JEFFERSON TWP — The township’s board of supervisors moved forward with an ordinance to regulate data center development at its Monday, June 8, meeting.

The motion, which passed 3-0, will ask the township’s planning commission to draft an ordinance to regulate data center development in the township.

“Everyone’s talking about data centers. We ought to be protected,” Supervisor Chairwoman Lois Rankin said when introducing the proposal.

The proposal comes after the township’s dispute with Sunvest Solar over a plan to build a solar array at an 83.66-acre plot of farmland in the township. At the meeting, Rankin expressed a desire to be proactive with data center development to avoid a repeat of the Sunvest dispute.

Sunvest, a solar energy developer, is appealing the validity of an ordinance enacted by the township that established regulations for the installation and use of solar energy systems.

“We shouldn’t be sitting where we were with this solar one,” Rankin said. “We should have been doing something about this at the beginning of the year.”

Data centers are a hot topic across Butler County. In May, Summit Township’s board of supervisors discussed a proposal to amend its zoning ordinance to add data center regulations. Some of the regulations proposed at the meeting included rules requiring data centers to have their own water supplies and regulations for backup generators. Center Township supervisors also discussed data center regulations at a meeting Wednesday.

Unlike Summit and Center townships, Jefferson Township does not have a zoning ordinance. Rankin acknowledged Jefferson Township was more limited in what it could do to regulate data centers because it lacks a zoning ordinance. However, Rankin was confident Jefferson Township could find a way to regulate data centers.

“There are ways around things,” Rankin said.

One idea Rankin suggested was to base the township’s data center ordinance on Clearfield Township’s solar farm ordinance.

According to Rankin, Clearfield Township requires companies interested in building a solar farm to own or lease 200 acres. Rankin said the ordinance works in preventing solar development because “most people don’t have a 200-acre farm.”

The township’s planning commission will further discuss a data center ordinance at its July 13 meeting.