Upper Hanover Township data center proposal submitted hours before new zoning ordinance adopted
A developer submitted an application for a 150,000-square-foot data center in Upper Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, just hours before the township adopted new zoning amendments regulating data centers. Because the application was deemed complete prior to the vote, it is exempt from the new, stricter regulations which include environmental impact studies, noise limits, clean energy requirements, and water usage restrictions. The developer has also filed a zoning Substantive Validity Challenge Application.
A new data center proposal for Upper Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, was submitted by Gwynedd Valley-based Hanover Development. L.P. on June 9, just seven hours before the township's board of supervisors unanimously adopted Resolution No. 226-24, a zoning amendment regulating data centers. Due to the timing, the application for the 150,000-square-foot facility on 37 acres off Gravel Pike is exempt from the new, stricter zoning rules.
The new amendment would have required the data center to be in an outdoor storage/commercial/industrial zone, not the light industrial zone where the project is proposed, and imposed numerous restrictions. These include 500-foot setbacks from sensitive areas, economic and environmental impact evaluations, noise studies with decibel limits, a 10% clean energy requirement, a water feasibility study, closed-loop cooling systems, and plans for e-waste disposal and thermal studies.
In response to the township's actions, the developer's attorneys filed a conditional use application and a zoning Substantive Validity Challenge Application. Attorney Celso L. Leite Jr. argued that if data centers are not permitted in the light industrial zone, the ordinance would be substantively invalid for failing to provide for a legitimate land use. This situation highlights the 'race to file' phenomenon that state Rep. Paul Friel's proposed bill aimed to prevent by pausing applications once a matter appears on a meeting agenda, but that bill has not yet passed the state Senate.
An extension was granted for the application, and a hearing is not expected before October. Meanwhile, the township held a joint meeting with the planning commission to gather community suggestions on strengthening the newly adopted data center zoning amendment, with residents expressing concerns about water usage, property values, electricity rates, and noise and air pollution.