East Brandywine Faces Challenge to Data Center Zoning Rules
A property owner, 500 ER-EBT Trust, is challenging East Brandywine Township’s zoning ordinance and asking that data centers be allowed as a permitted use in the R-2 Residential District. The township’s Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the challenge and proposed amendment after adopting rules that limit data centers to commercial and industrial areas and address electricity, water, noise and other impacts.
500 ER-EBT Trust, owner of about 25 acres on East Reeceville Road in East Brandywine Township, has filed a substantive validity challenge arguing that the township’s zoning ordinance improperly restricts data centers. Its proposed curative amendment would add data centers as a permitted use throughout the R-2 Residential District, potentially applying to all properties in that zone rather than only the trust’s parcel.
The East Brandywine Township Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold an evidentiary public hearing Nov. 12 and may consider the amendment during a related public meeting. Supervisors adopted an ordinance in July allowing data centers by conditional use in the Commercial Service/Light Industrial District, with requirements covering setbacks, electricity and water demand, generators, noise, vibration, thermal impacts and electronic waste. No decision has been made on the property owner’s legal challenge or proposed amendment.