Bethel Township starts data-center rules, Sept. 8 workshop

Bethel Township's supervisors are set to take the first steps toward zoning rules for data centers at their meeting Thursday, August 13, at 6 p.m., including a vote to advertise a public workshop on the draft for September 8.

A data center is a large building full of computer servers that store and run online services. The biggest ones pull heavy electricity and water and run cooling equipment that can be noisy, which is why the local rules for what can be built where, called zoning, have become a flashpoint across Berks County.

What the board takes up Thursday

Two items on the agenda start the process:

• The township solicitor, Elizabeth Magovern, would be authorized to have a draft data-center ordinance prepared for the township to discuss at a workshop.
• The board would vote to advertise a joint workshop of its Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors on that draft. The township has it penciled in for Tuesday, September 8, at 6 p.m.

A workshop is a public working session, not a vote. It is where officials talk through a draft in the open before it is formally advertised for a hearing and a possible adoption vote. Residents can attend and listen, and it is an early chance to follow the rules while they are still being written.

Nothing is adopted yet

Bethel has no data-center ordinance today, and Thursday's steps do not create one. After the workshop, a draft would still have to be advertised, go through a public hearing, and win a vote of the supervisors before it takes effect. This is the start of that road, not the end.

Bethel joins a countywide push

Bethel, a rural township in northern Berks, is one of a growing number of county municipalities writing data-center rules as developers look for sites. Our roundup of townships weighing data-center zoning and a six-municipality preview from the Hamburg area cover the wider wave. Many of the local drafts would make a data center apply for conditional-use approval, a permit a project gets only if it meets extra conditions, and would set limits on things like noise and how far the buildings sit from neighbors. The county planning commission has recommended standards, including conditional-use review, that show up in several of these local drafts.

How to follow it or take part

• If the board approves it Thursday, the joint workshop would be held Tuesday, September 8, at 6 p.m. The township office is at 60 Klahr Road, Bethel, and the board normally meets the second Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. Confirm the workshop's date and location with the township before going.
• To find and follow your own local meetings, see our guide to township and borough meeting schedules, and for what a township controls versus the county and the state, how Berks County government works.

Berks Beat will report the outcome once the township posts minutes or a public notice.