

Data centers and accessory uses are limited to a maximum height of 60 feet, including roof-mounted cooling and ventilation equipment; accessory uses may not exceed the principal building's height.

Data centers and accessory uses must be set back at least 200 feet from residential zoning boundaries and from properties containing sensitive receptors such as schools, daycares, nursing homes, places of worship, parks, campgrounds, prisons, or dormitories.

A buffer at least 50 feet wide must be maintained along property lines and road rights-of-way, with parking and storage generally prohibited in the buffer.

Required landscaped buffers must be at least 25 feet wide, dense enough to block views and assist with sound reduction, and maintained or replaced when vegetation dies or deteriorates.

The data-center site must be enclosed by a security fence at least six feet high.

Applicants must demonstrate through professional sound studies that normal operations do not exceed 67 dB(A) during weekday daytime hours or 57 dB(A) during weekday nighttime and weekend hours, measured at the property line.

Preliminary, interim, and as-built sound studies are required during land development, at the building-permit stage, and six months after the certificate of occupancy; the County may require additional studies.

Applicants must evaluate emergency-generator noise during power outages, although the ordinary decibel limits do not apply while an outage is occurring.

Applicants must submit a professional vibration study demonstrating that facility and equipment vibrations will not be perceptible to humans beyond the property line.

Applicants must pay the costs of all present and future noise and vibration studies.

Projects using public water must provide certification that the public authority will supply the required water; projects using nonpublic sources must submit a water-feasibility study addressing demand, sources, safe yield, recycling or discharge, nearby wells and surface waters, and potential impacts.

Water from nearby wells, groundwater, reservoirs, lakes, and ponds is limited to domestic uses; cooling, humidity control, fire suppression, and other nondomestic uses must use rivers and streams.

A project may not be approved unless its water-feasibility study demonstrates an adequate supply and shows that withdrawals and discharges will not adversely affect nearby groundwater or surface waters.

Projects withdrawing at least 100,000 gallons per day averaged over 30 days, or using at least 20,000 gallons per day of consumptive water averaged over 30 days, must obtain applicable Susquehanna River Basin Commission or Delaware River Basin Commission review and approval.

Applicants must demonstrate that domestic, cooling, and industrial wastewater disposal has been provided and approved by the Sewage Enforcement Officer and/or Pennsylvania DEP.

New data centers and qualifying expansions must use closed-loop cooling for server racks and IT equipment; open evaporative cooling towers are prohibited unless the applicant proves by clear and convincing evidence that closed-loop technology is infeasible and obtains a conditional exemption.

A conditional cooling exemption requires licensed-engineer documentation, proposed alternative technologies, and compliance with water-use, noise, and environmental standards; the County may impose additional conditions.

Data centers may not be designed to rely on private potable wells for primary cooling make-up water.

Before building or occupancy approvals, applicants must provide evidence of compliance with applicable Pennsylvania DEP and federal NPDES requirements, including water-withdrawal registrations or permits and NPDES coverage or permits for planned discharges.

Facilities using closed-loop systems that claim to produce no routine discharge must provide a sworn engineering statement and operations-and-maintenance manual; the County may require third-party validation.

Hazardous heat-transfer fluids require spill prevention, secondary containment sized for the full system volume, a hazardous-materials response plan, fluid-leak testing, and annual containment certification.

Applicants must submit an energy- and water-efficiency plan, including power-usage-effectiveness targets and evaluation of closed-loop heat-recovery opportunities.

Grid-connected projects must provide utility documentation confirming available electrical capacity and service and identify known project-attributable impacts on electric rates or availability for other uses.

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

Underground electrical installation requires utility acceptance and compliance with specified utility and industry standards; the applicant must pay design, permitting, construction, coordination, connection, and restoration costs, and may be required to provide financial security.

Waivers from undergrounding are limited to documented technical impracticability, utility refusal, or specified physical or infrastructure conflicts and require engineering documentation, mitigation efforts, utility coordination, and alternative protections.

Applicants must submit an emergency-response plan accepted by the local fire department and emergency-management services, covering fire suppression, containment, ventilation, evacuation, emergency access, hydrants, responder training, and annual fire-safety inspections.

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

Data centers must make efforts to avoid disrupting radio, telephone, television, and similar signals and must mitigate any harm they cause.

Parking must be provided at the lesser of one space per 8,000 square feet of floor area regularly accessible to employees or one space per employee during the largest shift.

On-site lighting is limited to 10 foot-candles, or 20 foot-candles at loading and unloading platforms; lighting measured 20 feet beyond the property line near residences or public rights-of-way may not exceed 0.1 foot-candle.

Lighting must be shielded and designed to prevent exposed light sources, direct or sky-reflected glare, and nuisances or hazards visible at the property line.

The owner or operator must report cessation or discontinuation of use to the County within 48 hours and complete decommissioning within 12 months after the facility's useful life ends; continuous nonuse for 12 months creates a presumption that useful life has ended.

If the County discovers or receives a report of cessation without the required notice, it may direct decommissioning by written or posted notice, with completion required within six months of the notice.

Decommissioning must remove hazardous materials, cabling, electrical components, and associated facilities, and disturbed earth must generally be graded and reseeded.

An independent certified professional engineer must estimate decommissioning costs after the first year of operation and every fifth year thereafter, without relying on salvage value for the gross estimate.

Before construction begins, the owner or operator must post and maintain financial security equal to net decommissioning costs plus 10% in an acceptable bond or other financial-assurance form.

If the owner or operator fails to decommission on time, the landowner receives an additional six months to do so; if neither completes the work, the municipality may take necessary measures and use the decommissioning funds.

A purchaser or transferee of a data center must assume the original monetary and operational decommissioning obligations.

The facility must maintain general liability insurance of at least $3 million per occurrence and $3 million in the aggregate, with certificates available to the County upon request.

Existing data centers constructed before the addendum takes effect are grandfathered and need not meet the new requirements unless a physical modification materially changes their size, type, or equipment.

Data centers may be approved as land developments under the ordinance’s specified procedures, standards, and criteria, with site plans submitted for county planning-commission review.

A data center may include accessory facilities on the same tract or a unified assemblage of adjacent parcels, including generators, substations, utility lines, cooling and water facilities, security structures, storage, and administrative buildings.

Data-center buildings may be constructed up to 60 feet in height.

Projects may use nonpublic water sources if the applicant provides a water-feasibility study demonstrating adequate supply and evaluating effects on nearby wells, groundwater, and surface waters.

Additional review and approval by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission or Delaware River Basin Commission is specified only for projects reaching at least 100,000 gallons per day of withdrawals over a 30-day average or 20,000 gallons per day of consumptive use; projects below those thresholds are outside those stated requirements.

An applicant may obtain a conditional exemption from the closed-loop cooling requirement by providing clear and convincing evidence that the technology is infeasible for the project, licensed-engineer documentation, and an alternative technology proposal.

The county or municipality may waive undergrounding of primary electric distribution lines when underground installation is technically impracticable, including because of subsurface conditions, infrastructure conflicts, or a utility’s refusal to provide underground service, provided the applicant supplies engineering support and proposes alternative protections.

The ordinance’s ordinary maximum noise limits do not apply during a power outage, although required sound studies must still evaluate and report anticipated emergency-generator noise.

Parking is based on the lesser of one space per 8,000 square feet or one space per employee during the largest shift, reducing the required parking for facilities with relatively few employees.

Required landscaped buffers may be placed within required setback areas, allowing the same land area to satisfy both requirements.