Perry Township Sets Data Center Rules, 1,000 Ft From Homes

Perry Township now allows data centers, but only in one zoning district and only after a public hearing on each project. The Board of Supervisors enacted Ordinance No. 09-2026 on Sept. 8, 2026, adding rules to the township's 1988 zoning ordinance that set where a data center can be built and what its owner has to prove before building. The ordinance takes effect five days after enactment, so it is now in force. We previewed the hearing and vote last week, when the full text was available only to read in person; the signed ordinance is now posted, and this is what it says.

A data center is a building or group of buildings filled with computer servers and storage equipment that run online and cloud services. The ordinance's own definition also covers cryptocurrency mining, blockchain processing, and server farms. The heavy electricity, water, and cooling equipment these buildings use is the concern running through data-center ordinances across Berks County. Perry is writing its rules ahead of any known project; no company has applied to build a data center in the township.

Where a data center can go

The ordinance allows a data center only in the township's CLI Commercial Light-Industrial District, and only as a "conditional use." A conditional use is one the zoning code permits after the elected supervisors hold a public hearing on the specific project and attach conditions to it. No data center can be approved over the counter. Each proposal returns to the board for its own hearing, where the board weighs the site, nearby uses, and the standards below.

The ordinance sets size and spacing rules for any such project:

• A minimum lot of 10 acres, at least 300 feet wide and 500 feet deep.
• Front, rear, and side yard setbacks of 100 feet each.
• Buildings no taller than 50 feet, covering no more than 30 percent of the lot, with total lot or impervious coverage capped at 50 percent.
• Located at least 1,000 feet from a principal building used as a home, school, or institution, and at least 500 feet from land zoned residential.
• Public sanitary sewer and public water service, with utility lines placed underground unless the utility requires otherwise.

What a builder has to prove

Most of the ordinance is a checklist a data-center applicant must satisfy as part of the conditional-use hearing. Among the requirements:

• An environmental impact assessment covering water resources, air quality, lighting, noise and vibration, habitat, farmland, and stormwater, plus a traffic impact study and a utility impact report on sewer, water, groundwater, and energy demand.
• A hydrogeologic analysis with at least two test wells, on-site monitoring wells, and monitoring of existing wells within 2,000 feet of the site. Draw-down testing must run at least 72 hours and account for normal and drought conditions. Desk studies without field testing are not accepted.
• A closed-loop cooling system, which recirculates a sealed coolant instead of discharging water. Open evaporative cooling towers are prohibited unless the applicant proves closed-loop cooling is infeasible and the board grants a waiver.
• Buildings certified to the LEED silver green-building standard, with electric-vehicle charging stations.
• Continuity-of-operations and facility emergency-management plans, coordinated with township fire, police, and ambulance services and the county's emergency services department.

Noise limits

The ordinance caps noise measured at any lot line, including when standby generators are running. A data center may not exceed 67 dB(A) from 7:00 a.m. to 7:59 p.m. Monday through Friday, or 57 dB(A) from 8:00 p.m. to 6:59 a.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday. The caps do not apply during a power outage unless the outage lasts six hours or more. Applicants must file sound studies at the application, permit, and post-construction stages, and fix any violation found afterward.

Cleanup money set aside up front

The ordinance requires the owner to tear down and clean up a data center within 12 months after the end of its useful life, and it treats a center as retired if it sits unused for 12 straight months. To guarantee the work, the owner must post decommissioning funds with the township equal to the estimated net cleanup cost plus 10 percent, held as cash, a bond, or a letter of credit and delivered before the final plan is recorded. The township can review the estimate every five years and require more. If the owner walks away, the township can use the funds to do the work itself.

Projects with more than 50 truck docks must add staffed guard checkpoints with enough on-site queuing space to keep tractor-trailers off public streets, and truck idling in any public right-of-way is barred. Every data center must provide a landscaped buffer yard, and where no natural or mature-tree screen exists, that buffer includes a 60-foot-wide earthen berm raised 8 feet.

Perry joins a countywide wave

Perry, a rural township north of Reading in the Hamburg Area School District, is one of a growing number of Berks municipalities writing data-center rules as developers scout sites. Neighboring Windsor Township adopted its own data-center ordinance in August with a similar structure: conditional use, a 10-acre minimum, 100-foot setbacks, and a 1,000-foot separation from homes. Our Berks County data-center tracker lists where every local ordinance stands.

Local zoning is the main point of control. Gov. Josh Shapiro's Executive Order 2026-05, signed Aug. 18, conditions state data-center permits on local approval, which puts the decision on ordinances like this one. For what a township controls compared with the county and the state, see how Berks County government works.

What happens next

The ordinance defines the rules but approves nothing on its own. Any company that wants to build would still need its own conditional-use hearing before the supervisors, plus land-development approval, and would have to meet every standard above. The township's meeting minutes for Sept. 8 are not yet posted, so this account rests on the executed ordinance itself, which the township has published with its full text.