New Morgan Enacted Data-Center Overlay, Now Weighs Changes

New Morgan Borough has enacted its Data Center Overlay District as Ordinance 2026-04, and council is already weighing changes to it. The borough's Oct. 19 council agenda is the first posted record that the ordinance passed after the Sept. 14 public hearing. It does not say when the vote happened or how each member voted, and no minutes for September or October are posted.

The agenda's correspondence item (p. 1) reads in full: "Haycreek Water Association and Joanna Furnace submitted a letter of recommendation for amendments for the Data Center Overlay Ordinance. With the recommendations that have been submitted, along with the recommendation letters received (in writing) at the Public Hearing that was held on September 14, 2026, Borough Council is taking the same under advisement for a proposed amendment to the Ordinance that was passed."

Business item B (p. 2): "The Borough Council will discuss amending Ordinance 2026-04 of the data center overlay. If Council decides to amend Ordinance 2026-04, council will authorize Borough to advertise for a public hearing with a date still to be determined." That is a plan, not an outcome; the agenda does not say what the letter asked for.

What the hearing draft says

The ordinance began on June 8, when council voted unanimously "to approve Borough solicitor to draft an ordinance for data center usage in New Morgan Borough," on a motion by Chris Weber seconded by Doreen Smith, and then, after a 17-minute executive session on real estate, "discussed and made a motion for an overlay to be created on New Morgan Borough property, parcel 56531102497468 for the use of a data center," without recording a vote, according to the June 8 minutes (p. 2). The Aug. 10 agenda (p. 2) again calls it "parcel 56531102497468 owned by New Morgan Borough."

A zoning overlay adds rules on top of a property's regular zoning district; a conditional use is a use council may approve after a hearing, with conditions. The 19-page hearing draft, posted on the borough's 2026 Public Hearings page, says in its opening recital that the overlay is for that one parcel (p. 1), but the zoning map that would define the district, Exhibit A, is a blank page (p. 19). The one-parcel scope rests on the recital and the June 8 motion.

The hearing draft allows data centers by conditional use (p. 2). It sets 50-foot setbacks (p. 4) and a 50-foot height limit that council can raise to 80 feet (p. 5). It sets noise limits of 65 dB(A), or 10 dB(A) above ambient noise if that is higher, on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and 55 dB(A) at night and all day Saturday and Sunday, measured at the property line of a "sensitive receptor" such as a home, school or church, with power outages excluded (pp. 4, 7). Any data center drawing cooling water from wells must file a well withdrawal impact study (p. 9) and may not use well water for cooling if the study shows harm to groundwater (p. 11). It requires proof of river basin commission approval, "if necessary or required," for withdrawals of 100,000 gallons a day or more over a 30-day average, or consumptive use of 20,000 gallons a day or more, "including the Hay Creek Watershed" (p. 12). And it bars any data center from drawing water through the Borough Utilities Authority's interconnection with the Caernarvon Township Authority, which the draft says exists "solely for emergency system resiliency" (p. 12).

That is the hearing draft, with the ordinance number blank; whether council changed anything before passing it is not in any posted record, and the adopted text may differ. The borough office is at 200 Bethlehem Drive, Suite 104, Morgantown, per the council page; the site posts no copy of the adopted ordinance.

The Sept. 14 agenda (p. 1) listed a second hearing the same night: rezoning the same parcel from Residential to Industrial, advertised after an Aug. 13 special meeting. The map amendment (p. 1) describes the land as "Morgantown Road." The Oct. 19 agenda does not say whether that rezoning passed. Item C (p. 2), pricing a zoning map update "to match recent Zoning Changes," suggests the map changed, without saying how.

Who wrote the letter

The agenda identifies the writers only as "Haycreek Water Association and Joanna Furnace" and does not say what the letter recommends. Joanna Furnace is a historic iron furnace site in Robeson Township near Morgantown, which operated from 1792 to 1901 and was deeded by Bethlehem Steel in 1979 to the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association, per Wikipedia; the association's own website could not be reached. Two different "Hay Creek" groups exist: that historical association, and the volunteer Hay Creek Watershed Association, a Berks Nature program whose page says the 22-square-mile watershed includes parts of Brecknock, Caernarvon, Robeson and Union townships and the boroughs of Birdsboro and New Morgan. We found no group named exactly "Haycreek Water Association," so the agenda's phrase could describe one letter from the historical association or a joint letter; the record does not say which.

New Morgan is one of more than 20 Berks municipalities writing data-center rules this year, per our data-center tracker and our report on the zoning rush.

Other business and a late agenda

Item A (p. 2) asks council to approve Resolution 2026-02 "to submit for the Twin Valley Fire Department Grant"; no amount is given.

The agenda is dated Oct. 19, but the council page and the Sept. 14 agenda (p. 2) both set the October meeting for Oct. 12; no posted notice explains the change. The borough's agendas page says the Sunshine Act requires agendas 24 hours before a meeting; the file's own metadata dates it to 12:36 p.m. on Oct. 19, the day of the 7 p.m. meeting. The newest posted minutes are from June 8.

The next regular meeting is Monday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m., after the Utilities Authority meeting, per the agenda (p. 2).