Reading adopts 180-day pause on data centers

Reading City Council voted Monday night to freeze new data-center proposals for six months while the city writes zoning rules for them. Council adopted the resolution, item 7-A on its July 13 regular meeting agenda, declaring part of the zoning code legally defective because it says nothing about data centers and invoking a state process that pauses applications for 180 days.

The vote was unanimous, WFMZ reported. The written minutes with the roll call are not posted yet; the meeting is on video through BCTV.

What the resolution does

A curative amendment is how a Pennsylvania municipality admits its own zoning ordinance has a gap and commits to fixing it. Section 609.2 of the state Municipalities Planning Code lets a municipality declare its ordinance "substantively invalid," which starts a 180-day clock. Reading used it to close the code's silence on data centers. The rest of the zoning ordinance stays in force.

During those 180 days, the resolution says the city "shall not be required to entertain or consider any zoning permit application, zoning approval or landowner curative amendment" for a data center or a similar use. In the same period, Council and the City Planning Commission are to draft and adopt the amendment that fills the gap. The clock runs to roughly early January 2027.

The practical effect: a company cannot force a data-center application through Reading's current, silent code, and no such application had been filed when Council acted.

What council members said

Council solicitor Michael Gombar told Council the process gives the city a 180-day window to write its own rules, and that a developer who brought a data-center proposal during that time "would not be entertained," according to WFMZ. Councilmember Jaime Báez Jr., who referred the resolution and had pushed a parallel draft ordinance at the July 6 committee meeting, said he looked forward to passing a law to protect residents. Council President Donna Reed said taking extra time is part of the legislative process. During public comment, resident Christopher Garcia spoke against data centers, pointing to their heavy electricity use.

Spring Township took up the same tool

The same night, a few miles west, the Spring Township Board of Supervisors carried its own "Resolution required by Section 609.2.1.i regarding Data Centers" as item X-A on its July 13 agenda, the identical state tool. Spring's minutes were not posted as of this writing. We will confirm the outcome when they appear.

Both moves fit a pattern our earlier report traced through data-center rules moving in five Berks municipalities at once: electricity demand in the tens of megawatts, water for cooling, noise, and the question of what happens to the buildings when an operator leaves.

What happens next

The pause buys time; it does not set the rules. Over the next six months Reading has to decide where data centers may go and under what limits on power, water, noise, and site cleanup. That work runs through the City Planning Commission and Council, where the draft ordinance and public comment will land. Which government controls which zoning decision is laid out in how Berks County government works, and our full coverage of the city collects on the Reading page.

Our preview of Monday's vote set out the resolution before the meeting. Reading's next regular Council meeting is July 27.