Falls and Morrisville to address zoning issues around data centers
Two Bucks County municipalities, Morrisville Borough and Falls Township, are implementing actions to address public concerns and regulate data center development. Morrisville adopted a six-month waiting period, while Falls Township declared parts of its zoning ordinance invalid to allow for drafting updated regulations. These measures aim to mitigate issues like energy consumption, noise, and water usage, and to protect against potential legal challenges from developers.
Morrisville Borough and Falls Township, both in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, are taking legislative steps to regulate data center development amidst growing public distrust over the facilities' impacts. The municipalities are primarily concerned with massive energy consumption, noise, and significant water usage.
Morrisville Borough Council has enacted a six-month waiting period to allow time for reviewing land-use impacts and drafting new zoning laws. Concurrently, Falls Township officials voted to declare portions of their existing zoning ordinance "substantively invalid," initiating a curative amendment process to create updated regulations specifically for data centers.
Falls Township Solicitor Lauren Gallagher stated that the township's action provides a "protective shield" against potential legal challenges from data center developers, preventing the township from having to entertain substantive validity challenges against the cited sections. This regulatory move in Falls Township does not, however, impact the Amazon Web Services data center, a 2-million-square-foot campus approved in March 2025 and currently under construction in the Fairless Hills section. Both municipalities' actions reflect a broader regional and national conversation about data center development, with similar proposals also under consideration in Montgomery County townships like Limerick, Plymouth, and Upper Merion.