Data centers are a hot topic of conversation among elected officials, community leaders and residents across the country, and Bucks County has been no exception.
Opponents of data centers have repeatedly expressed concerns about municipal water usage, electrical consumption, cost, land use, thermal footprints, actual job creation, noise and more.
Supporters of the emerging industry, meanwhile, argue that data centers are essential to maintain technological and AI leadership and help power the modern digital world. They also point to these projects as job creators that require thousands of workers to build and maintain the sites.
There’s only one data center approved thus far in Bucks County, but the topic has been on countless agendas recently as officials scramble to address residents’ concerns while still abiding by state law.
In Pennsylvania, no municipality can outright ban data center development altogether. Per the state’s municipal planning code, every borough, township and city within Pennsylvania has to allow for every possible type of development somewhere within their municipality.
Falls Township data center under construction
In March 2025, the Falls Township supervisors approved plans to permit warehouses at the Keystone Trade Center to accommodate Amazon’s plans to put cloud computing and AI infrastructure on the old U.S. Steel site.
This Lower Bucks community and Salem Township in Luzerne County were named the first locations where the online retail giant is investing at least $20 billion for “innovation campuses” to build out cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Now more than a year after the project was approved, residents have recently begun circulating an online petition opposing the data center. It’s been signed by more than 1,000 people.
After some residents spoke against the project at the Falls supervisors meeting May 18, board Chair Jeff Dence said township officials would look to arrange a town hall meeting on the subject.
West Rockhill approved restrictions after sketch plan presentation
In West Rockhill, no formal land development applications for a data center have been submitted. But township planners were presented with an informal sketch plan for a data center at 215 Cathill Road in Sellersville last fall.
That presentation was “purely informational,” township solicitor David Keightly told residents last month ahead of a hearing where officials eventually adopted new data center regulations for the township.
Like many other municipalities in Bucks County and elsewhere in Pennsylvania, West Rockhill didn’t have any specific regulations for the emerging industry prior to last month’s hearing. So if an application for a data center was submitted before the ordinance was in place, Keightly said, “they can establish that use wherever they want and not be subject to any regulations.”
Now, West Rockhill’s newly passed zoning ordinance would limit possible data center development to the township’s small “PI – Planned Industrial” zoning district.
This would be the only area where data centers would be permitted, Keightly said, and they’d be required to obtain special permission from zoning hearing board officials before they could proceed with their project.
The ordinance also establishes requirements for a minimum site area of 25 acres, a height restriction of 35 feet and required parking setbacks 150 feet from residential lots.
Data centers would be held to regular township and state standards for noise, off-street loading, outdoor lighting, dust, fumes, vapors, gases, odors, heat, glare, vibration control and construction hours.
The regulations would also require applicants to improve public infrastructure where necessary to avoid negative impacts on the area and to have on-site solar power to generate energy for the data center to reduce strain on the public electricity provider.
This hearing generated a slew of suggestions from Upper Bucks residents. Township officials committed to amending the ordinance based on the feedback they’ve received and the more they learn about data centers to strengthen regulations wherever possible.
Municipalities work to strengthen zoning regulations
Guided by the same logic as West Rockhill last month, other Bucks County municipalities are trying to be proactive amid the data center debate by establishing regulations as soon as possible.
Officials with local governments including East Rockhill Township and Hilltown Township are working to amend their zoning ordinances to include industry-specific regulations and restrictions in the hopes of addressing some of the biggest community concerns surrounding these projects.
This includes limiting the impact on public utilities, limitations to a facility’s dimensions, required property setbacks and more.
Zoning ordinance amendments legally require public hearings before they can be officially adopted.
As municipalities work to strengthen their regulations, rumors of other potential data center projects have been floating around Bucks County.
On social media, some area residents recently circulated a listing for a data center park on an industrial site along Tollgate Road and Route 309 in Richland Township. The listing has since been taken down because it was “out of date” as the site was approved for warehouses, according to Brian Hart with Arrow Real Estate Services.
The site was most recently proposed as a “flex business park” that was to include two buildings — one along Route 309 that is 156,000 square feet and a 400,000-square-foot building to the rear of the property, the developers told township officials last fall.
Richland Township also confirmed May 26 that they haven’t received any formal applications for a data center.
What have elected officials said about data centers in PA?
Gov. Josh Shapiro touted thousands of jobs that data centers could bring across the state at a press conference on the Falls project last year, but also estimated in June that planned Amazon projects worth $20 billion — including the one in Falls — would create just 1,250 permanent jobs across the entire state.
In attendance at Shapiro’s presser last year were state Reps. Steve Santarsiero and Jim Prokopiak and Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie. Last week Harvie won the Democratic primary for U.S. Congress, setting him up to face U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Bucks, in November.
Harvie has said that he supports Shapiro’s plan to regulate data centers, and that the county is helping towns update their ordinances.
Fitzpatrick has also spoken positively about the Falls data center. Harvie’s primary opponent, mathematician Lucia Simonelli, had called for a data center moratorium.
Pennsylvania State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, a Republican who’s running for reelection in District 16, announced in April that he would introduce a bill to let towns pause data center proposals.
The moratorium bill would give municipal officials the option to halt any decision on data center applications and give local officials more time to create policies to address power, water, noise and other land use concerns, Coleman wrote in a memo.
Coleman circulated the memo to fellow lawmakers on April 16, but has yet to introduce the bill. He released it alongside a second memo for a bill to end a tax break on data center equipment.
