Greenwich Township Advances Data-Center Rules, $393K Grant

Greenwich Township has joined the northern Berks municipalities pushing data-center zoning toward a vote. At their Sept. 8 meeting, the supervisors voted to have the township solicitor advertise a draft data-center ordinance and schedule a public hearing, according to the minutes. At the same meeting the board leaned toward spending a $393,450 PennDOT grant on Braund Road and discussed, without deciding, whether to replace the Gun Club Road bridge instead.

The minutes are the only public record of the meeting, and they came late: the township's web server dates the file linked from its minutes page to Oct. 14, and the scanner stamped it Oct. 12, more than a month after the meeting. The meeting fell on a Tuesday because Labor Day took the first Monday, the rule on the board page; the Oct. 5 agenda calls it the "September 7" meeting. This is our first story on Greenwich, a rural township in northeastern Berks that borders Lehigh County and Windsor Township, per its zoning map. Supervisors Dean Spohn, Victor Berger and Carl Dunn all attended.

Data-center rules: adopt now, fix later

A data center is a large building full of computer servers, and the newest ones built for artificial intelligence draw heavy electricity and water. Our data-center tracker lists the more than 20 Berks municipalities writing zoning rules for them this year. Neighboring Windsor Township enacted its ordinance Aug. 11.

In Greenwich, the board received the draft ordinance along with comments from the Berks County Planning Commission and from Supervisor Dunn, the minutes say, then decided not to change it, because any change would send the draft back to the county and township planning commissions for another review. In the minutes' words: "The Board would like to be certain that regulations are in place and that changing any sections of the draft would delay the opportunity to advertisement and for the approval of the Ordinance. The Board would like to move ahead with this now and amend the Ordinance as necessary in the future."

On a motion by Dunn, seconded by Berger, the board authorized the solicitor "to advertise the proposed draft of the Data Center Ordinance and schedule a hearing." The minutes record the vote as all in favor. To advertise an ordinance means to publish a legal notice of it in a local newspaper before the board can vote; under Section 1601 of the Second Class Township Code, that notice must run seven to 60 days before passage and say where residents can read the full text. A zoning amendment also needs a public hearing before the vote, under Section 609 of the Municipalities Planning Code; the minutes' "schedule a hearing" is that step.

What the draft says is not public online. The township's ordinances page lists adopted ordinances only, none newer than 2023, and neither the minutes page nor the current agenda link carries the draft. The county Planning Commission's advice sheet for data centers recommends a conditional-use process, a minimum buffer from homes and a noise study, offering a 1,000-foot buffer and a 55-decibel property-line limit as examples; whether Greenwich's draft follows that advice, and which zoning district it covers, cannot be checked until the text or the legal notice appears. One resident, Anthony LaMastra of 1005 Old Route 22, reviewed the draft and gave the board his comments.

We found no Greenwich hearing notice in the Berks County Law Journal issues posted on PA Legal Ads through Oct. 8; the Oct. 15 issue was not yet posted, and the township's administration page says Zoning Hearing Board notices run in the legal sections of the Kutztown Patriot or the Reading Eagle, without saying where the supervisors advertise ordinances; we did not check either paper. The Oct. 5 agenda carried no data-center item at all.

$393,450 for Braund Road, bridge on hold

The minutes say the township "was awarded a PennDOT SHIP Grant in the amount of $393,450.00," from a PennDOT program the minutes call SHIP without spelling it out. The board had a cost estimate for improving Braund Road and discussed whether to spend the money there or hold it for replacing the Gun Club Road bridge. Dunn said PennDOT "was completing a study on Route 737 and it would be wise to wait until that is completed before moving forward with a bridge replacement." The board leaned toward Braund Road, which the minutes say needs "some pipe work and basin work" first, and authorized the roadmaster to meet with Great Valley Consultants on scope, design, engineering and permits. The minutes do not say when the grant was awarded or what the Braund Road estimate totals.

Gun Club Road is township road T-775; a 2011 township ordinance temporarily cut its speed limit to 25 mph during a long Route 737 closure for bridge replacements that pushed through-traffic onto it. Greenwich levies 1 mill of real estate tax, among the lowest municipal rates in the county's 2026 rate table, so $393,450 in state money is a large sum for its road work.

Other business

• Approved the 2027 minimum municipal obligation, the required yearly payment into its non-uniformed pension plan, at $46,297. The Oct. 5 agenda then listed Resolution 2026-14 "establishing the payment for the Township Minimum Municipal Obligation for 2027"; the Oct. 5 minutes are not yet posted.
• Approved a $7,400 quote from NA Studios to rebuild the township website "due to the age of the site" and a $1,540.60 quote for a new office computer.
• Accepted an Agricultural Security Area application from Nancy L. and Brian K. Rabenold for 66.93 acres at 709 Hottenstein Road. Resident Linda Wood of 142 Circle Road asked whether the township would set up a program to buy development rights; the solicitor pointed to Centre Township's agricultural easement program.
• Re-approved the Folino East Side subdivision plan for recording, and on the Lenhartsville LLC plan, formerly the Harmike plan, hired LTL Consultants after the township engineer declined the work over a potential conflict of interest.
• Approved a stormwater agreement with Matthew Leid, ratified rolling a certificate of deposit at New Tripoli Bank for 13 months at 3.73 percent, and adopted Resolution 2026-13 changing the signers on the township's bank accounts; tabled a non-land-development agreement with Paul Brubacher at the engineer's request.
• Authorized administrator Cindy Conrad to send Windsor Township a letter on winter snowplowing, with an intergovernmental agreement to follow; the Oct. 5 agenda carried that agreement for Hein, Yeager and Hill Top roads.

What happens next

No hearing date for the data-center ordinance has been published. The supervisors next meet Monday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the township building, 775 Old Route 22, Lenhartsville, per the board page, which sets regular meetings on the first Monday of each month, or the Tuesday after a Monday holiday. The Oct. 5 agenda also listed a zoning hearing on Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. for 1119 Long Lane Road, without saying where.