Fayette’s Springhill Township introduces data center ordinance
As a company shows interest in recruiting a data center to Fayette County’s Springhill Township, the township is working on ordinances that would create stricter limits on how they could operate.
The township board voted Thursday night to schedule a special meeting Sept. 3 for an ordinance regulating data centers in the township, as well as a noise and dust ordinance and one concerning fossil fuel power plants.
The township had begun discussions about a data center ordinance in February after seeing proposals in neighboring counties, said Chairman Damon Hellen. The urgency escalated in June, when representatives from Nadara, an independent power production company, told the board the company had entered into a right-to-purchase agreement with the Fay-Penn Economic Council for 800 acres near Gans.
No proposals or permit applications have come before the township yet, Hellen said.
Because the township had no existing data center wording in its ordinance, it was able to trigger a six-month pause while it considers the new measures.
“We’re a small municipality, and our budget’s not huge … but I feel like I want to hold them to the fire,” said Hellen. “If they want to live here, if they want to work here, I want them to be a good neighbor.”
The data center ordinance would restrict data centers and accompanying power plants as a conditional use in the township’s heavy industrial and light industrial zoning districts.
Data center buildings and equipment would be required to stand at least 200 feet back from the property line, and could not be within 400 feet from an occupied home. For electric power generation facilities, those limits expand to 500 feet and 1,500 feet, respectively.
While some residents had argued for a bigger setback, board members said they had to keep it at a reasonable level to avoid a retaliatory lawsuit.
“We can push the envelope a little bit, but if we go crazy, our fear is they’ll take us to court and throw the whole zoning ordinance out,” Hellen said. “Then we go back to 50 feet.”
The noise ordinance would require daytime limits of 55 decibels at day and 45 at night when measured at the property line nearest an affected residence.
It would also place restrictions on sub-bass frequencies at the edge of people’s hearing range that register as vibrations — 65 decibels for 31.5 hertz, and 60 decibels for 63 hertz.
Data center proposals to the township must also contain a description of an energy production plan that does not rely on the existing grid, as well as an analysis of how the company plans to meet the center’s water needs.
Other stipulations include landscape buffers and decommissioning standards.
Township Solicitor Dave Tamasy said the township has been looking at state grants and funding for a wider revamp of its zoning ordinance, which could potentially cost up to $75,000.
“That takes a year before we could even potentially get a grant,” he said. “Then it takes six months to a year to do a comprehensive plan. So we just ran out of time.”
The ordinances will go to the township and county planning commissions, whose members will have 30 days to review and submit comments. Tamasy is reviewing the text to incorporate issues raised by residents at two public workshops earlier this month.
Hellen said anti-data center residents have complimented him on the ordinances.
“I guess we won’t know how good it is until somebody comes, and then at that point you’ll find out, ‘Hey man, we did good, or ‘Hey, we’ve got to go back and make some changes,'” he said.
Township resident David Headley, who came to the second of the township’s workshops, said he didn’t want to see another unregulated industry coming into the township.
“It’s good that they’re paying attention to what’s going on,” he said. “I’d personally like to see even more restrictions. But it has to be a level playing field.”
Hellen said he would expect a final vote on the ordinance in October.
The draft ordinances for data centers, power generation and noise are available on the township’s website at springhilltownshippa.org.