Amwell supervisors table vote on data center ordinance
Delay intended to allow community feedback
The Amwell Township Board of Supervisors opted to table an adoption vote on a data center ordinance after hearing a half-hour of pushback from residents.
More than 50 people attended the Thursday night special meeting, with late-comers spilling out into the hallway after the main meeting room reached capacity.
The supervisors were scheduled to vote on an ordinance governing data center development in the rural township located in southern Washington County along the border with Greene County, with a 30-minute special meeting held before the regular meeting for community feedback.
Several attendees expressed frustration with the perceived lack of time for public comment ahead of the vote, with one resident saying that the 4 p.m. meeting start time did not allow many residents who worked full-time jobs to attend due to conflicting work commitments.
More than two-thirds of the room raised their hand when a resident asked for a show of hands “if you feel like you haven’t had enough information on the ordinance to feel comfortable about it in our township.”
More than 25 residents told the board that they had concerns that a data center project in Amwell Township could lead to harmful levels of light, noise and water pollution that would disrupt their lives.
One resident told the board that the draft ordinance should be rewritten to increase the minimum property line setback for data center buildings from 100 feet up to 1,000 feet, which would be in line with the setbacks discussed in a comparable ordinance in South Strabane Township.
South Strabane supervisors have considered a trio of ordinances relating to data center development since fall 2025 after a large tract of land off of Zediker Station Road was listed for sale as a prime location for an enterprise-scale data center site.
Amwell Supervisor Chairman H. Wayne Montgomery said the township has not received any applications for data center projects, and that the proposed ordinance was a “proactive” step.
Solicitor John “Jack” Cambest said the township could not deny a proposed development project if it was otherwise compliant with existing zoning and permitting requirements,
Another resident said the township should provide specific, timely and severe consequences for any data center operator that violated any pollution or zoning control included in the ordinance.
Montgomery suggested delaying the adoption vote until the next meeting in June, as well as holding a second special meeting to gather additional feedback from residents.
Montgomery said the second special meeting will be held at the Lone Pine Social Hall to accommodate the anticipated crowd, with the date to be announced later in May.
The second meeting will be held later in the evening to allow greater public participation in the discussion, he said.
According to Montogomery, this will give the township supervisors more time to “dot our I’s and cross our T’s” regarding the draft ordinance.