We recently attended a planning commission meeting in Whitemarsh Township that involved a review of a draft ordinance to regulate data centers. The draft would allow data centers by conditional use within six of the township’s zoning districts. Pennsylvania state law prohibits municipalities from banning a legal land use, and Montgomery County, in collaboration with Chester County, developed a model data center ordinance for municipalities to utilize when drafting their own. Whitemarsh Township used the county’s model ordinance, along with another from PennFuture, to develop the regulations.
During the meeting, we kept thinking about Plymouth Township and the proposed almost two-million-square-foot data center for the former steel plant in the Conshohocken section of the township.
When the review focused on distances from sensitive places like community centers, residences, schools, pre-schools, etc, we couldn’t help but compare how Whitemarsh’s draft ordinance would impact the data center application in Plymouth Township (if a similar ordinance had been adopted).
The draft Whitemarsh ordinance would not permit a data center within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood. That distance is calculated from the closest building housing a data center to the property line of the sensitive use, such as a house. About 40% of the building closest to Conshohocken Road and Tee’s (and thus the homes) falls within 500 feet of a home.
Also across Conshohocken Road from the proposed data center are two other sensitive areas: a township park and The Proving Grounds (a privately owned and busy turf field business that hosts mostly youth sports teams and tournaments). While the draft Whitemarsh ordinance does not include parks and recreational areas (probably an oversight) as sensitive areas, we expect that they will be added. There could also be an argument that the Schuylkill River Trail should qualify as a sensitive area. Once these areas are designated as sensitive in any data center ordinance that would be applied to Plymouth Township, a data center wouldn’t be permitted on a substantial portion of the steel plant property.
That got us thinking about a municipal-level power under Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code that allows a governing body to declare its zoning ordinances substantially invalid and implement a 180-day moratorium to amend its zoning code.
In JD Supra, attorney Brendan O’Donnell of Pennsylvania law firm Houston Harbough published an article about “The Power of the Municipal Curative Amendment,” and offered this explanation on the power to implement a moratorium:
Under Section 609.2 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), a municipal curative amendment allows a local government to self-declare its zoning ordinance substantively invalid to fix regulatory gaps—such as missing provisions for modern data centers or solar farms—while shielding itself from competing landowner challenges for 180 days.
As an example, O’Donnell points to a March 23, 2026, vote by Montgomery Township’s board of supervisors on a resolution that recognized that the township’s zoning code did not contain a provision for data centers, declared the code substantively invalid, and would “initiate the process to remedy it.” You can find the minutes of this meeting here.
Among the other municipalities that have taken the same step are Doylestown Township (news article), West Whiteland Township (minutes), and Lancaster Township (news article).
While some municipalities have had data center applications arrive unexpectedly and thus, too late for these municipalities to take the step to implement an 180-day moratorium, Plymouth Township’s experience was actually different. There was a window to act.
Yes, Plymouth Township received an application once the steel plant went up for sale. However, on November 17, 2025, that application was withdrawn and not resubmitted until April 19, 2026 (dated application).
The application was withdrawn over a dispute between the developer, an entity associated with Brian O’Neill, and the property owner, an entity associated with Cleveland Cliffs, which owned and operated the steel plant. The property owner claimed that O’Neill did not have the right to seek approval for a data center due to the lack of an agreement between them.
During this approximately five-month period when no application existed, Plymouth Township’s council did not consider declaring its zoning code invalid, initiating the 180-day moratorium, and drafting and adopting an ordinance to regulate data centers.
Remember, Pennsylvania law does not permit a municipality to ban a legal use, such as a data center. An ordinance similar to the one being drafted in Whitemarsh would not have prevented a data center in Plymouth Township, but it could have limited its scale and potential locations.
So why didn’t Plymouth Township Council move to take advantage of this power to implement a moratorium and pass a data center ordinance while no application existed?
MoreThanTheCurve.com asked this question of the five Plymouth Township council members on July 18th and did not receive a response. Was there a legal reason? A strategic reason? Did it just not know this was possible? Do they support a data center there? No explanation was offered.
We also asked, “Have any of you been contacted by Governor Shapiro or anyone from his administration about data centers generally or the specific application for 900 Conshohocken Road?” No response for that one either. Shapiro has been a strong advocate for data centers and stated that he would help them data center operators, specifically Amazon, on site selection. It is a very reasonable question to ask.
Please note that O’Neill could have submitted an application before the council acted if he had been able to quickly resolve the issue with the property owner. Implementing such a moratorium could also have resulted in a legal challenge.
Should Plymouth Township’s council have attempted to implement an 180-day moratorium? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Image – Data center ©FG from ideadesign via Canva