Doylestown Township has adopted new rules governing data centers, and New Britain Township is writing its own as Bucks County municipalities work to regulate the growing industry.

The Doylestown Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Oct. 27 to adopt Ordinance No. 435, according to the township's website. No developer has applied to build a data center in the township. The ordinance sets standards before any proposals arrive.

Under the new law, standalone data centers are allowed only in the township's Limited Industrial (LI) District and only as a conditional use. Any proposal would require a public hearing and Board of Supervisors approval.

Key provisions include a 60-foot building height limit, 100-foot setbacks from property lines and 200-foot setbacks next to homes or residential districts. The ordinance requires public water and sewer connections, a closed-loop or water-saving cooling system, buried power lines and noise studies before and after construction. Nuclear power generation is prohibited.

Developers would also have to file an emergency response plan reviewed by local fire officials, a heat-impact reduction plan, an electronic waste plan and a decommissioning plan. Before the first Planning Commission meeting on any proposal, the developer must hold a public meeting and notify everyone within 500 feet by mail.

New Britain still drafting

New Britain Township is earlier in the process. Supervisors voted to declare the township's zoning ordinance substantively invalid for failing to define or regulate data centers, directing the solicitor to begin a curative amendment process allowed under Pennsylvania law, Central Bucks Now reported in July. A later Bucks County Herald report in September dated the declaration to August. The action gives the township up to six months to develop a comprehensive ordinance.

Township Manager Nick Valla stressed during the Sept. 14 Board of Supervisors meeting that the process should not be read as an invitation for data center development.

"Not to say we want them to come, but simply to say if they come, because by law we have to allow them somewhere, we are creating the definition of what they would look like," Valla said, according to the Herald.

The township laid out a tentative schedule in September. Several milestones on that timeline have since passed, but no public updates on their outcomes appear in the record. The remaining tentative dates include a final Planning Commission recommendation Nov. 24, supervisors potentially authorizing advertisement of an ordinance Dec. 7, and a final vote as late as Jan. 25, 2027.

That January date matters. Township officials identified it as the last reasonable meeting date before the six-month curative period expires.

Planner Judy Stern Goldstein was expected to lead the effort, the Herald reported in September. Township engineer Gilmore & Associates told supervisors that Goldstein has worked on data center regulations for about nine municipalities.

Valla encouraged residents to follow meeting agendas on the township website for schedule changes.

Across Bucks County

The two townships are part of a broader wave. A Nov. 10 Bucks County Herald article on West Rockhill Township's data center ordinance listed Doylestown Township, New Britain Township, Upper Makefield Township, Morrisville Borough, Northampton Township and East Rockhill Township among municipalities that have approved, updated or are developing data center rules.

The Bucks County Planning Commission has identified data centers as an emerging land-use issue and is encouraging municipalities to set regulations before development applications arrive, the Herald reported in its September coverage of New Britain.

New Britain's six-month curative window closes at the end of January 2027.