Residents sit in the Dorrance Twp. Fire Hall for Wednesday’s hearing.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Dorrance Twp. Zoning Hearing Board member Dale Buchanan speaks during Wednesday’s hearing.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Zoning Hearing Board solicitor Christopher Opiel welcomes everyone to the hearing.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Residents of Dorrance Township applaud the township’s decision to deny the substantive validity claim by Brewster Land Company.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
DORRANCE TWP. — The Dorrance Township zoning hearing board, during a hearing on Wednesday, found that its zoning ordinance did not exclude data centers and voted to deny the claim made by Brewster Land Company LLC.
“After considering all evidence and testimony, I find that the applicable Dorrance Township zoning ordinance does not unlawfully exclude data center usage,” said board member Dale Buchanan, who made the initial motion to deny the substantive validity challenge made by the company.
The board then unanimously denied the challenge, a decision that was met with applause from the nearly 100 residents who packed into the Dorrance Township Fire Hall for the hearing.
Matthew McHugh, attorney for Brewster Land Company, said after the hearing that the decision by the board was “not unexpected.”
“But we believe our case has merit, and we anticipate continuing our appeal,” he said.
The decision by the board comes little over a month following a previous hearing, which originally began in October 2025, that lasted about 2.5 hours and featured public comment as well as testimony from two expert witnesses on behalf of the applicant, who argued that the ordinance, as it existed prior to its amendment, did not “reasonably accommodate data center facilities.”
The amendment to the zoning ordinance adopted on Sept. 22, 2025, allows data centers only in industrial zones.
With its validity challenge, the Brewster Land Company sought site-specific relief to allow the company to build a data center on a parcel of land it owns on South Main Road, located in the B-2 Highway Business District.
However, at this time, no formal application for a data center has been submitted.
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