Alsace Township Pauses Data Centers, Fire Pay to $120K

Alsace Township will not take in land development plans for a data center for up to six months, and starting Jan. 1 it will pay its two fire companies $120,000 a year, up from $88,000. Supervisors Keith Blankenbiller, Mike Stump and Shawn Dierolf voted for both on Sept. 16, and every motion that night "carried unanimously," according to the minutes (pp. 1-3), posted Oct. 26 as the first written record of the meeting. The board was scheduled to meet again Oct. 21; no minutes from that meeting are posted yet (minutes page).

The board also erased eight never-built streets in the Alsace Manor subdivision, authorized a court action against the owner of 2911 Pricetown Road, authorized advertising a 2027 draft budget with no figures in the record, and gave the Blandon Fire Company $30,000 toward an engine motor (pp. 1-3). Alsace Township is one of four townships in the Oley Valley School District and is a separate government from Lower Alsace Township.

A six-month pause on data-center plans

Solicitor Joan London introduced Resolution 2026-05, which the minutes call "a Curative Amendment to the Township's existing Zoning Ordinance." It "would allow the Township to not accept land development plans for a Data Center for up to six (6) months from the adoption of the amendment and allow the Township time to develop a formal amendment to the existing Zoning ordinance specifically dealing with Data Centers." It passed on Dierolf's motion (p. 1). The resolution itself is not posted.

A curative amendment is a tool in Section 609.2 of the state Municipalities Planning Code. A municipality that finds its zoning ordinance "substantially invalid" must "declare by formal action" that it is invalid and "propose to prepare a curative amendment," adopt a resolution of "specific findings" within 30 days, and enact the fix within 180 days. While that runs, it need not "entertain or consider any landowner's curative amendment" raising the same defect, and once the fix is enacted it cannot use the procedure again for 36 months, barring a change in state law or an appellate ruling (MPC § 609.2, p. 65). The minutes use the statute's term but do not mention Section 609.2, a declaration of invalidity or findings, and the resolution text is not posted. If Resolution 2026-05 follows the statute, the township has declared its own zoning defective on data centers and bought time to fix it before a developer can use the gap.

Alsace's Zoning Ordinance of 2017, last amended April 15, 2026 by Ordinance 2026-02, runs 118 pages on the township's zoning page, and the phrase "data center" appears nowhere in it (ordinance, pp. i, 114).

Amity Township adopted its own curative amendment, Resolution 26-19, the same night, freezing data-center applications for up to 180 days while it writes rules (our Amity recap; Amity's Sept. 16 minutes). Reading adopted a six-month moratorium in July. Where Berks municipalities stand is in our data center tracker. The Alsace minutes do not say whether any data-center proposal has reached the township.

Fire coverage: $88,000 to $120,000 a year, plus $30,000 for an engine

Township Manager Jan Moore presented a new Fire Coverage Agreement with the Blandon Fire Company and the Mt. Penn Fire Company, running Jan. 1, 2027 through Dec. 31, 2028. Asked by Stump what had changed, Moore said the existing agreement paid $88,000 a year in total and the new one pays $120,000 a year: Blandon gets 60 percent, or $72,000, and Mt. Penn 40 percent, or $48,000. The board adopted it on Stump's motion (p. 2). The increase is $32,000 a year, about 36 percent; the minutes do not say what drove it.

Later, after a vote to modify the agenda, Blankenbiller said "the Township was approached by the Blandon Fire Company about possibly contributing towards the cost of replacing a motor in one of the engines." His motion to contribute $30,000 passed (p. 3). The minutes do not say which engine or what the repair costs.

Blandon Fire Company, Station 12, is a volunteer company in Blandon, Maidencreek Township (company site). The county's list of fire organizations by zone includes no company with Alsace Township in its name; the Community Fire Co. of Lower Alsace is named for a separate township, and the list gives no service areas.

Alsace Manor's paper streets erased

A paper street is a road drawn on a recorded subdivision plan but never built. After a public hearing, the board adopted Ordinance 2026-04, vacating portions of Kegerise Drive, Heffner Avenue, Maple Avenue, Poplar Avenue, Spring Avenue, Elm Avenue, Willow Avenue and Walnut Avenue in Alsace Manor. Supervisors and residents asked about "access and property assessment, and procedure for annexation of vacated land," that is, how the strips under the erased streets attach to neighboring lots. A stenographer's transcript of the hearing will be added to the minutes once received; it is not posted yet (p. 1).

Other business

• Bills: $168,564.75 from the General Fund, $31,817.23 from the Sewer O&M Fund and $4,255.10 from the Sewer Fund (p. 1).
• 2911 Pricetown Road: London gave "an update on the legal situation" and got approval to "pursue and request a court ordered injunction against the owner of the property." The minutes do not say what the dispute is (p. 2); it was back on the Oct. 21 agenda as "2911 Pricetown update."
• 2439 Elizabeth: London gave an update, with no vote, on a change in taxing districts for the property; an agreement is to be signed by "both school districts and Townships involved" (p. 2). Muhlenberg Township's Oct. 19 agenda carried an agreement "regarding the correction of the real estate taxing district designation for a property in Alsace Township" (our Muhlenberg preview); the Alsace minutes do not name the other township.
• Stormwater agreements for 148 Beacon Hill Road and 50 Basket Road, the standard maintenance agreement for a resident with a retention basin or other stormwater facility on the property (p. 2).
• 2027 budget: the board authorized advertising the draft; no figures appear in the minutes (p. 2). The Oct. 21 agenda listed "Approval of draft budget as final budget," so the vote may already have happened. Alsace's 2026 municipal property tax rate is 1.75 mills, per our tax-rate guide.
• Route 12 sewer: Resolution 2026-06 makes "a minor update" to the township's Act 537 Component 3M plan for the Route 12 sewer extension (p. 2).
• Public works: the paving project is finished (p. 3). No Planning Commission meeting was held in September (p. 2).

What's next

The supervisors meet the third Wednesday of each month, with workshops the first Wednesday, at 6 p.m., per the schedule set at their Jan. 5 reorganization meeting (p. 2). The Nov. 4 workshop is cancelled (announcements), so the next business meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 18. The township posts no meeting location online; its office is 65 Woodside Ave., Temple, 610-929-5324 (boards page).

To watch for in the Oct. 21 and Nov. 18 records: whether the 2027 budget passed and at what tax rate, what the 2911 Pricetown Road injunction is about, and when a draft data-center ordinance surfaces. If the resolution is a Section 609.2 declaration, the state code's 180-day clock from Sept. 16 runs out in mid-March 2027. Minutes post on the township's minutes page.