On Monday evening, the Douglass Township Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to begin the process of removing the municipality from the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee. 

            This decision to withdraw from the committee resulted from the discovery that North Coventry Township facilitated a study of suitable places that could possibly accommodate a large-scale data center in Douglass Township. This was done without any notification or communication with Douglass Township supervisors.

            Douglass Township's supervisors expressed deep concern and disapproval of this action. Chairman Joshua Stouch described North Coventry's actions as "inappropriate and unprofessional."

            "This planning commission is supposed to be collaborative and cooperative. This was anything but that," Stouch said.

            The committee is composed of Douglass, New Hanover, West Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove, Lower Pottsgrove, Pottstown, North Coventry and East Coventry. It was created in 2005 to plan growth and development in the region. Douglass Township had been involved with the committee for 21 years.

            In 2025, the board began reviewing the 270-page comprehensive plan internally and evaluating its participation in the regional committee.

            This all began on March 9, when North Coventry's supervisors unanimously voted on an offer from their engineering firm, LTL consultants, to assess zoning related to data centers in Douglass Township. However, this data center proposal had since been withdrawn in North Coventry.

            Douglass Township was completely unaware of this until LTL's report was posted on North Coventry's website a month later. This set off public outrage and frustration in Douglass.

            A social media post urged residents to attend the Douglass Township meeting on May 18 and voice concerns.

            Stouch informed meeting attendees that the township's zoning, which allows data centers in Douglass, was written before the current influx of applications for hyper-scale data centers emerged in the region. He explained that township Solicitor Wendy McKenna and engineer Khal Hassan, are already at work to make it more restrictive for these data centers to set up shop in the township.

            "We have the best levels of controls we can have, but we are in the process of tightening up restrictions even more," Stouch said.

            According to the chairman, those restrictions will exclude any development plan that will endanger areas with high levels of noise or vibration, produce dangerous levels of heat and industrial waste, or potentially pollute groundwater.

            "We are not going to let a data center destroy this township," he said.

            Stouch also explained that he was urged by employees of the Montgomery County Planning Commission in December to stay with the regional group for another year when the regional comprehensive plan would be adopted. However, the three goals set by the plan are already things that his community is doing. 

            Andrew Duncan, the township's zoning and code enforcement officer, suggested that Douglass has more in common with neighboring communities, such as New Hanover, Boyertown Borough and Washington Township. He said a new regional planning committee with those municipalities should be formed.

            McKenna informed the board that the process of withdrawing requires Douglass Township to hold a public hearing and advertise its withdrawal from the committee.

            The board authorized the solicitor to take any necessary steps to facilitate the process.