Amity Township Puts Data Centers on Hold for 180 Days

Amity Township will not act on any data center application for up to six months. The Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No. 26-19 on Sept. 16, 2026, declaring that the township's zoning ordinance has no rules for data centers and freezing any data center application while the township writes some. The resolution does not name a specific data center project.

A data center is a building, or group of buildings, filled with computer servers and the power and cooling equipment that keep them running online and cloud services. The electricity, water, and cooling those buildings demand is the concern running through data center zoning debates across Berks County, and Amity is the latest township to decide its old zoning code is not ready for them.

What the township did

The resolution uses a tool in state law called a municipal curative amendment. Under Section 609.2 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, a township can declare its own zoning ordinance defective and start fixing it, and that declaration triggers a temporary freeze on applications tied to the defect. Amity's board found that its Zoning Ordinance of 1991 is defective because it does not provide for data center uses in any zoning district, and that gap is what the curative amendment will fill.

The freeze, which the resolution calls a stay, blocks the township from acting on any data center application while the new rules are drafted. It covers zoning and building permits for a data center, land development and subdivision plans that include one, and any variance, special exception, conditional use, or appeal tied to a data center. The stay lasts up to 180 days from the September 16 adoption, which runs into mid-March 2027, or until the board adopts or rejects the new rules, whichever comes first.

What the new rules will cover

The resolution directs the township solicitor to prepare a data center amendment and tells it what ground to cover. The list is a preview of the standards Amity expects to set:

• Which zoning districts could allow a data center, and whether by right, as a conditional use, or by special exception.
• Definitions for data centers and related equipment.
• Lot size, setbacks, lot coverage, and building height.
• Performance standards for noise, lighting, electromagnetic interference, screening, landscaping, and buffering.
• Utility and infrastructure needs, including electric supply, water, stormwater, and telecommunications.
• Impact studies for traffic, water, sewer, and electricity.
• Security, fencing, and access control.
• Decommissioning and site restoration once a data center closes.

What happens next

The draft amendment goes to the Amity Township Planning Commission and the Berks County Planning Commission for review before the Board of Supervisors holds a public hearing and votes on the final rules. Residents can weigh in at that hearing and at the board's regular meetings, held the third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 2004 Weavertown Road, Douglassville; 610-689-6000. The resolution took effect the day it passed and is signed by all five supervisors: Chairperson Kim McGrath, Vice Chairperson Kevin Keifrider, Paul Weller, Terry Jones, and Nate Halter.

Amity joins a long list of Berks County municipalities writing data center rules, some adopting ordinances and others, like Amity, pausing first. We track where each one stands in the Berks County data center tracker, and the township cluster is covered in our report on data center zoning across Berks townships.