Municipal Monday, Issue 14. A weekly digest of regulatory and development activity from 32 Central Pennsylvania municipalities.
THE PATTERN: Data center zoning is moving through three procedural stages, in three counties, inside a single week. Monroe Township in Cumberland County had authorization of its data center zoning amendment on its August 13 agenda. Reading Township in Adams County has a referral to hearing on its August 17 agenda. East Hanover Township in Dauphin County holds its hearing August 18, with adoption of proposed Ordinance 2026-02 on the same agenda. East Hanover’s is the one to read: it covers data centers and battery energy storage systems in one amendment. If you are siting either, the definitions section matters more than the setback table. None had been adopted as of Friday, August 14, and both meetings fall in the week of August 17.
ON THE BOARDS: South Middleton Township’s August 13 agenda carried three plans, all with the review clock running out. Georgetowne, 115.51 acres on S Ridge Road, is a preliminary plan for 196 lots, filed in 2020, with a deadline the agenda posts as August 30. Dennison Circle shares that deadline, and Morgan’s Crossing Townhouses Phase II’s deadline fell the night of the meeting itself. A board in that position acts, secures the applicant’s written extension, or the plan is deemed approved.
Halden Horizons asked Susquehanna to waive land development review to convert the office building at 2150 Herr Street into 30 apartments. Seven more municipalities carried land development items, among them South Hanover, Reading, Carroll (York) and Monaghan.
LONG HORIZON: Four municipalities have plan or ordinance rewrites under way. East Hanover is moving its zoning ordinance, map and land development ordinance together, plus agritourism and short-term rental amendments. Camp Hill’s comprehensive plan RFP closed August 14, and its solicitor has a LERTA and RLERTA draft the committee wants widened beyond downtown. Hampden’s August 14 walkability workshop feeds its comprehensive plan update. Susquehanna took up advertising a vacant property registration rewrite for a September 10 public meeting.
COST TO WATCH: Two agendas posted financial security figures totaling just over $981,314. Lower Allen was asked for a $293,679 reduction on the Wawa plan, and Carroll Township in York County to release $687,635 held for Northern Elementary. Both were requests with no outcome posted as of Friday, August 14; Swatara and South Londonderry carried reductions with no posted amount. The longer tail is Susquehanna’s Ordinance 2026-04, which would take stormwater facility inspections from every three to five years to annual, with a report due each June 1. Its hearing was August 13, with no outcome posted as of Friday, August 14. Adopted, that is a permanent line item for anyone who owns a basin.
If you hold ground in these townships, especially where a rewrite or an expiring clock touches your site, we are glad to talk through what it means for the specifics.
Municipal Monday runs weekly. Next issue: 8/24.