North Strabane hires consultant for data center ordinance
The North Strabane Board of Supervisors are taking the first steps toward enacting comprehensive data center regulations.
The motion during Tuesday’s meeting authorizes Pittsburgh-based consultants Strategic Solutions LLC to prepare an amendment to the township’s code adding rules and regulations related to data centers at a cost not to exceed $5,000.
Township Manager Andrew Walz emphasized that this measure is being taken “proactively,” and that the township has not received any applications for data center projects.
Neighboring municipalities have rushed to enact their own ordinances regarding data centers since late 2025, after a property in South Strabane Township was put on the market as a prime location for a data campus.
Strategic Solutions won a Request for Proposal to assist with the township’s new comprehensive plan earlier this year, Walz said, so the firm is already well-positioned to tackle this additional task. The previous comprehensive plan was completed in 2016 and covered the years 2015-26.
As a part of the comprehensive plan update, the township is undergoing a full review and update of its zoning ordinance, which was last revised in 2018, Walz said.
Walz estimated that the process to draft and introduce the data center amendment could take between four to five months, with adoption hopefully occurring by late 2026 or early 2027.
Work on the overall comprehensive plan and related zoning update is slated to be complete by mid 2027, he said. According to Walz, township staff will publish a community-wide survey in early August to gather resident feedback on the comprehensive plan update. That survey is slated to go live on Aug. 1.