The Lowhill Township Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission reviewed Ordinance No. 2026-5, which would amend the township’s data center regulations, during a joint meeting Aug. 13 and considered authorizing its advertisement in accordance with the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.

Attorney Rocco Beltrami of Norris McLaughlin, P.A., said the proposed data center ordinance caused some confusion when it was presented at the previous month’s meeting. To make the regulations easier to read and understand, he said he and township manager Mike Siegel created a separate article that consolidates all new data center provisions in one section.

“I’ve also drafted this in a way where it incorporates everything that’s already in the existing ordinance,” Beltrami said.

“I think we got a lot of feedback on aggregate electrical demand at the last meeting,” he said. “People wanted to see that more clearly defined and how that’s calculated. ‘Battery energy storage system’ is a term that a lot of ordinances out there that I’m seeing are using, so we actually came up with a definition, and we use it elsewhere in the ordinance.”

He said no changes were made to the definitions of a de minimis residential compute system, digital infrastructure facility, distributed compute node system, or edge computing facility. The only revisions addressed concerns raised at the previous meeting about gaps in the kilowatt thresholds caused by decimal values falling between whole numbers.

“That’s the best way to describe it,” he said. “Now, we capture every single kilowatt threshold.”

Beltrami said going through the uses remain the same. They’re still permitted where they’re permitted.

“The scheme that this ordinance creates is that there’s really two kinds of principal data center uses. That’s what you’re seeing proposed across the country,” he said. “The large-scale data centers that are similar to warehouses are edge computing facilities. That’s one kind of principle use, and then the next one is a hyper digital infrastructure facility which is basically just a very large-scale data center. Those are distinguished by their aggregate electrical demand.

“Then you get to accessory uses. The lowest level is a de minimis residential compute system that is only allowed to be accessory to a residential use.”

He said the best way to describe it is sort of how you’ll see in some yards where they have little PPL boxes, screen boxes usually.

“That’s somewhat what we are visioning but more so we’re envisioning sort of a box that goes on to the house, very small,” Beltrami said. “It’s performing work that is done aggregated with other boxes within the township to create sort of the same output that a large data center would, but the impacts are spread out.”

He said a similar concept is the distributed compute node system.

“The distinction there is that these are only permitted as accessory to anything that’s not a residential use. So you can have these at schools and businesses. Even here at the township, we have a cell tower, so we do have one of these,” Beltrami said.

The de minimis residential compute system is a similar concept in terms of spreading out the accumulative effects and aggregating the work, he said.

Siegel said he wanted to stress that Lowhill is the first township in the state to regulate data centers as an accessory use, rather than creating a situation in which they are effectively barred from the township.

“By breaking these facilities into categories based on power levels, I think Lowhill Township can regulate data centers the way they should be regulated through these ordinances,” Siegel said. “We can’t focus only on hyperscale data centers. We also have to consider de minimis facilities because that’s where the industry is headed. I say that because this township has been inundated with cellular tower permit applications over the last six months to a year.”

He said cell towers are being upgraded to accommodate next-generation wireless technology capable of supporting data center functions. By transmitting data through wireless networks, he said, smaller data centers could be located in homes or contained within simple switching boxes.

“The best example I can give you on this is right outside this door. Right now there’s a AT&T Verizon switching box that can be used for a compute node system. People drive down 100 and they don’t even know it’s there. They just see a brick building. They know it’s a switching station. It’s as simple as that, and it is loaded with data center equipment,” he said.

A question was raised asking whether the ordinance would actually protect local communities.

Beltrami responded “It does. The applicant is required to provide information from the utility service provider about the capacity in the area, the impact on service and any upgrades that would be required to serve the premises. So we would be getting a lot of information about the capacity and any impacts on the neighboring properties.

“There should be a language in there, it might not be in there explicitly, that if you have impacts on neighboring properties, you must be denied. That’s more of a general public safety, heath welfare standard when the board is acting on these applications.”

Siegel said applicants proposing larger facilities would have to make their case during the conditional-use process. He said that gives Lowhill an advantage over many other municipalities, where larger uses are subject to conditional-use hearings and receive a higher level of review.

Planning Commission chairman Stephen Lear said he is in favor of getting this right, being thorough and waiting. On the other hand, he said, time sometimes isn’t a friend.

Lear posed a question to Siegel: “Through your sources, your contacts, do you have any thoughts or concerns about somebody knocking on our door?”

Siegel answered, “This is for taking it to the next step and trying to get people who come in with a hyper scale to look and see we allow a normal system in here rather than one centralized location to destroy our environment.

“We’re giving you that choice so you can’t say that we’re not allowing you. That’s what I’m trying to say so it doesn’t go into a legal situation.”

“I want to stress to everybody the ordinances in other municipalities do not have a zoning ordinance and Saldo as strict as we do,” Seigel said. “Just because we have a great data center ordinance, our Saldo and zoning ordinance is a tremendous help to us where other municipalities don’t have that. Like the water requirements.

“Our SALDO already requires water studies and similar reviews,” Siegel said. “We also have environmental overlay districts and other safeguards in place. So when these projects come in, they won’t simply be rubber-stamped. Any hyperscale data center proposed for the township would have to meet the criteria established in the zoning ordinance.”

He said he is sure David Alban, township engineer with Keystone Consulting Engineers, and Beltrami could say that it’s one of the toughest in the valley, if not in the state.

Curt Dietrich, board chairman, suggested it would help him to forward a draft to the Pennsylvania State Association of Secondary Townships and let them take a look at it and give the township any feedback they may have.

After further discussion and several residents speaking at the meeting, a motion was made to table the matter.

Another joint meeting to discuss Ordinance No. 2026-5, which would amend the township’s data center regulations, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 10.