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Board reviews draft industrial uses ordinance with tighter power, water and reporting rules
Summary
Uwchlan Township staff presented substantive edits to the draft industrial uses ordinance on July 9, including a prohibition on routine on‑site power generation (allowing emergency generators and solar), a requirement to connect to public water, thresholds for commercial delivery vehicles, protections around battery storage and annual energy reporting.
Township staff reviewed substantive policy changes to a proposed industrial uses ordinance during the July 9 workshop and asked supervisors for feedback before sending a revised draft for formal consideration.
Key changes summarized by staff include: prohibiting routine on‑site power generation from normal operations while allowing appropriately sized emergency backup generators and solar; requiring industrial users to connect to a public water supply (no private groundwater wells allowed); expanding definitions and thresholds to capture both heavy trucks and commercial delivery vehicles; strengthening setback requirements and protections for sensitive receptors around substations and battery storage; adding annual energy‑usage reporting requirements; and including decommissioning standards for data centers that require consideration of adaptive reuse rather than automatic demolition.
During discussion a supervisor raised concerns about employee transportation to warehouse and distribution sites — pointing out local public transit reductions and asking whether developers could be required to provide shuttles or similar measures. Staff said the ordinance currently does not include a transportation‑requirement mechanism but agreed to consult experts and explore options. “There’s nothing in the ordinance … I’m struggling a little bit with how we would address it, but we can absolutely have some conversations with people a lot smarter than me on how we might approach it,” staff said.
Staff also flagged a planning commission suggestion to account for last‑mile commercial delivery vehicles in addition to tractor‑trailers; that change was incorporated in the revised thresholds. On data‑center issues, supervisors asked whether large load users could be required to reduce consumption before drawing on public utilities (micro‑shedding); staff said interconnection and PUC agreements often govern such behavior but they will verify whether additional local requirements are feasible.
Staff said the township had hoped to consider the ordinance in August after further refinement and replies to the planning commission’s comments. No formal vote occurred at the workshop.
