CENTER TWP — With data centers rapidly expanding across Pennsylvania, the township’s board of supervisors is taking proactive measures in hopes of ensuring the well-being of its residents.

Supervisors voted unanimously at their meeting Wednesday evening, June 10, to approve a curative amendment that halts any data center or power generation plant system development for the next 180 days.

“It is my opinion, as chairman, that the board of supervisors needs to undertake formal action to remedy an exclusionary omission and the effect thereof in the zoning ordinance,” Supervisor Phil Wulff said as part of the motion.

Supervisor Don Pringle said he decided to spearhead an effort to create zoning and code regulations for data centers after hearing complaints in areas he has traveled to. He said the township has not received any requests to develop a data center.

“(The board) said ‘OK, we don’t have a place for them.’ Right now, they can come in and they can go anywhere they want,” Pringle explained.

He said after learning of different concerns surrounding data centers, such as water usage, power usage and noise pollution, the board knew it would need some regulations in place before developers even arrive.

“We’re trying to look out for the residents along the way because nobody wants to have a buzzing next to their house 24 hours a day,” Pringle said.

He said the moratorium on development gives the board, the zoning and code enforcement offices and the solicitor time to work out the finer details of specific regulations.

“We’re going to hold everything off 180 days until we come up with an ordinance. We have to, by law, permit them in a zone. If we exclude them, they’ll have all the rights and we’ll have none,” Supervisor Mark Lauer said.

Center Township is one of several municipalities, including Summit and Jefferson townships, who are looking into taking proactive steps to avoid data centers developing in an undesirable spot or degrading residents’ quality of life.