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Montgomery Township moves to advertise data‑center ordinance draft, recommends 450‑foot setback
Summary
The board authorized sending a draft data‑center ordinance to the township and county planning commissions for review and recommended reducing an originally proposed 1,000‑foot special setback to 450 feet so the regulation is not effectively exclusionary.
Montgomery Township on June 8 directed staff to send a draft data‑center ordinance to the township planning commission and the Montgomery County Planning Commission for review, while the solicitor’s office and staff recommended amending the draft to reduce a special setback provision from 1,000 feet to 450 feet.
Township Manager Carolyn McCreary outlined the steps that led to the ordinance, saying the township’s zoning ordinance currently lacks a specific provision for data centers and that the board earlier declared the zoning provision substantively invalid and instructed staff to prepare a tailored ordinance. Solicitor Sean Kenny said the goal was to allow a narrowly circumscribed conditional‑use option in the Limited Industrial (LI) district rather than ban the use outright. "Under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code any legitimate use you have to provide for it somewhere in your township," Kenny said, explaining the proposed approach restricts potential sites to the LI district and imposes strict criteria, including water‑use limits, noise standards, decommissioning plans and financial security.
Kenny and staff noted a 1,000‑foot special setback in the model ordinance would have left no compliant properties in the township, risking a successful legal challenge; they recommended a 450‑foot setback to preserve enforceability while restricting locations. Several board members said they favored acting proactively to define where data centers could be considered and to set strict conditional‑use standards.
The board authorized the draft—with the solicitor’s recommended setback change—for review by the township planning commission and the county planning commission; formal advertisement for public hearing would follow those reviews. A member of the public, Jay Washeski, praised the township for being proactive and said the draft struck a reasonable balance between regulation and flexibility.
What happens next: staff will share the revised draft with the planning commissions for comment. The board will consider any changes proposed by those bodies before authorizing formal advertisement for public hearing and potential adoption.
