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With months of work still ahead of them, the North Londonderry Planning Commission and staff introduced Monday a first draft of a proposed data center ordinance for the municipality.
The session, which came just prior to the monthly meeting of township supervisors, was held to give the public access to the document and for township officials to explain the process for enacting an ordinance to govern data centers.
Assistant township manager Kristopher D. Troup said he has been working with township solicitor Andrew Morrow to create the draft, which was just the first step in a months-long process to create a final draft that will go to township supervisors for consideration.
“The board of supervisors as well as the planning commission have been discussing data center regulations for several months. And at the beginning of this year, Andy Morrow and I started doing some research, gathering other ordinances from different municipalities as well as several county planning commissions that have issued some guidance on planning centers or data centers, and PSATs, the township supervisory association at the state level, also issued us some guidance,” Troup said. “Andy put together the framework of the ordinance, and he and I have been back and forth revising several times till we’ve gotten to the point where we are tonight with this original draft.”
Troup emphasized that this is just the beginning.
“This is a working draft. The intention is this will be a process. It’s gonna take numerous months for us to get through and revise and revise again. And until we get to the point where we’re satisfied that the planning commission wants to make a recommendation to the board of supervisors. So that’s pretty much where we’re at,” he added.
Morrow also provided some insight to the planning commission officials and several members of the public who attended the session.
“I can also say that this is not the final draft. I just want to emphasize that point,” said Morrow. “There are probably already some changes that we’re thinking about at this point, or at least proposing. … We just wanted to start and introduce it with them to have them look and provide us with comments since this is dealing with zoning.”
Morrow highlighted a few items in the draft.
“It’s in the industrial districts. OK? So nothing residential. There are different kinds of districts in the municipality – ag, residential, highway, commercial. At least as it stands here tonight, the initial draft would be in the I1 industrial district,” Morrow said.
Troup noted there are two I1 districts, the eastern and western industrial districts, within the municipality. One is near the old quarry along U.S. Route 422, while the other encompasses properties owned by Milton Hershey School and the Palmyra School Board that controls Palmyra Recreation, with Hershey Foods and Hillwood warehouses to the west.
After the meeting, Troup told LebTown that Milton Hershey farms its land, and he doesn’t believe they intend to sell it.
The draft ordinance would require a data center to be constructed on a minimum of 10 acres, and Troup said a former quarry owned by Pennsy Supply meets that criteria. He added, however, that he didn’t believe any engineer would support putting a data center at that site given safety concerns for that kind of use at a quarry.
It was noted during the planning session that, while there is the possibility a company might want to put a data center in the municipality, there aren’t “scores of possibilities.”
Concerning land owned by Palmyra Recreation, which is controlled by Palmyra Area School District, it was noted there are existing “deeds, covenants, and restrictions” governing the use of that space.
Later, during the township meeting, board chairman William Buckfelder, who attended the planning meeting, said he has zero interest in rezoning land to industrial.
“I would not support any rezoning to allow a data center. My predecessor, Ron Fouche, did the zoning probably in the ’60s. And we have never had any, to my knowledge, any rezoning changes at all,” Buckfelder said.
Township supervisor and planning commission citizen representative Mike Salvo said during the planning session that supervisors want to be active in crafting an ordinance concerning data centers. Fellow supervisor Jim Hartman is the appointed supervisor representative to the planning commission.
“We’re taking a proactive approach at establishing an ordinance that meets this township. There’s no data center that’s soliciting us. There’s nothing that we’re pursuing,” Salvo said. “It’s just to be ready and not have to react to something that comes in. … There’s a lot of emphasis in a lot of other communities on how they need to be involved. So I look forward to reviewing it in more detail. But the direct approach is really, really, really very helpful.”
After a public comment about data centers and solar farms, Morrow noted that municipalities can’t enact an ordinance when a project is already in development.
“First off, they are allowed to have the possibility of having a use as a data center. If you exclude it, that’s exclusionary, that’s illegal,” Morrow said. “Secondly, they are only required to go by the regulations as they currently exist. So the township would not be permitted to all of a sudden put zoning ordinance regulations in for something that’s in development. … We don’t plan on letting anything go by. We do understand how this is going to or could impact the community. So our first and foremost (concern) is the health, safety, and welfare of the general public.”
After the meeting, Troup provided LebTown a roadmap for next steps concerning the proposed data center draft ordinance.
“We’re going to go through this with the planning commission probably for several months. Eventually there will be a public meeting because we’ll be introducing an ordinance and in order to get the ordinance passed we’ll have that public meeting,” he said. “The majority of the bulk of the work is going to be done by the planning commission at these meetings. So you know, if the residents want to come and have their voice heard, this is really the place to do it.”
Other planning commission business
Also during the planning commission session, Troup announced that there will be a meeting in September to consider several land development plans for pending projects.
“I already have one plan where I have a clean letter for a revision to Phase 2 of Fox Run, which you just drew last month or the month before. They eliminated a street from Phase 2 and moved it into Phase 3. It’s a really simple plan,” Troup said, adding the proposal is one of potentially three to be discussed at the next meeting.
The board also approved their June 15 meeting minutes on Monday night.
Township business
On what was a very light meeting agenda, supervisors voted unanimously to:
- Pay monthly invoices.
- Receive the library report, including the announcement that the book sale generated $14,796. The learning portion of the summer learning program had 531 child participants. The Monday morning family programs had a high attendance of 291 and low attendance of 187, for an average of 225 to 250 participants for the sixth programs.
- Accept the park & recreation report.
- Accept the police department report, with Chief Thomas Hertz noting the two recently hired officers are continuing their on-the-job training.
- Approve the minutes of their July 20 meeting and the treasurer’s report for July.
Read More: (July 2026) New hires, data center regs focus of N. Londonderry Twp. supervisors meeting
Next meeting
The next meeting of township supervisors will be held on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. in the municipal building at 655 E. Ridge Road, Palmyra.
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