About 44 residents attend Butler Township’s planning commission meeting on Monday night.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
State Rep. Jamie Walsh speaks during Monday’s public comment section.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Butler Township Planning Commission attorney Sean Logsdon addresses the public at Monday’s meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
Planning Commission member Ned Warner speaks at Monday’s meeting.
Margaret Roarty | Times Leader
DRUMS — The Butler Township Planning Commission on Monday discussed a curative amendment that would regulate data centers in the community.
No official recommendation on the amendment was taken, as the commission plans to make additional revisions based on public comment.
The board of supervisors approved a resolution deeming portions of the zoning ordinance invalid because it does not address or define data centers during a meeting on May 12.
Originally, the supervisors were scheduled to hold a hearing on a proposed ordinance to regulate data centers at that meeting, but the hearing was canceled, and the resolution was added to the agenda instead.
Adopting a curative amendment was recommended by the planning commission during a special meeting on May 11.
The resolution gave the township 180 days to draft and then adopt the curative amendment.
According to the township zoning officer, no applications for a data center have been submitted to Butler Township.
“The question before the township was never simply, ‘Do we like data centers?’ The question was, ‘How do we regulate them in a way that complies with the MPC, while protecting the township?” said attorney Sean Logsdon.
Logsdon said the ordinance, which is available in full to read on the Butler Township website, was originally 8 pages and is now 35 pages long.
The additions to the draft of the ordinance have made it “substantially more comprehensive,” Logsdon said.
He also said many of the revisions were based on previous public comments.
“It now contains detailed standards” that address groundwater protection, water consumption, mine subsidence, abandoned mine lands, utility infrastructure, electricity demands, noise, and more.
According to the ordinance, data centers shall be permitted only as a special exception within the Industrial (I) Zoning District and only upon approval by the Butler Township Zoning Hearing Board.
Logsdon emphasizes that the curative amendment was not about “prohibiting” data centers.
“I just want to make that very clear,” he said. “Whether someone supports data centers or opposes them, I think everyone shares the same goal here, which is that if one is ever proposed in Butler Township, we want to make sure the township has the strongest, legally defensible ordinance possible.”
Planning Commission member Ned Warner praised the ordinance.
“I’ve taught on the university level for about 48 years. I’ve read literally hundreds of dissertation proposals. I have read very few, if any, that come close to the work Sean has done in the last couple of weeks,” Warner said.
Additionally, Warner said “so much” of the ordinance includes regulations that residents asked for, as well as those required by law.
Most public comments also praised the ordinance, while others made suggestions for revisions.
Rep. Jamie Wash, who has come out in fierce opposition to data center development, urged the planning commission to include a community benefit agreement in the ordinance, as other municipalities have done.
Logsdon said it was something the commission was still thinking about and had been going back and forth on, because he wasn’t sure whether it would be appropriate to include in the zoning or a developer’s agreement.
“I was worried about putting it in the ordinance because it’s sort of, you know, it sounds like there are strings attached to having something approved,” Logsdon said.