North Coventry Township’s 14-page draft data center ordinance received its first public review by the planning commission at a Sept. 15 meeting, where officials discussed regulating the location, intensity, setbacks, height, buffering, access, parking, noise and environmental impacts of data centers. The draft appears intended for the township’s industrial zoning district along the Schuylkill River, although that location is not specified in the ordinance. Proposed standards include a 1,500-foot property-line setback and requirements for closed-loop cooling systems, while commissioners also discussed groundwater monitoring, backup generators, emergency response planning and wastewater and fire runoff. The proposed regulations would not apply to an 86,000-square-foot data center proposal at the former Coventry Mall because that property is zoned commercial. The township began developing the ordinance after Douglass Township in Montgomery County withdrew from the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee, a move that will eventually remove protections that currently prevent several municipalities in the regional compact from having to accommodate data centers.
Source: Daily Local; 9/18/2026