Data centers are allowed only as conditional uses in the Industrial Zoning District, requiring conditional-use approval and compliance with the ordinance’s additional standards.

A data-center lot must contain at least 10 acres.

Data-center buildings are limited to 45 feet in height, with up to 15 additional feet allowed for specified roof-mounted equipment; accessory uses cannot exceed the principal building’s height, excluding roof equipment.

Data centers and accessory uses must be set back at least 300 feet from Conservation, Residential Suburban, Residential Urban, and Village District boundaries and from properties containing Sensitive Receptors, and at least 150 feet from other property lines and road rights-of-way.

A landscape buffer at least 25 feet wide is required next to residential districts, Sensitive Receptors, and public roads, with specified native trees and shrubs, ongoing maintenance, replacement of dead or damaged plants within 150 days, and a performance guarantee released only after the second growing season.

Roadside fencing cannot be chain-link, barbed wire, or a similarly visually intrusive deterrence device unless the fencing is fully screened from view.

Cooling, ventilation, operating, and backup-generation equipment within 300 feet of specified districts, public roads, or Sensitive Receptors must be fully enclosed or screened by approved vegetation, buildings, berms, or solid walls or fences when full enclosure is not mechanically feasible.

Data centers and accessory uses must comply with specified daytime, evening, and nighttime sound limits at receiving properties, including limits on maximum, peak, and pure-tone noise.

Applicants must submit a professional sound-modeling study with the land-development application and an as-built sound study six months after occupancy and before final escrow release; later studies may also be required by the Township.

Data centers may not cause vibration exceeding 200 micrometers per second RMS in any one-third octave band, measured under the ordinance’s specified criteria.

Noise measurements must follow specified ANSI standards, use calibrated Type 1 or Type 2 sound meters, control for wind and background sounds, and measure impact noise with peak sound-pressure methods rather than ordinary fast-response or legacy impulse measurements.

Emergency standby generators are exempt from the sound limits only during emergency use; routine testing must comply except during specified daytime windows, when exceedances are limited to 20 dBA or 20 dB for peak sound and one cumulative hour per seven-day period.

A data center cannot be approved without demonstrating an adequate water supply and showing that withdrawals and discharges will not adversely affect nearby groundwater or surface water.

Projects relying on nonpublic water sources must obtain Susquehanna River Basin Commission approval for withdrawals of at least 100,000 gallons per day averaged over 30 days or consumptive use of at least 20,000 gallons per day averaged over 30 days.

A water-feasibility study is required for nonpublic groundwater withdrawals of at least 10,000 gallons per day over any consecutive 30-day period and for surface-water withdrawals.

Water-feasibility studies must address projected demand, sources and uses, recycling and discharge, nearby wells and water resources, threatened or endangered habitats, and other specified site information.

Groundwater projects must include a hydrogeologic report by a Pennsylvania-licensed professional geologist, an aquifer test meeting specified guidance or accepted methodology, sustainable-yield calculations, drought analysis, cone-of-depression analysis, and mitigation of effects on nearby wells and surface waters.

Surface-water withdrawals must meet specified streamflow-protection standards, including limits on changes to floods and monthly flow ranges and required monthly passby flows; withdrawals are exempt from the table only if they qualify as de minimis under specified drainage-area and P95 thresholds.

For nonpublic groundwater projects withdrawing or discharging at least 25,000 gallons per day over any consecutive 30-day period, nearby property owners within 3,000 feet or the applicable cone of depression must be notified and offered baseline well and water-quality testing at the applicant’s expense.

Operators must maintain a groundwater-monitoring system, generally including at least one upgradient and three downgradient monitoring wells, inspect the wells at least monthly, and repair damaged or malfunctioning wells within two weeks unless the Township grants an extension.

Data-center operators must submit quarterly reports covering withdrawals, groundwater levels, precipitation, measuring-device accuracy, data losses, five-year comparisons, and other information required by the Township.

The operator is presumed responsible for adverse impacts to water-supply wells within the applicable area of influence occurring within 60 months after production wells reach full production, unless it proves otherwise.

If the Township determines that a data center caused an adverse water-supply impact, the operator must provide remediation at no cost to affected property owners, potentially including deepening or replacing wells or connecting properties to public water.

If required remediation does not begin within five days after the Township’s final determination, the Township may draw on the operator’s financial security and charge the operator for any additional costs.

Applicants must provide financial security equal to $10,000 multiplied by the number of other groundwater wells within the Hydrologic Environment; the security generally is not returned until 60 months after the operator’s wells reach full production, subject to pending claims.

Applicants connecting to the electric grid must provide certification from the electric provider that sufficient capacity exists and that the provider will serve the data center, including disclosure of known project-related effects on electric rates or availability.

Energy-generation systems intended to supply a data center during normal operations are excluded from the data-center accessory-use definition and must be approved separately under the zoning rules for that type of energy system.

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, responder training, and annual fire-safety inspections.

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

Data-center buildings facing roads, Conservation or Residential Districts, or existing residential uses must include at least two specified façade-design elements every 150 horizontal feet.

Data centers must provide at least one parking space per 8,000 square feet of regularly employee-accessible floor area or one space per employee on the largest shift, whichever requirement results in fewer spaces.

Before operation, the property owner and facility owner must provide evidence of a lease containing a decommissioning clause and a clause binding successors and assigns, covering removal of buildings, wells, equipment, electrical lines, roads, and other associated facilities.

The operator must notify the Township upon cessation or abandonment; a facility is presumed discontinued after 12 consecutive months of nonoperation without remedial action, and failure to dismantle it within 18 months allows the Township to complete decommissioning at the property owner’s expense.

Decommissioning must restore the site to its pre-existing condition, and the operator must submit updated engineer-approved decommissioning cost estimates every five years and maintain surety equal to 100 percent of the revised estimate.

Data centers, including cryptocurrency mining, blockchain transaction processing, and server farms, are expressly recognized as a use and may include accessory uses.

Data centers are allowed as conditional uses in the Industrial zoning district, providing an approval pathway for development.

The ordinance permits numerous accessory facilities on the same tract or unified adjoining parcels, including substations, utility lines, generators for temporary backup power, cooling systems, water facilities, wastewater treatment, storage, security, and administrative structures.

Existing topography or vegetation may satisfy all or part of the required landscape buffer when it adequately achieves the buffer's purpose.

Cooling, ventilation, and backup-generation equipment that cannot feasibly be fully enclosed under manufacturer specifications may instead be screened from view using landscaping, vegetation, buildings, berms, or solid screens.

Emergency standby generators may exceed the normal sound limits during emergency use, and routine generator testing may exceed those limits within specified daytime hours by up to 20 dBA for up to one cumulative hour per seven-day period.

Construction noise is exempt from the ordinance's sound limits when construction occurs during daytime hours and reasonable noise controls are used.

If a data center uses public water, a certification from the public water authority that it will supply the needed water satisfies the ordinance's water-supply showing.

For qualifying nonpublic water use, proof of Susquehanna River Basin Commission review and approval eliminates the need for a separate local water-feasibility study.

Qualifying de minimis surface-water withdrawals are exempt from demonstrating compliance with the ordinance's detailed streamflow standards, subject to the stated drainage-area and P95 limits.

The required groundwater-related financial security must be returned 60 months after the operator's wells reach full production, except for security needed to address pending claims involving adversely affected wells.

The parking requirement is limited to the lesser of one space per 8,000 square feet of regularly employee-accessible floor area or one space per employee on the largest shift.