Upper Hanover officials sought public feedback on their newly created data center ordinance on Monday. However, residents filled the Upper Perkiomen auditorium mostly to repeat their opposition to a proposed facility along Gravel Pike.

            For more than two hours, Upper Perkiomen Valley residents addressed a joint meeting of the township's board of supervisors and planning commission. A majority of speakers implored members of both bodies to prevent the construction of a data center on 37.48 acres between Kraussdale and Ziegler roads.

            At least six speakers from the audience recommended that the township hire a land use attorney to protect the community and help guide it through the application process. A request by a Pennsburg resident drew the meeting's loudest applause.

            Eve Puhalla, the penultimate commenter, asked the municipal officials to keep the township rural. She directed them to focus on acquiring more open space, green space and parks.

            "Look at the resources we don't have and plan to get them," Puhalla said.

            A Gwynedd Valley applicant submitted a conditional use application on June 9 to construct a 150,000-square-foot building on former farmland, located in the 600 block of Gravel Pike in the township's Light Industrial zoning district. Hanover Development, L.P., is looking to build its data center less than a mile north of the East Greenville border and less than 300 feet behind several homes along Gravel Pike.

             Three hours later, the Upper Hanover supervisors approved a 16-page ordinance regulating data centers. At the meeting, Planning Commission Chair Richard Fain expressed a willingness to amend the ordinance. He said his commission and the supervisors sought ideas to improve it.

            "We're open to suggestions on how to amend it," Fain said, asking speakers to deliver their ideas to the planning commission and the supervisors on writing. "We got through the initial process quickly."

            Nathaniel Eshleman, a Gravel Pike resident whose property abuts the location of the proposed data center, requested that the ordinance include stringent stormwater standards.

            Residents also expressed concerns regarding noise pollution, the potential strain to groundwater, air pollution, and overall health concerns.

            Benjamin and Kelsey Kemmerer – the owners of November Farms, located at 2048 Mill Hill Road – addressed the officials separately. Benjamin told them the application should be denied unless all the concerns are addressed. Kelsey expressed concern that all the potential health issues could force her family to move off the farm that abuts the data center property.

             A conditional use hearing will likely be scheduled for September or October, according to Solicitor Zachary Sivertsen. During that meeting, the board of supervisors will make the ultimate determination if a data center is allowed in the LI zone, according to an email message from Township Manager Anne Klepfer.

              Hanover Development has owned the property since May 2009. It bought the property from Muller Development, LLC for $920,000. Muller bought it in December 2004 from the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company for $495,000.

            PPL currently maintains a transmission line through the property, according to Klepfer. She wrote in an email that the company is making system-wide upgrades along its line over Mill Hill Road, through multiple municipalities, that entail brush and tree removal.