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Supervisors review burn ordinance draft, pet rule for emotional‑support animals and data‑center language
Summary
Board considered a draft burn ordinance modeled on PA DEP guidance that would largely prohibit open burning but allow cooking and ceremonial uses; it also moved to treat emotional‑support animals as pets and clarified that data centers are standalone uses. Staff will refine the language and return with edits.
Marian summarized other non-sign ordinance topics under review. On open burning, staff proposed largely prohibiting uncontrolled open burning while allowing exceptions for outdoor cooking, ceremonial or recreational fires, training, and fire-hazard abatement. The draft referenced a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection model and included options such as requiring screens, limiting distance from structures (100 ft), and listing prohibited materials (trash, recyclables). The board asked staff to simplify language using a neighboring municipality’s ordinance as a template and to consider whether to allow natural‑gas devices and how to handle pellet/stoker-style fuels.
On emotional‑support animals, staff proposed eliminating the conditional‑use route and instead defining emotional‑support animals as a subset of pet animals (domesticated species kept for companionship and enjoyment), which would remove the need for a health‑professional letter and streamline the process. The draft explicitly excluded livestock and wild animals from the pet definition; the board asked staff to confirm how poultry and similar animals are classified elsewhere in the ordinance.
Staff also clarified language to treat data centers as standalone uses (distinct from IT spaces serving a single campus), borrowing from a York County model; a staff proposal to permit truck parking as a primary industrial use near major highways was removed after board members expressed little appetite for the change.
No formal votes were taken; staff will bring refined text back for board review and coordinate with the township solicitor on enforceability and statutory constraints.
