Apr 16, 2026 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

North Franklin Township supervisors unanimously approved a pair of ordinances that aim to regulate the development of data centers in the municipality.

The board of supervisors held public hearings on the ordinances – one that specifically targets data centers and another concerning facilities that generate electricity – at their meeting Tuesday.

“If you do not have an ordinance on the books, you leave yourself wide open for any and all data centers in your municipality,” said Bob Sabot, chair of the board of supervisors.

There are currently no plans for a data center in North Franklin. Sabot suggests it is an unlikely candidate for such a development, but not an impossible one.

“There (are) some areas in the township that are a little more rural, flat. Where there is water. We do have water with the reservoir. We do have some of the ingredients needed to bring about a possible data center,” Sabot said.

One ingredient they are lacking however, is the capacity for the large amount of electricity consumed by data centers. This is where the second ordinance governing electrical generation comes into play.

“We do not have the electrical grid, which would have to be put in. These people who put this in have millions and millions of dollars, so it’s not an impossibility that something could occur,” Sabot said.

Data centers are often large complexes consisting of several warehouses that contain servers and other computing equipment. With the proliferation of artificial intelligence, there has been a rush to construct these facilities.

In Washington County, a 1,400-acre tract of land owned by CNX Resources in South Strabane Township has been marketed as a potential site for a data center. Though the property, located off of Zediker Station Road, has not been sold and there are no current plans for a data center to be built there, the possibility has generated much discussion among the community and led to a months-long effort by township officials to draft an ordinance.

Sabot said he did not want North Franklin to be in a position where they are “scrambling” to put together an ordinance.

“It was important that we go ahead and have an ordinance on the books just to protect ourselves and protect the residents,” Sabot said.

The ordinances limit data centers and electric generation facilities to the township’s I-1 industrial district and planned economic development (PED) zoning district.

The I-1 district is a small parcel of land off of West Chestnut Street near its intersection with Hart Avenue. The PED district is a much larger area that stretches from Vankirk Road’s intersection with Park Avenue to West Chestnut.

The data center ordinance stipulates that there be a setback of 1,000 feet from structures such as hospitals, schools, cemeteries and religious institutions. There is a 500-foot setback from residential buildings, unless the owner provides written consent.

For electric generation facilities, developers would be required to determine the environmental impact and provide a decommissioning plan.

Sabot notes that supervisors can place limits on data centers, but it would be illegal for them to ban them outright.

“I think that the residents can rest assured the supervisors did everything they could. We watched what has been going on. We thought we were being proactive,” Sabot said. “We had to be sure the things we were doing were the correct things, and not going to get us in any legal problems down the road.”