EAST BRANDYWINE TWP, PA — A property owner is challenging East Brandywine Township’s zoning ordinance and seeking to permit data centers throughout its R-2 Residential District, potentially expanding where the facilities can be built just months after supervisors adopted regulations restricting them to a commercial and industrial zoning district.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing November 12 on a substantive validity challenge filed by 500 ER-EBT Trust, which owns approximately 25 acres at 500 E. Reeceville Road.
The applicant alleges that the township’s zoning ordinance is invalid and has submitted a proposed curative amendment that would make data centers a permitted use in the R-2 district, according to a legal notice published October 26.
The challenge comes after supervisors adopted an ordinance July 16 allowing data centers by conditional use in the Commercial Service/Light Industrial District.
That ordinance established requirements addressing setbacks, electricity and water demand, backup generators, noise, vibration, thermal impacts and electronic waste.
The property owner’s proposal would take a substantially different approach by adding data centers to the permitted uses in the R-2 Residential District without incorporating the data-center-specific supplemental standards established in July.
If enacted, the amendment would apply to all properties within the township’s R-2 district, not just the applicant’s Reeceville Road parcel.
Data center development would remain subject to other applicable provisions of the township code and relevant state and federal regulations.
The proposed amendment would add a definition of data centers to Section 300-17 of the township code, describing facilities that house servers, storage systems, networking equipment and supporting power, cooling and security infrastructure.
It would also amend Section 399-27 of the zoning ordinance to designate data centers as a permitted use in the R-2 district.
The applicant’s contention that the existing zoning ordinance is substantively invalid remains a legal allegation. No determination has been made on the merits of the challenge.
Supervisors are scheduled to receive evidence on the application and may consider enacting the proposed amendment during a public meeting held in conjunction with the hearing.
The proceedings will begin Thursday, November 12, at 6 p.m. in the gymnasium of Brandywine Wallace Elementary School, 435 Dilworth Road, Downingtown.
The board will accept public comment before taking any action on the proposed amendment.
Individuals with legal standing who wish to participate as parties in the hearing must attend and request party status. Attendance is required for recognition as a party, according to the township’s notice.
The school gymnasium will open to the public at 5:45 p.m. Visitors are directed to use designated parking areas and follow signs to the gymnasium entrance.
The full application and proposed amendment are available for public inspection at the township administrative offices, 1214 Horseshoe Pike, Downingtown, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.
The documents are also available at www.eBrandywine.org/CAHearing.
Additional hearing information is posted at https://www.ebrandywine.org/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/246.
Residents requiring accommodations may contact the township at 610-269-8230 at least 24 hours before the proceedings.
The November hearing will establish an evidentiary record for the zoning challenge while giving supervisors an opportunity to consider the applicant’s requested amendment. Approval would extend permitted data center development into residentially zoned areas beyond the locations authorized under the township’s July ordinance.
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