In the hours before Upper Hanover Township officials passed an amendment to an ordinance that added definitions related to data center use, the township received an application for a conditional use approval from the township, as well as a substantive validity challenge if the conditional use is not approved.

            Social media lit up like the Fourth of July fireworks.

            Hanover Development, L.P. filed an application to the township's zoning hearing board and a substantive validity challenge for 37+ acres of former farmland.  The property is located in the township's Light Industrial (LI) zoning district, along Gravel Pike between Kraussdale and Ziegler Roads.  It is about three-quarters of a mile north of the borough of East Greenville. 

            According to the submitted drawings, Hanover Development. L.P. is located in Gwynedd Valley, PA.  A copy of the deed submitted with the application shows Hanover Development purchased the property from Muller Development, LLC in 2009 for $920,000.

            The documents were sent by Hamburg, Rubin, Mullin, Maxwell, & Lupin, PC of Lansdale, PA, on behalf of Hanover Development, L.P.

            The LI zoning district includes industrial activities that are carried out entirely within an enclosed building and involve no outdoor processes or outdoor storage of primary raw materials.

            Hanover wants to develop the property for data center use.  The plan includes a proposed 150,000-square-foot building to be located less than 300 ft. behind several homes along Gravel Pike.  The plan also shows the relocation of a gas line that runs through the property.

            In part, the substantive challenge addendum states that if the proposed data center is not permitted by the township within the LI District, as of the date of the challenge, the exclusion would be invalid and unconstitutional under Pennsylvania law. 

            According to the filing, the sole remedy is to allow that use somewhere in the township and equity dictates that Hanover Properties, L.P. must receive that remedy.

            In that case Hanover Development could be entitled to site-specific relief and entitled to construct, operate, and maintain the proposed use on the property

            The application to the Upper Hanover Township zoning hearing board is dated June 8; however, the cover letter (delivered by hand) with the application is dated June 9.  The ordinance amendment was passed on June 9.

            The challenge also states that the suitability of the property for the proposed use is not relevant to the constitutional invalidity of a municipal-wide prohibition on that use.  Also, in order to defeat Hanover Development's right to site-specific relief, the township must demonstrate that conditions or aspects of the plan render the project "impossible to safely execute."

            In other cases in the state, questions of water and power usage surfaced as well as noise concerns from air-conditioning units.

            The ordinance amendment passed by township officials allows for a data center as a use permitted by conditional use in the "OS Outdoor Storage and Intensive Commercial/Industrial District."  The full text of the ordinance is available at upperhanovertownship.org.

            According to the Upper Hanover Township website, when conditional use applications and zoning hearing board applications are received, the township has 60 days to schedule a hearing, unless an extension of the time limitation is granted. The township is required to advertise the legal notice for the public hearing two times in a local paper of general circulation.  The applicant is required to send mailed notifications to property owners within 500 linear feet of the subject property boundary.