Municipal Monday, Issue 16. A weekly digest of regulatory and development activity from 32 Central Pennsylvania municipalities.
THE PATTERN: Eight municipalities across five counties have data center or solar energy zoning files open, and one moved the week of August 24. Newberry Township in York County listed a motion on August 25 to advertise a special meeting and public hearings for data center and solar energy ordinances, the two paired in one motion. East Hanover Township in Dauphin County carried Ordinance 2026-02, data centers and battery energy storage, on its August 18 agenda, with no minutes posted since. East Pennsboro Township moved August 19 to direct its solicitor to advertise Ordinance 864-2026, which adds data center definitions and a new Annex District. In Middlesex Township, Cumberland County’s application for a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow principal solar energy systems by conditional use in the Institutional districts is pending, with a public hearing October 7. Reading, North Londonderry, Camp Hill and Monroe are carrying drafts. No hearing dates are posted anywhere.
What each of these municipalities writes is now the gate on a state permit rather than a separate track from it. Executive Order 2026-05 put local approval and comprehensive plan consistency in front of a DEP permit for data centers over 25 megawatts, which makes the ordinance being drafted this fall the document that decides when the state clock starts.
ON THE BOARDS: East Hanover Township accepted a Pennsylvania State Police headquarters plan for review on August 25: roughly 20.73 acres southeast of Routes 22 and 743, about 51,300 square feet across three buildings, with the review clock running to November 23. The stated breakdown is a 34,500 square foot headquarters, a 14,400 square foot indoor firing range and 2,400 square feet of evidence storage, on Highway and Neighborhood Commercial ground. Derry Township’s Planning Commission takes up the Enclave at Silverbrook preliminary plan September 1, Lower Allen had the Liberty Forge Phase 1 final plan on August 24, and Harrisburg listed two infill plans totaling 10 dwelling units on August 25.
LONG HORIZON: Three municipalities are rewriting plans and ordinances wholesale rather than amending them. East Hanover has its zoning ordinance, zoning map and land development ordinance on its September 1 agenda together, with agritourism and short-term rental amendments alongside. Harrisburg posted a policy work session on its zoning code amendment for August 26. Newberry listed resolutions to seek up to $75,000 in grants for its comprehensive plan.
Separately, Hampden Township opened its August 27 agenda with a public hearing on a landowner curative amendment application. Under the Municipalities Planning Code that instrument typically carries a claim that the zoning ordinance is substantively invalid as applied to a property, which is a different track from a variance or a waiver and carries a different remedy. The agenda says no more than that: no parcel, no ordinance section, no statement of what is being challenged. Everything past the name of the instrument is inference until the hearing record is posted.
COST TO WATCH: $976,759.73 in improvement security was up for release on two agendas: $655,637.73 on Hampden’s Garbrick Tract, where the agenda says all work is complete, and $321,122 on Silver Spring’s Waterford Square, leaving $4,633. Both were listed for action with no minutes posted. South Middleton and Derry carried eight more security actions, reductions, releases and one acceptance, with no amounts posted. Lower Allen took up the West Shore Recreation Commission’s proposed per capita fee, $3.30 to $3.45.
If a zoning rewrite or an expiring review clock touches ground you hold in these municipalities, we can tell you what it means for the specifics.
Municipal Monday runs weekly. Next issue: 9/7.