West Pottsgrove has become the second municipality to announce its withdrawal from the eight-member Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Commission, with its board of commissioners voting 4-1 on June 3 to begin a one-year withdrawal process. The township cited vaguely documented concerns in board minutes about the township's costs and benefits from membership, regional cooperation and zoning obligations, such as accommodating land uses like data centers outside a regional planning framework. The departure follows Douglass Township's recent unanimous vote to formally withdraw as well, a decision rooted in a dispute that began in March when Douglass discovered North Coventry Township had studied Douglass's zoning to identify parcels suitable for a data center without informing Douglass officials first. Douglass was the only one of the eight municipalities zoned to allow data centers, so its departure has prompted the remaining townships — Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove, New Hanover and North Coventry — to begin drafting their own data center zoning amendments to maintain some regulatory control should such projects be proposed within their borders.
Source: Pottstown Mercury; 7/9/2026