Feb 10, 2026 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

South Strabane Township officials have provided an updated draft for an ordinance regulating data centers.

However, Supervisor Jeff Bull cautioned that elected officials may not be voting on the ordinance anytime soon. A public hearing has not been scheduled.

“We’re far from the finish line,” Bull said.

The draft is available for public viewing on South Strabane’s website. Officials began working on the ordinance after a 1,400-acre plot of land off of Zediker Station Road became a candidate for a potential data center.

The land, owned by CNX Resources, has been marketed by real estate firm JLL since the fall as suitable for such a development. However, there have been no prospective buyers, and South Strabane has not received any applications.

South Strabane’s draft ordinance aims to regulate several aspects of data centers, which typically consist of large warehouses containing servers and other computing equipment, including setbacks, energy usage, and potential noise and light pollution.

“Data centers buildings and equipment shall be set back at least 300 feet from the property line. In addition, data center buildings and exterior equipment shall not be closer than 850 feet (measured radially from the data center building equipment) from an occupied residence,” reads the draft ordinance.

The draft also states that if a data center is drawing electricity from a public utility, the electrical provider shall provide a letter that certifies that the grid has the capacity to meet the facility’s demands.

It also includes a similar stipulation for water usage. Data centers use large amounts of water for cooling purposes. JLL’s marketing materials touts the Zediker Station property has access to 525,000 gallons of water per day from the public water line and an additional 1.5 million gallons per day from “third-party sources.”

Developers would also be expected to provide a water feasibility study.

“No data center shall be approved unless the water feasibility study demonstrates that the anticipated water supply yield is adequate for the project and the proposed water withdrawals and discharges will not endanger or adversely affect the quantity or quality of groundwater supplies or surface watts in the vicinity,” the draft reads.

According to the draft ordinance, sound-producing rooftop equipment would have to be fully screened from view and the screening would have to be placed to “shield the direction of emitted sound.”

Data centers would also be expected to limit illumination to the lot being used for the facility, and not produce, “any glare that is visible to neighboring lots or to persons traveling or public or private roads.”

South Strabane Township’s solicitor Dennis Makel appeared at a recent town hall at Citizens Library in Washington to discuss how municipalities can regulate data centers.

Makel is also a solicitor for Union Township, and he noted that a similar ordinance passed last year may already need to be rewritten due to how rapidly the technology is changing.

“Whatever we do in the township has to be from a common sense perspective,” Makel said at the town hall. “There are certain things we can do to minimize the impact.”

The South Strabane board of supervisors is holding a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday to approve their revised 2026 budget. Their regular meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24.