North Coventry Township Reviews Restrictive Data Center Zoning Draft

The North Coventry Township planning commission conducted its first public review of a 14-page draft zoning ordinance on Tuesday at the Norco fire station. The proposal seeks to regulate the environmental impacts, setbacks, and intensity of data centers, specifically requiring the use of closed-loop cooling systems. The regulations would primarily target the industrial zone along the Schuylkill River and would not impact a separate data center proposal at the former Coventry Mall.

Township Manager Erica Batdorf noted that the Pennsylvania fair share doctrine prevents the municipality from banning legitimate land uses entirely. However, Planning Commission Chairperson Adrienne Houck stated that the township is attempting to make the ordinance as restrictive as possible. Solicitor Eric Brown added that the municipality must remain mindful of zoning out legitimate uses to ensure legal workability.

State Senator Katie Muth challenged the legal basis for the ordinance, arguing that Pennsylvania law does not require municipalities to accommodate hyper-scale data centers. The push for local zoning follows Douglass Township's withdrawal from the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee, a move that removed existing legal protections for neighboring municipalities regarding data center land use. Public feedback during the session focused on decommissioning funds, increased property setbacks, and emergency responder protocols, with Emergency Management Coordinator Katelyn Collemacine advocating for specific pre-plans to ensure responders know how to shut off systems during an incident.