Municipal Monday, Issue 18. A weekly digest of regulatory and development activity from 32 Central Pennsylvania municipalities.
THE PATTERN: Nine municipalities in five counties have a data center file active in the last 90 days. Five are new to the count: South Hanover, Camp Hill, Upper Allen, Conewago (Dauphin) and Reading (Adams). Derry Township’s September 8 agenda asked its Board to authorize its Solicitor to seek party status before the South Hanover Township Zoning Hearing Board, in the special exception application and substantive challenge filed by HCI DP Land Acquisition LLC to establish a data center on the former Hummelstown Quarry site. Derry has no file of its own; a township seeking party status in another’s zoning case is a first in this series. South Hanover’s own Board of Supervisors agenda carries no data center item. Camp Hill Borough has the furthest-along draft, in committee, with setbacks and lot size in the Light Industrial Zone still open. Upper Allen’s Planning Commission takes up a draft Chapter 245 amendment on September 28 covering data centers and battery storage. Middlesex, East Pennsboro, Newberry and North Londonderry stay open.
The drafting is where this lands. Executive Order 2026-05 put local approval and comprehensive plan consistency in front of a DEP permit for data centers over 25 megawatts, so the ordinance a township writes this fall is the document that decides when the state clock can start.
ON THE BOARDS: Twenty-one plans carry a board or commission action across ten municipalities, on agendas dated September 8 to 17. Four are in Harrisburg, carrying 52 dwelling units: 34 affordable in the TLC Capstone Project, eight rowhomes on Logan Street, four more on Jefferson Street, and a six-unit building on Walnut Street. Carroll Township carries three, two with review deadlines September 23 and 24. Derry carries three, including a seventh time extension on one plan. Middlesex’s Planning Commission took up PAX-1 Phase 1-C and Phase 2 on September 14. Monroe, Susquehanna, Swatara, Londonderry, South Middleton and East Hanover carry nine more.
LONG HORIZON: Four municipalities have a zoning, subdivision or real-property ordinance file in motion. East Hanover Township in Dauphin County still has zoning, map and subdivision ordinance updates open. New Cumberland Borough has eminent domain Ordinance #731 back on the table over the parking lot at 320 Bridge Street. Londonderry has a rezoning petition, and Susquehanna a vacant property ordinance.
COST TO WATCH: Eight municipalities have stormwater items moving. West Hanover Township Authority took up an Appendix B amendment to the Township’s stormwater ordinance covering small residential projects, pools included. Camp Hill Borough took up a resolution making it the borrowing agent for its Stormwater Authority. Swatara Township listed a presentation on FEMA floodplain map updates and a coming 90-day appeal period, worth calendaring if you own ground near a stream. Five others carry security reductions, maintenance agreements and payment applications.
Everything above is an agenda item. As of publication on September 14, some of these meetings had not happened yet, and no municipality in this window had posted minutes, so nothing here is confirmed adopted or approved.
If a review clock or a draft ordinance touches ground you hold, we can tell you what it means for the specifics.
Municipal Monday runs weekly. Next issue: 9/21.