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Commissioners begin work on data‑center ordinance; county rep urges impact‑specific rules and caution on decommissioning mandates
Summary
Commissioners discussed starting an ordinance for data centers; a Tri‑County Regional Planning representative advised tailoring rules to data‑center impacts and cautioned against imposing decommissioning or other requirements on data centers that would not apply to similar uses.
Commissioners agreed it was time to begin researching a data center ordinance and invited input from county and regional planners. The Tri‑County Regional Planning representative warned: "You wanna make sure that the regulations in your data center ordinance are specific to the impacts of data centers and aren't imposing regulations ... on those data centers that other types of development would also" and cited decommissioning and noise standards as areas where parity with similar uses is important.
Commissioners discussed decommissioning funding mechanisms (trust funds or bonds) and whether the township has legal authority to adopt standards that could face federal preemption depending on zoning or facility type. Members said they would gather more research and suggested the county templates (including a model ordinance) could be a starting point for Lower Paxton's work.
