The Times Herald reported on May 26th that Norristown’s council recently voted to advertise an ordinance that would allow data centers by conditional use in the municipality’s Heavy Industrial zoning district.

In the article, Norristown’s solicitor, Sean Kilkenny, was quoted on what the municipality is allowed to do and what it can’t do when it comes to zoning:

We got a request from counsel [council] to make sure that we had the toughest legal standards possible for data standards in Pennsylvania,” he said. “You can’t have a moratorium — meaning you can’t fully prevent them — but what you can do is put them in a zoning district and make sure that there are tough, reasonable restrictions on them.

Did you read that?

They are not trying to ban them. State law doesn’t permit that.

Norristown’s Heavy Industrial zoning district is located along the Schuylkill River at the border with Plymouth Township, just up the river from the former steel plant that currently has a proposal for a data center.

Upper Merion recently adopted a zoning ordinance involving data centers that also permits them in industrial areas as a conditional use.

In April 2026, the planning commissions of Montgomery and Chester counties released a “Data Center Ordinance Guide” to assist municipalities in developing ordinances to address the data center issue.

This guide offers the following on what zoning district is most appropriate to allow data centers:

In Southeast Pennsylvania, data centers are most appropriate in heavy industrial settings, which are typically located away from residential or other sensitive uses and may have existing power infrastructure . Depending on the scale of the data center and the distance from sensitive uses such as residences, schools, medical facilities, public places, and other institutional uses, light industrial districts could also be appropriate.

State guidance is similar. The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development published a “Data Center Toolkit” for municipalities in May 2026. It states:

Heavy Industrial and technology park areas are well suited for data center development since they would be similar in scale to the types of intensive uses already contemplated for those areas. These areas are typically not adjacent to residential areas where the impact of the data center development would be a concern, and they can be more likely to have the infrastructure in place to support data center development.

Plymouth Township’s Heavy Industrial zoning district is mainly located between Conshohocken Road and the Schuylkill River (there is also a section across Conshohocken Road). This is the exact area where a data center has been proposed and is on the agenda for Plymouth Township’s zoning hearing board on June 25th.

The county and state guidance do recognize that heavy industrial areas aren’t always isolated from residential or other sensitive areas, such as parks.

The Connaughton neighborhood is shown on the above map as D Residential. It is right across Conshohocken Road from the section of the Heavy Industrial district near the 476 overpass. The area also includes a public park and two outdoor recreation businesses, The Proving Grounds and Tee’s Golf Center.

Plymouth Township has not taken any public steps towards adopting a data center ordinance that could help shield Connaughton from the negative impacts of a data center by requiring a set of conditions to be met.

Nothing prevents Plymouth Township from considering an ordinance while the current proposal is going through the zoning hearing process. Approving an ordinance does take time. It needs to be written and then reviewed by the planning agency. It then goes before the township council, where it is reviewed, and they consider whether to vote to advertise it. Once advertised, a hearing can be held and a vote taken on whether to adopt it. That can take about a month if they move fast, but it usually takes about three months (it can take up to a year if it’s complicated).

Plymouth’s elected officials are in a tough spot. State law essentially requires them to allow data centers (which they can put conditions on). The vocal public tells them they don’t want any data centers. County and state guidance tells them to allow data centers right where the one generating all the negative public feedback is proposed.

It is important to note that any ordinance it would adopt would not apply to the current proposal for the former steel plant.