At a joint meeting Aug. 13, Lowhill Township Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission members reviewed proposed zoning ordinance amendment revisions and gave authorization to advertise Ordinance No. 2026-4 on bulk storage containers nonconforming uses and various other zoning amendments.

Township manager Mike Siegel began the discussion reminding everyone that the ordinance was prepared back in January, February and early March before the data center ordinance came about.

“Basically what I did after we did the zoning ordinance in 2025 and in 2024, I did Saldo’s I kept the log of typographic errors that were in both ordinances,” he said, “because of the nature of not only the speediness of getting those ordinances done, but because another firm had done it and I wanted to try to correct those issues.”

The other issue he brought up was one where definitions were not all there, and he wanted clarification on them.

“Attorney Rocco Beltrami, with Norris McLaughlin, P.A. Attorney At Law and I sat down and worked that out,” he said.

He said he also made a minor change for the township’s nonconforming use regulations to make them more synced and understandable.

“If you recall,” Beltrami said, “on July 9 we had a joint meeting where we reviewed the ordinance which was the data center regulations that are in 2026-5 as well as all the other amendments in 2026-4.

“So, 2026-4 actually just represents all the provisions from that combined ordnance we reviewed two months ago that now have been severed and placed in a separate ordinance,” he said. “The actual substance of these provisions is the same as it was at the July meeting. I think Mike and I were in agreement when we left that meeting of the sense that everybody was OK to move forward. We just wanted to bring it back just to show you it.”

“As it rightfully should be done,” Curtis Dietrich, board chairman, said before Stephen Lear, chairman of the planning commission, began a discussion on the clarification of the length of time a bulk storage container can remain on a property and any consequences.

Siegel said once a permit expires, then the enforcement proceeding can go forward.

Jeremy Schaller, planning commission member, asked Siegel what the consequence is if a person doesn’t have the permit or the second permit and the container is just left sitting there.

“I have a deterrent already in the zoning ordinance,” Siegel said. “If they operate that pod outside that 60 days, they get charged. I believe it’s three times the amount of the permit fee and the maximum may be five. I have to go back and look. It’s either three or five times the amount of the permit fee as a penalty for not applying for a permit.”

Beltrami said if a resident violates the zoning ordinance, it would be a criminal penalty with financial fines, but that really is the remedy that might initiate an enforcement action against someone.

Lear asked in regard to the ordinance that Attorney Beltrami would add some commentary about how at the end of 60 days, they have to remove it.

“I think all you need to do is at the end of the paragraph just add a sentence that says ‘Upon the expiration of the permit, and any additional permit issued thereafter, the landowner shall remove the bulk storage container,’” Beltrami said. “Something very simple just to let them know that once the permit is done, you have to get rid of it.”

He also thinks it might be helpful to add a sentence at the end to read: “To authorize the use of a bulk storage container beyond 60 days, an additional permit shall be obtained for a duration determined to be reasonably necessary by the zoning officer considering the purpose and/or function of the bulk storage container.”

Dietrich explained the definition of the bulk container accessory use structure is whether or not it is fixed to the land or serves as a portable container unit to assist with the storage of household or commercial goods and materials. Portable on demand storage units for temporary storage and removal of refuse, garbage, junk or other solid waste in connection with household business or construction activity shall not be considered a bulk container for the purpose of the definitions.

During the discussion, Lear said he didn’t want to delay the ordinance from being advertised.

He also said with the edits Beltrami will be adding to the ordinance, the planning commission recommends that the supervisors and planning commission members move forward and approve the ordinance.

Both planning commission members and board of supervisors approved authorizing the ordinance as amended with the revisions.

Beltrami said he calculates Oct. 8 as the township’s adoption date for the bulk storage container ordinance.

The board of supervisors and planning commission will hold a third joint meeting on Ordinance 2026-5 amendment to data center regulations at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10.

Part two of Ordinance 2026-5 amendment to data center regulations will run in the Sept. 3 edition of the Northwestern Press,